# Mixing dark and light themes



## funkwolf (Sep 11, 2012)

I was thinking of writing a series of short stories or a group of t.v scripts but I'm not quite sure of have to mix the lighter tones with the darker themes. I have my general characters set up and the setting plus the plot driver. One of the things I want to do is have a group of characters as part of something called the danger club which was set up by the characters to get back at life for their own misfortunes (a few examples would be a boy having lived homeless all his life and a girl who is horribly scarred from a house fire.) They do this by performing antics and dangerous stunts such as locking a herd of sheep in the office of the head doctor at the rehabilitation center they live in (hopefully the antics would be one of the lighter tones). I think it would be good to provide both light and dark tones however I'm not quite so sure how to balance them out so the story isn't depressing nor ridiculous and unbelievable.

If anybody can tell me how it would be best or give me any ideas as to how it would be best it would be much appreciated thank you.


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## Deleted member 49710 (Sep 12, 2012)

Could the characters provide comic relief? It sounds like they'll be pulling some elaborate practical jokes, from your example, so they must have pretty good senses of humor, though maybe on the sarcastic side. Humor is one way people learn to deal with difficult situations. So I think I'd work on the dialogue and attitudes of the characters. If they're not whiny and dark all the time, your show won't be either.

Don't know if you've read or seen _Fight Club_ but what you're talking about sounds a little like a small-scale "Project Mayhem" - you might look at that for an example. And the book in general - lots of rage and frustration, partially suppressed and communicated with humor.

_The X-Files_ would be a less successful example, I think, but its episodes varied widely in mood, some light, some dark, some inbetween. What made this work (when it worked, sometimes it didn't) was keeping the characters fairly consistent regardless of the situation and having some element of the greater plot present in the background, if it wasn't in the foreground.


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## funkwolf (Sep 12, 2012)

Thank you for your ideas and I'll take a look at your Fight Club example, maybe if this idea I have is good enough and becomes an actual piece of writing it'll end up on this website in a several months or so.


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