Gore in books? Or skip the details?
If you have spelling or grammar questions, please post them in the International Grammar section.
If you want feedback for poetry or short stories you have written, please post the poem or short story in either the Creative Original Works: Short Stories section or the Creative Original Works: Poetry section.
If you have a book that you want reviewed, click here to submit your book for review.
-
- Posts: 175
- Joined: 06 Jun 2018, 19:54
- Currently Reading: Cinder
- Bookshelf Size: 76
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-choine.html
- Latest Review: Killing Abel by Michael Tieman
- Reading Device: 1400699894
Gore in books? Or skip the details?
- JPalomares
- Posts: 18
- Joined: 22 Feb 2019, 03:51
- Favorite Book: Mother Night
- Currently Reading: Misreading Judas
- Bookshelf Size: 204
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-jpalomares.html
- Latest Review: The Roving Mind: A Modern Approach to Cognitive Enhancement by Anthony Simola
The inclusion or glossing over of any detail in a book is fully dependent on the author's purpose for the book and the scene at hand:
- Is the author's purpose to make us feel something specific (fury, horror, satisfaction...)?
- Is a key plot element involved in the scene that necessitates our presence or absence?
- Does the scene positively or negatively affect the overall pacing or emotional arc of the novel?
- Which audience is the novel to be written for?
JPalomares
- Fifi_eve12
- Posts: 45
- Joined: 03 Mar 2019, 14:14
- Currently Reading: The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle
- Bookshelf Size: 16
-
- Posts: 112
- Joined: 25 May 2018, 17:04
- Currently Reading:
- Bookshelf Size: 52
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-jahagen.html
- Latest Review: Opaque by Calix Leigh-Reign
But there's also the concern of becoming overly reliant upon the gore in your story. If the gore is the only thing that is making the scene action-packed, then I think the scene might need to be re-evaluated. I've found that a lot of the action scenes I enjoy have an equal measure of gore and tension in other areas as well.
- Inkroverts
- Posts: 298
- Joined: 15 Jul 2019, 00:38
- Currently Reading: The Book Thief
- Bookshelf Size: 67
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-inkroverts.html
- Latest Review: Killing Abel by Michael Tieman
Some books like to portray the dark side of humanity and most of their content is gore, like American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis.