HERO: A prophecy! Doom approaches should this video be sponsored
by Skillshare? In the grim darkness of the far present of
fiction writing, there is only cliches. And a whole lot of grit. Modern audiences demand gritty stories. I mean they must given how many tickets the
Dark Knight sold. Therefor all writers should become well versed
in writing in a dark tone, or Grimdark as it is commonly called on the internet. Grimdark is great to write because all a writer
has to do is write normally and just make everything dark, like plastering the color
black over everything. Don’t worry, you’ll know if you miss a
spot. Speaking of which, this soothing gray background? GONE! I killed it! You should feel bad. It’s all black now, eternal darkness forever! What’s this? Whimsical music! That’s gone too. Another victim of Grimdark. Happy, smiley avatar that references a grossly
out of date meme? Annihilated! This is Grimdark! It’s frowns and brooding from here on out. Be thankful I can’t do the gravely voice
or I would have killed that too! All of the things you like about Terrible
Writing Advice? All dead! Forever! My sarcasm will most definitely not be coming
back! Just like this kitten! Isn’t this kitten cute? You should get attached to this kitten! Oh no! It’s dead. You should feel bad! Ha! I tricked you into getting attached to a character
before killing them without any warning. I am sure that trick will keep working forever. I need to kill some other things. That’s what audiences like now! Lots of dead characters! I wannabe like George double R Martin. I am sure his success is entirely based on
how he kills his characters rather than his stellar characterization. Characterization in Grimdark stories should
be as bleak as everything else. Our ‘hero’ should be completely amoral. Wait. I meant morally ambiguous. Eh. Same thing right? Exploring themes of moral ambiguity works
great when our protagonist makes everyone’s lives objectively worse and behaves like 13
year old sociopath on a power trip. The protagonist should lack any kind of redeeming
quality. Like having our ‘hero’ slaughter innocents
because of his character flaws. That will be shocking after the 4000th time. Even though our hero does as much if not more
damage than the villain, the writer will still make the story demand you root for him even
as he slaughters orphans along with the couples who were about to adopt them. Why have positive traits to stand in contrast
with the setting and tone when our protagonist can have the worst aspects of both power fantasy
and the anti hero. Why does our protagonist behave so horribly? Because he’s morally ambiguous. See. He’s deep and complex. I am sure the audience will buy that! If not, then… uh oh. I need kill off another character to distract
everyone. Here is a puppy! Isn’t the puppy adorable. You should get attached to this puppy. Oh no! It’s dead. You should feel bad. Now that our ‘hero’ is brooding after
his latest warcrime, we should also darken the villain. Normally here at Terrible Writing Advice,
I advocate all villains be one dimensional cardboard cutouts with zero backstory, motive,
or explanation as to why they commit their loathsome acts. For Grimdark, we will need to deviate from
this a bit. Our villains should have a nuanced and believable
backstory with characterization that really allows the audience to connect and understand
them in a fundamental way. The writer should then be shocked and frustrated
at the audience's connection with the villain so to compensate, the writer should make the
villain commit atrocities so horrible that even an episode of Terrible Writing Advice
can’t make funny. Some might worry that this sudden shift will
irritate audiences and break their willing suspense of disbelief to see a previously
established sympathetic character suddenly decide that infants make for a great sandwich
spread. We’ll that’s their problem! This is Grimdark! No one should be happy! Now what about secondary characters? In Grimdark, there are two types of secondary
characters. The first is people so reprehensible and amoral
that the audience is left wondering why they haven’t been burned at the stake, much less
arrived at a position of power and authority. They exist solely to be murdered by the hero. The second kind is people so innocent, pure,
and naive that the feel completely out of place in such a dark story. They exist solely to be murdered by the author. All nice characters are killed without exception
in a Grimdark story. Kind of like everyone else really. Just kill everyone to be safe. That’s dark. Make a few suffer a fate worse than death
for good measure like they must suffer in agony forever, they never die of old age,
but keep aging, or they have to read this book more than once. Oh wait. I forgot something. Can’t kill off all of my characters just
yet. First I have add something essential to any
Grimdark story. Our Grimdark story needs a lot of elements;
death, destruction, fates worse than death, a complete lack of self awareness, a brooding,
oppressive tone, and most of all, A LOVE TRIANGLE! Yes. Even in the eternal darkness of a Grimdark
story, there needs to be a romantic subplot shoved in there somewhere. Who wins the love triangle? It doesn’t matter because everyone dies
tragically anyway. With our characters all set, to die, the writer
is free to develop a Grimdark setting. Human societies are built upon mutual cooperation
and complex social systems. Grimdark societies are built upon mutual exploitation
and social systems that don’t function at all. Is it a science fiction setting? Then it’s a horrible unsustainable dystopia. Is it urban fantasy? Supernatural monsters will munch on normal
humans like popcorn but still remain hidden somehow. Or have all of our superheros become monsters. That’s what we loved about comics right? To see our beloved heroes who brought joy
to our childhoods turning to bloodthirsty psychopaths because… comic book logic. Fantasy is great for Grimdark because any
criticism lobbed at the setting can be dismissed by saying it’s ‘historically accurate’. Sources? Umm... I watched it in a movie once! A Grimdark setting should present life as
so awful that the reader seriously wonders how people even get up in the morning or wonder
why absolutely no one has thought of a way to improve conditions. Why don’t people band together and try to
fix things? Because Grimdark! Why hasn’t an external, better system supplanted
the current, barely functioning one? Because Grimdark! How does such a woefully inefficient system
manage the logistical nightmare of endless total war? Because I just murdered baby seal! That’s why! You should feel bad! Don’t forget to fill the setting with factions
as awful as the characters. No need to consider or discuss exactly how
these factions rose to power in the first place or how they maintain their hold on a
society despite having an approval rating that slips into the negative. Nor should any of the factions make even token
efforts to improve things. They should all be brutally repressive regimes
founded on fear and terror that have inexplicably stayed in power for centuries. Just base them on the Nazis like in the Evil
Empire video. I hear those guys had a long shelf life. Tying in each faction’s ideology with the
theme of the setting or showing how each faction gradually descended into its current state
just isn’t bleak enough for Grimdark because it could accidentally give the audience hope
that the story might get good. Best to crush that hope early. Just like this… um… crap. I’m running out of cute animals to kill
and I think the audience might be starting to see through that trick. Don’t forget to darken the other parts of
the setting. Everything powered by Cotrivium? It’s made out of ground up widows. Macguffin everyone is fighting over? Turns out it is actually powered by pure evil. Magic? That’s energy harnessed from the souls of
the damned. Hyperspace? You have to travel through Cuthulu’s back
lawn. Crude oil? That’s made from ancient dead creatures. Don’t forget to add a dash of cosmic horror. The universe itself is out to get the characters
just as the writer is out to get the audience. Remember that Grimdark is all about wearing
down the audience by killing off characters and making things so hopeless and jaded that
they just don’t care anymore. Drowning everything in inky darkness is the
best way to handle Grimdark. Never should an author use contrast or humor
to take the edge off. Just keep lumping on more and more endless
blackness until the whole thing becomes a twisted parody of itself and one huge joke. Then when everyone is making fun of your setting
just double down and keep going into that dark void. And if a writer gazes long into the Grimdark,
Grimdark also gazes into you. And then it tries to sell its merch. HERO: We will never let you have this video’s
sponsor, Dark Lord! DARK LORD: Yes. Yes. Blah blah heroic defiance blah. I am in a hurry. JP keeps bugging me about the length of these
‘character skits’ as he calls them. I don’t know what he’s on about. I am the Dark Lord! I am the epitome of conciseness, the very
form of succinctness. I never ramble. I move with terrible and evil purpose in all
that I do. I do not repeat myself nor do I fall into
repetition. I am always to the point! Um… what was I doing again? HERO: You were about to steal this video’s
sponsor, skillshare and inadvertently set into motion an ancient prophecy that will
doom the entire Terrible Writing Advice cinematic universe. DARK LORD: I don’t know what a cinematic
universe is but it sounds like it will make a lot of money. Unless you’re DC. HERO: No! How did you get so powerful? Dark Lord: Money. HERO: Oh. Dark Lord: Speaking of which, now at long
last I finally possess Skillshare. By tapping into the ley line network called
the internet, I can access this vast store of collected knowledge. They have 20,000 classes in writing, design,
business, technology, and more. HERO: Yeah, but you are forbidden. Dark Lord: Foolish mortal. I need but a simple spell called a Premium
Membership? Huh. That’s an odd name for a magic ritual. Regardless, with this Premium membership,
you can have access to unlimited high quality classes and gain ancient knowledge and power. Behold! First I shall absorb Susan Palmquist’s class
on Writing Point of View. Now I can jump into any character’s head! Now I shall take a class on the Unity Game
Engine. Surely that will allow me to construct an
engine that can unify the world under my iron fist. HERO: NO! Dark Lord: Yes! Soon I will send my forces skl.sh/twa4 or
through the magic portal link in the description below. They shall gain 2 months of Skillshare for
free. And maybe finally they will learn something
useful rather than lazing about the dungeon all day long. HERO: Why do you keep explaining all this? DARK LORD: What? Are you not supposed to do that? That’s what they said to do in villain school. Now cease your stalling. Nothing you can do will stop me now! IMPERIAL TROOPERS: Hut hut hut hut
IMPERIAL TROOPER: For the empire! IMPERIAL TROOPERS: Hut hut hut hut
DARK LORD: Son of a
Pure T'au. They might actually have been cool if they didn't try to make them stupidly grimdank after establishing them as the most tolerant race there is. I liked the idea of the T'au.
Oh this guy, Look he’s not bad but the guy never lets a “not realistic” snipe go unused