On humor

At the risk of appearing narcissistic and compliment-fishing, is my PPC writing too idealistic? by Kі nо Shirayuki on 2024-05-06 05:17:30 UTC Writing Reply

As most of you know, I write the Four Demonly Kings and Fairy Godfathers spin-offs. I generally keep to the humor of the universe (and I love funny stories in general), but I feel that my stories seem too idealistic and light-hearted compared to other PPC stories, which generally emphasize black comedy and a sense of crushing despair underneath the wacky hijinks. I generally don't feel comfortable writing very dark or angsty stories, and I don't want to upset readers, but I'm afraid my writings might be diverging too far from precedent set by the community. What do you think about this?

On humor by Scarlett on 2024-05-07 15:50:02 UTC Reply

I’ve read many many PPC spin-offs and I can confirm that all types of humor have been used. It doesn’t have to be black humor, although that can be funny in the proper place. For instance, in The Dark Side, Neshomeh and Phobos used multiple different types of humor to make it a funny and engaging story. Also, not all spin-offs need angst. Some people choose to and others don’t; it seems to be a personal preference. Frankly, my stories are also fairly light hearted, mainly because I already have my dark and gritty books. It’s my little break. :)
Sometimes things that are dark... are worse. by Lily Winterwood on 2024-05-06 05:44:38 UTC Edited Reply

The TOS was mostly lighthearted, so I don't see a problem with you being lighthearted! Other people might write more cynical humour but you don't have to, seriously, especially if it's not something you want to write.

(ETA title isn't referencing any specific PPC mission. It's a parody of a meme :P)

Seconding this. by Sergio Turbo on 2024-05-06 09:28:33 UTC Edited Reply

I don't believe there is a "set" mood for the PPC, and I think it is brilliant all in itself because we have characters with all kinds of backstories, and fiction does have all kinds of balances between lighthearted and grimdark. So i believe you're golden in making a light-hearted one!

In fact, if there's something that is generally agreed upon here, is that the opposite - going too dark - is what doesn't really fit the PPC's scope. The TvTropes page is kind of an example of why: whoever originally created it years ago seems to have focused a lot on a couple spinoffs that were much darker (and violent) than the average, and I think I remember there was a bit of controversy where TvTropes staff saw following attempts at fixing that as maliciously trying to give a different image of the PPC (while they only had one facet of it talked about there.)

I'll just add that I agree with both of you. by Linstar on 2024-05-06 16:19:56 UTC Reply

You don't need to make your stories darker, in fact, I think lighter stories fit the setting better.

--Ls