And the body count for this comic just got seven times higher!
I felt kind of weird writing this part, but not because I was sad to kill off the unnamed characters. When I was a kid, I would always come up with these ridiculous stories, and sometimes there would be violent parts, because they made sense within the context of the story. But then I'd show my mom and she'd say something like that it was inappropriate for a little kid to be writing/drawing such things. So now, even as an adult, when I write violent or sexy parts in a story, I always have that little mom voice in my head holding me back a bit. Urgh! ::facepalm::
I’ve struggled with this dilemma myself in my recent fiction. I’m tired of stories where “heroic” protagonists hack, slash, beat and shoot their way out of any situation. Sure, violence is a part of life, but there’s just too little variety in fiction. So I’ve tried to write stories where confrontations are solved differently… and it hasn’t been easy. But for the most part I was able to considerably tone down the “pow! kick! pew pew pew!” in my prose, and I’m happy about it.
I agree with Felix that many “heroes” are too eager to resort to violence.
But this is another case. Here the violence is (probably) the work of a villain. While using nameless dead people to show the seriousness of the situation is a bit overdone, it is also very effective.
Oh, of course. Here, the (implied) violence makes perfect sense, and makes the reader not want to see any more of it… which is the best way to feel about violence. So it’s all right.
Interesting points! Originally I was thinking more about the balance between self-censorship and being able to express oneself freely in story telling, but I also like your point about finding ways other than violence to resolve story conflicts. I hope I can find creative solutions as the story progresses!
Personally, I don’t self-censor. I don’t really abide censorship…
Which is why I’ve been banned from more stuff than I could possibly remember. Other folk like to censor me. I don’t appreciate it.