User blog comment:AustinDR/When Do Dark Fics Go Too Far?/@comment-32202721-20170818211255

A couple years ago, I remember doing a profile piece on the filmmaker Hiroshi Katagiri, for graduate school. Katagiri got his start in the industry doing creature effects for films like Hellboy, Cabin in the Woods and Pacific Rim, and he just made his feature length directorial debut last year with the horror film GEHENNA: Where Death Lives (which was actually pretty dope, I don't mind telling you). On the movie's kickstarter page, Katagiri had this to say about what makes a great horror film:

"A truly great horror film should first and foremost strive to be a great film."

What he meant is that, before horror directors concern themselves with scaring the audience, they have to focus their efforts on telling a good story with believable, likable characters. You know, the elements that would make any other film great.

I bring this up because I think darkfics are the same way. A truly great dark fic should first and foremost strive to be a great fanfic. That means it still has to provide readers with a well-paced, original, compelling plot, keep the characters in-character, and give them dialogue that matches their manner of speaking in canon. If you write a darkfic just for the sake of writing a darkfic, it'll come off as forced and 2edgy4me. Just focus on writing a good story, and let the dark elements come into the plot naturally.