Explicit Violence and Gore - Tips and Reviews

This was inspired by the Sex Scenes/Reviews and How to Write Them thread.

As someone that writes primarily NC-17 material, I know it can be difficult to get good feedback and advice when it comes to those topics. While there's already a thread to discuss sex scenes, another major aspect of the NC-17 rating is explicit violence and/or gore.

Do you enjoy writing the bloody, slasher stuff? Have any advice for fellow writers or writers just beginning to test the waters of writing explicit violence? Do you have a piece that involves explicit violence/gore that you need reviewed for the gutty good stuff?

I've tried my hand at horror fics, and it jsut doesn't work for me. The words and scenes just seem...forced and awkward and not chilling when you read it. :(

Back when I wrote A7X fic, a few of my stories had excessive violence and gore. It got to the point where my friends told me that reading it made them so uncomfortable because of the mental images they got. I enjoyed writing it at the time, but after years of not doing it, now it seems awkward and difficult for me to do (especially since I write 1D fic and they're too bright and happy in my eyes to write into horrorfic ).

It's hard to give advice on how to write it, because it's just a tricky subject. Don't be afraid to be detailed, I suppose. Don't be afraid to make it sound just downright nasty because most of the time, it is. Vocabulary choice has a huge impact on it. Use words that just sound darker, especially adjectives. Like... idk, use velutinous instead of fluffy, haha.

Dude! I never knew I needed this thread until now; thanks for creating it.
I really like writing fight scenes and fucked up violence and the like. I think my biggest problem with it is drawing the line between making things really detailed and explicit or leaving things up to the readers imagination. I never quite know how to find the right balance. I either describe too much or too little or I just don't describe the right things. [/I am rambling, and I hope any of this makes sense.]

It's not something I write a ton of, tbh. Most of my stories are rated NC-17, but it's for explicit sex, not so much the violence. I think the only pieces I'm working on that contain an explicitly violent element are crossovers, as I have a Big Time Rush/Fight Club crossover oneshot and two BTR/Supernatural crossover chaptered things that call for the bloody, gutsy stuff

For me, I think it's the same as any other time I'm writing something that's outside my norm (same goes for tragedy and drama as well): I have to get myself in a particular mood to write it. I have my sad, tear-jerking playlist on the iPhone for the tragedy and my angsty, angry playlist for the slasher stuff. I think most of it's old, fast-paced Third Eye Blind songs (because that's my angry music ) and The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me by Brand New.

I feel like the hardest aspect of writing the hardcore violence and gore for me is making those scenes mesh with the rest of the story because my writing style for doing violence and gore is much different from my normal style

Yeah, I have to get in certain headspaces or moods as well. Although, I don't necessarily have to do it the way most people think. Like people expect me to write sad stuff or violent stuff when I feel upset, but the truth is I'm usually in a really good mood when I write that stuff. I just have to sort of get in a certain frame of mind; it usually involves spacing out and sometimes partaking of some materials or soundtracks that are inspirational to what tone I'm trying to achieve.
Sometimes, however, it involves no prep at all; I'm just in the mood to write violence, and it just happens. (I promise I'm not [that] crazy.)

I think with violence it's important to find a good balance between inflicting pain and inciting emotions.

The problem a lot of people have when writing violence is the lack of emotion. They spend so much time describing the violence that they miss the characters emotions and sometimes, don't even mention them at all. When writing violent scenes, it's important to remember your characters. Remember that they are human and do feel emotion. Even if they feel numb, describe it. Numbness is an emotion. If you fail to acknowledge your characters' emotions, your characters will soon fade to, well, nothingness really. They'll become unimportant and it'll take away the scene. Violence resonates more with readers when they can connect with the characters. Remember that emotional description is just as important as the violent description. You need to find a balance of both.

Don't be afraid to be detailed. I think a lot of violent scene writers have encountered the whole "you're too real" or something similar with their descriptions, but don't let that stray you away from descriptions. While some people may be more sensitive, others are not. Violent scenes need description. Use as much as you see fit and don't censor it. Censoring your violent scenes will ultimately only hurt them in the end.

It's also important to keep genre in mind. Horror violence is not the same as action violence. Likewise, slasher horror does not have the same violence as paranormal horror does. Using slasher violence in a paranormal horror could seem a little...weird? I guess. I don't know. There's different types of violence though, depending on the genre. So it's important to keep the genre in mind when you write violent scenes.