Writing : Splatterpunk: Every Twisted Detail

Jack Ketchum. His essay Splat Goes The Hero is pretty cool.

You could always watch Dead Alive. Even if you've seen it before, you'll still get a laugh and possibly a couple ideas. Also, the images from Evil Dead make it into almost every story I write.

I wrote a long response, but lost it because I had apparently been logged out. So I'll summarize what is important in my opinion.

- Read the Jack Ketchum essay. It's good.

- I like the violence to be connected with the characters in a very personal way. Anything can be a weapon, I like the weapons to be personal items with a lot of meaning to the characters. Also, I like the actual acts of violence to grow out of the characters. If they are committed a way that only that character would commit, it makes it special.

- Use all the senses. You can see, smell, hear, feel, and even taste death. There are a lot of nasty things in a body. Use metaphors when they can help amplify one of those senses and connect the reader to something they know. Axe metaphors that create distance between reality and the writing. Sometimes artsy writing can make it surreal, while what I go for with this type of thing is hyperreal.

- All the regular rules to writing apply. Make sure the reader cares about the characters and the story outside of the gore, otherwise, no one will give a crap.

- Don't break laws of physics and biology. If blood and guys start doing things that don't seem realistic, it starts becoming campy intsead of disturbing. I am more in favor of realism than gore for gore's sake.

- Turn off any moral filter you have until at least the re-writes and show us what is happening without blinking. Tell any conscience you have to fuck off. When you re-write, you can decide your level of comfort.

I saw on Duotrope that there is a Splatterpunk anthology looking for stories, so you might have a market to submit to. I don't know anything about the publisher at all. But you might get ten bucks out of it.

I recently wrote a screenplay about a farmer who plots to blow up an agriculural corporation with a fertilizer bomb. Trust me, all our browser histories are screwed.

I was thinking of starting a thread that said "whats in your browser history?" but than I was like 'even I don't want to know.'

Many great books have been written in prison.

I actually laughed out loud at that. 

You could always watch Dead Alive.

Whatever you do, watch Dead Alive. It's been called the goriest film ever made, and with good reason. Also, it's absolutely hilarious. Peter Jackson before he got so cocky he allowed himself to make crap movies. [Seriously, do not pretend King Kong and/or The Lovely Bones are anywhere near as fantastic as The Lord of the Rings, Heavenly Creatures, or The Frighteners. They're not. Stop.]

I'll second a lot of people: when it comes to extreme violence, Ketchum is king. Don't stop at his essay; examine his novels. I think Off Season would be a great choice. American Psycho? Viewing the My Bloody Valentine remake or Hitchcock's adaptation of Psycho might help, too. Piranha 3-D, zombie movies, Blade II—there are lots of sources of inspiration available. Honestly, the scene where Mekhi Phifer dies in Singleton's Shaft remake/sequel always affected me. Red State. The strangulation scene in Saving Private Ryan. Inglourious Basterds.

The bottom line, I think, is that the most effective violence makes it hurt. Not for the character, but for the reader. You acheive this by dragging it out and by not looking away, by forcing us to see what a slow courter death really is.

Yeah, I'm with Ken on this. You're more believable if you can make the stuff seem somewhat real, and real is often more effective than just disgusting.

Ultimately, I think the level of violence is far less important than its use. Even if it hurts... so what? You may give someone a graphic mental image, or gross them out, but who cares? I've always found it more important to tie the violence to something, to give it an emotional achor, to make it something crucial to the work that isn't just there to spray red around. This can even have the effect of giving something fairly tame considerably more emotional impact than something that's trying to be as awful as possible but doesn't have enough behind it to make the reader truly care.

I guess I'm thinking of all this because of the post I made about horror stories earlier. I feel like violence for its own sake has become too much of a thing and thus lost any and all impact for me. I can read and see horrific things these days and yawn my way through them. Goreporn is only going to satisfy the small number of people who get off on just that one aspect, and even in something as extreme as splatterpunk, I think what really makes the violence sing (scream?) is when the mere fact of its happening at all is already a point worth noting.

Sorry if this is rambly. Long day, Red Bull, beer, tired.