A light in the darkness - banishing 'dark' fiction

I came across a Tweet on the NaNoWriMo account recently that really resonated with me.  "Tell a story to light up your own heart" it read.

Yes!  My heart said to those words.  It was the light I needed against the prevailing darkness of that week.  It was the weekend of Halloween, and nearly every Tweet and post I read was about some aspect of darkness.

I was getting sent details for dark events in a nearby city. NI was being invited an event for a writer who boasted of being a "teenage delinquent" on his publicity material.  Another event was centred around urban  monsters.

And I had no intention of going to any of these gatherings.  Because, as far as I'm concerned, there's already enough darkness in the world, and I don't plan to focus on it and increase it.

What appals me is that people are using the word "dark" as a badge of honour.  "Dark" has become the new "sexy".  Dark is cool.  And the problem with things being cool is that the herd adopts them.  Mindlessly, without even trying to think through what supporting that world-view means.

The way contemporary crime books are marketed is one prime example of "dark is cool".  Often the covers of such books are black, with the obligatory slash of red somewhere on them, to suggest spilled blood.  And, of course, there must be the word "dead" or "death" in the title.  Sometimes  even that's not enough.  One title is "Not Dead Enough", as if there were degrees of being dead.

As the clocks go back in England and the nights lengthen, I need more light in my life, not darkness.  There's enough of that out there in the physical world right now, thank you very much.  So excuse me if I write stories that bring me joy, stories that light up my heart with the way that they see the world.  Stories that show the beauty of the big, wide world we live in.

There'll be enough darkness outside for the next few months, so I'm going to spend my winter writing about things that bring light to the world, and that truly light up my own heart.