What is with us and Dark Characters?

I have to be honest for a moment. The fact that I, along with many of my fellow fan fictioner's, fall in love with the deepest, darkest characters and crave for more, is a little disturbing to me. For the most part, we are normal everyday people who have families and go to PTO meetings. We write fluffy stories and swoon over the damsel in distress being rescued by her veggie vampire hero.

We love to take these characters that we fell in love with in the Twilight series and twist them, and the situations we put them in, to bend to our will to make swoon worthy stories of love and happiness. We read and write the stories where the sweet girl next door, gets the strong, worthy vampire. Isn't that what we all want? Love and happiness?

So answer me this. Why if we crave the love and happiness and subscribe to email alerts of all the fluffy stories, do we have those dark characters stuck on our favorites lists? They lurk in our inbox's and we squeal like school girls when we get that email, revealing that it is an updated chapter.

What is it about these dark characters that appeal to us, if we ultimately crave the fantasy of love and being protected by the man of our dreams? Are we twisted or is there something more to our love of these characters?

I took the liberty to ask a few friends of mine in the Fan Fiction realm that write dark characters, some questions in the search of finding out these answers and I want to share a little of what I found.

First up, we have 4lettrwrd, author of Visceral and some dark OS's. She is no stranger to dark fiction and likes to write the messed up characters we want to punch and love at the same time. What makes her story so interesting is that both Jasper and Bella are very messed up characters. It's a duo of darkness.

Izzy:

So, what inspires you to write a darker character, opposed to the fluffy bunny characters?

4lettrwrd:

That's actually a really tough question. There's a lot of things that inspire me to write the dark stuff, opposed to happiness and rainbows.

First of all, I don't think life is ever happiness and rainbows, and I like to be somewhat honest in what I write. I've had a lot of shitty experiences in my life, and I've learnt that, just because something is not bright, shiny, happy, doesn't mean it can't be good. In my opinion, things can be beautiful, even when they're not pretty. Part of writing dark shit is trying to get people to understand that.

Also. Happiness, fluffy clouds, and all that. It's fucking boring. People want to see pain, and angst. It's the voyeuristic nature of people. Seeing someone else's pain makes you realize that maybe their lives aren't as shitty as they thought they were.

It's cathartic for me. Don't know how else to explain that.

Usually, I don't think about the fact that I'm writing dark stuff. I just write what I know, and what I've been inspired to write (I listen to a lot of dark music, and my brain is just twisted like that). It's only when people point it out to me that I'm like, "OK, that's a little morbid". I didn't think Visceral was a dark story until people started talking about it like that.

Izzy:

In Visceral, we not only have a dark Jasper but a very dark Bella. What is it about having two dark characters interact that make you want to write them?

4lettrwrd:

That story makes me cringe, honest to god.

Originally, Visceral was nothing like it is today. The original idea for the story was really mellow.

I never thought of them as dark. I take a lot of inspiration for both of them from my own life, and from my own experiences. As I said before, dark is just what seems to come out of me.

I enjoy writing them because I'm sick of reading saccharine romances. Fuck that shit. Life doesn't happen like that. I wanted something real. Jasper and Bella took on a life of their own though, and right now, I'm just enjoying seeing where they go. Of course, I have an outline for the story, but mostly, their interactions are spur of the moment kind of thing.

I rambled a bit there.

I like writing dark characters together because they just seem stronger to me. These sweet, fluffy characters seem like they lack both spine and substance. There is too much complexity in people for them to be as sweet as a lot of authors write them, and as I said, I like to keep some honesty in what I write.

The interactions between two dark characters are always so much richer, and more complex. also, more interesting to both read and write.

My thoughts: I have to agree here. Experiences in people's lives can influence their writing. It can almost be medicinal to write it out with others in the leading roles. Life is not always happy and full of color and when fics are written too perfect, then it is unbelievable. Humans are dramatic by nature, and seeing others in pain or peril, is interesting to us. The darker characters deliver that to us. They cause pain or are in pain. There is always a reason that the dark characters are dark and discovering that and what makes them tic, is fun and exciting.

But the main Twilight characters are not dark in the saga. With the exception of our cowboy's lapse of control in New Moon (and lord knows we won't fault him for wanting the tasty, bleeding human), they are peaceful loving creatures who just happen to be vampires. They chose to ignore their nature and drink from those wretchedly awful animals, just so they can live more normal lives and fall in love with humans. So why do we feel the need to take these loving characters that are already developed by their maker, and turn them so bad?

Next up we have IwantaWerewolfForMyself, author of Nemesis or Savior and Abyss. She has written one of the darkest Edwards I have ever read and her Jasper isn't much better, but the addiction is uncanny to these characters. You can't help but want to lick them and wish you were Bella.

Izzy:

You have several dark stories that you write. What it is it about the Twilight saga that inspires you to take these originally good characters and make them so bad?

IwantaWerewolfForMyself:

Hm. The way you phrased the question I feel almost bad- ALMOST. I like to turn the goody-two-shoes into darker characters. Vampires in general are dark creatures and sometimes while I read the Twilight books I thought that the Cullen's were simply too nice. I like twisted, dark stories with difficult characters. I think dark personalities are fascinating and more complex. I just love bad boys. Always have. It often happens that I hope the bad boy of a story or movie wins, though I know it won't happen. I just can't help it. I've got a twisted mind.

Izzy:

Are the characters being vampires, the reason you prefer to write them dark? Would you choose to write them differently if they were human?

IwantaWerewolfForMyself:

I guess the characters being vampires makes it easier for me to imagine them as dark, but even if they were human it wouldn't change my tendency to make my characters darker. Human or vampire, it doesn't really matter. I think every person has something dark in them. If it's greed or jealousy or hatred or unrestrained lust...I don't like to see things in black and white. I prefer to see things in different shades of grey. That's how I try to portray my characters. Nobody is just evil, and even nice people have dark sides. That's why I like Jasper so much. He isn't just good. He has a dark past and is still struggling with his inner demon. That makes him the most fascinating character to me.

I like to explore the darker sides of characters. Even in my original stories I tend to make my characters difficult and dark. I just prefer characters with rough edges who say fuck sometimes and who don't love everyone and who aren't forgiving and caring all the time. And I like my male characters a bit dominant and dark and confident and dangerously sexy.

My thoughts: So even though a character is good, with a dark connection we can associate them as dark. The Cullen's are good vampires in SM version, but we all know vampires to be bad creatures who kill humans for their survival and even pleasure.

So the dark connection in a character can entice us to write the darker side of their nature. This can also be related to 4lettrwrd's point. We want to see people suffer, and knowing that, even though these characters are written as good, we want to see those dark vampire natures come out a bit. Did we not all swoon a little in Eclipse when Edward detached Victoria's head? Or when Jasper and Emmett killed James in Twilight? I think most of us wanted to see more of that side of our so called “good” vampires, so that is why we write them.

Next I asked The Jasper's Naughty Girls (cullen818 and Jaspers Darlin' Kathy) about writing Darker characters together. They collaborate on a Darksper story called “You'll Be Mine”.

Izzy:

Being the Jasper's Naughty Girls, do you find it harder to write a darker character together than you would separately?

Cullen818:

No, I probably couldn't have done it without Kathy. We fuel one another and come up with all kinds of naughty stuff once we get on chat. Kathy really gets my creative juices flowing, especially when it comes to those dark Cullen boys.

Jaspers Darlin' Kathy:

I find writing the dark characters in this story easier then writing them on my own. Steph has this way of helping me bring out the darkness in Edward and I know that I wouldn't be able to write Darkward the way I do in YBM without Steph.

Izzy:

Do you both enjoy the same level of Darkness as the other? If not, do you find it hard to write what you want to and disagree on how dark Jasper should be?

Cullen818:

I think we are equally dark. What surprised us the most was how much we like writing Darkward, too. Once we made the decision to turn him dark, we just ran with it. We never disagree. From chapter one, we just really got into it and we work so well together. I think Kathy will agree, she has a knack for writing Darkward, and I seem to do well with the dominant side of Jasper. We're just getting into the thick of this story and can't wait to show you what we have in store for these two dark, sexy, irresistible vampires!

Jaspers Darlin' Kathy:

I think we do enjoy the same level of darkness. I mean when one of us writes Darksper and the other one writes Darkward its truly amazing at how well we are able to create this chapter so full of darkness. We haven't had a disagreement when it comes to how dark Jasper or Edward should be in our story. It's almost like we thrive on how dark we write Jasper and Edward. I love writing Darkward and Steph does such a fantastic job writing Darksper. It's funny when Steph and I get into a convo about an upcoming chapter because we get our creative juices flowing so fast and the darkness of the characters just pour out of us.

My thoughts:

I think we can find a common connection in others who enjoy the same level of dark. Do we seek out others who enjoy the same intensity? Maybe, but the point is we all seem to enjoy some level whether it is small or large and look to others who share that level to some degree. There is nothing better than finding a great, dark, well written fic and running to all your friends to tell them about it. Pushing links to go read it and come back when you are done to tell you what they thought. I have done so several times, only to have someone come back and tell me it was too dark or too crazy. That just sucks, so knowing I have friends in the realm of dark I lurk in, is a comforting thing. We could all use dark friends to share our love for the sinister fics. Finding someone to read and write about your favorite dark characters, is even better.

So in conclusion, we understand a little more of why we love dark characters and search them out. Whether your reasons are for wanting to see others in pain, wanting to read about how things in life really are, explore dark connections in others pasts, or just to see something naughty, it doesn't really matter. Does liking these dark characters make us bad or even sinister people? Hell no! Unless you are a psycho serial killer who writes Fan Fiction about your killing sprees, then you just need some help. If that is not you, then it just means we want to add a little depth into our reads and writings.

Dark characters can be fun to read about and even more fun to think up and write ourselves. No matter what the intensity and depth, go explore them a little, and broaden your horizons in this area. Fluffy bunny stories are great and swoon worthy, but we honestly need a little dark in our lives. It builds character in ourselves and opens us up to explore ourselves.

Next time someone rec's a dark story, give it a try and don't chicken out. It might be better than you think. Leave some love on what your thoughts are on dark characters and why you love and even hate them.

Note: I want to thank 4letterword, Iwantawerewolfformyself, and The JaspersNaughtyGirls for their help with this article. They were most helpful. Check out their stories and OS's and make sure to leave them some love for the awesome characters they write. And special mention to Kitty Cullen and JasperSexKitten.