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Q&A How do I introduce dark themes?

My story involves a superhuman organization that aims to overthrow the main government, through any means necessary. This involves murder and some rather gruesome deaths. Additionally, there might ...

5 answers  ·  posted 4y ago by overlord - Reinstate Monica‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by Mark Baker‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T13:00:39Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/48146
License name: CC BY-SA 4.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar overlord - Reinstate Monica‭ · 2019-12-08T13:00:39Z (over 4 years ago)
My story involves a superhuman organization that aims to overthrow the main government, through any means necessary. This involves murder and some rather gruesome deaths. Additionally, there might be accidents involving dangerous animals, magical artifacts, etc.

How do I transition dark themes into a story that isn't overly dark? My story has these dark themes, but not at the beginning and they only happen during serious and important moments. Otherwise, the characters go about their everyday business.

I'm four chapters in and nothing dark has happened. How can I transition the reader into themes of darkness or death, without completely turning them off and having them say "this isn't what I thought I was reading"?

**I just want some advice for introducing dark themes to an otherwise normal story.**

For example, Harry Potter gradually got darker and darker as the series went on. And even just the first book didn't have darker themes until Hagrid mentioned Voldemort for the first time.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-09-23T20:50:14Z (over 4 years ago)
Original score: 16