Dark fiction explores what lies beneath civility—the impulses, tensions, and moral fractures people prefer to ignore. These posts delve into stories shaped by unease and ambiguity, where characters are driven by instinct as much as choice, and outcomes rarely offer comfort or resolution.
Behind forced smiles and raised glasses, some people quietly celebrate their own collapse. This dark reflection explores isolation, emotional exhaustion, unhealthy coping mechanisms, and the strange comfort found in self-destruction. It examines how poor mental health can become normalised, ritualised, and even worn like a badge of identity in modern society.
Here’s Cheers to Poor Mental Health! Read More »
Lightning doesn’t just strike—it dismantles. In SEETHINGS, a distant storm turns violent when a tree explodes under a lightning hit, hurling superheated debris toward a ridge-top home. This breakdown examines the real science behind that moment—and why the danger arrives faster, hotter, and closer than expected.
What Happens To Trees When They’re Struck by Lightning Read More »
It wasn’t the storm that killed her. Not the lightning, not the wind, not the chaos she chased. It was something smaller. Something precise. A detail so insignificant it should’ve been harmless—until it wasn’t. And by the time anyone noticed, the photograph had already been taken.
Brisbane: Professional Photographer Hanged By Camera Strap Read More »
DNA changed crime fiction forever—but not in the way readers think. In the uneasy gap between instinct and science, truth becomes unstable, justice uncertain, and the past refuses to stay buried. Explore how forensic advances reshape storytelling, morality, and the psychological tension at the heart of modern crime writing.
Crafting Crime Fiction in the Shadows of DNA Science Read More »
Most serial killers don’t look like monsters—they look like everyone else. They work, marry, and move unnoticed through everyday life. This piece explores the psychology behind men who blend in, revealing how normality becomes their greatest disguise—and why we consistently fail to recognise the danger standing right in front of us.
Serial Killer Psychology: Why the Most Normal Men Make the Best Monsters Read More »
This character was one of the last to be included in this psycho-thriller. Maxine was designed to be colourful when sober, but when drunk, she is obnoxious enough to unsettle dinner guests. Maxine heads a group of small business owners who specialise in photographing weddings. Most of the newer, inexperienced photographers trying to break into
Character Spotlight: Maxine Sewell. Read More »
When writing dark fiction, the villain matters as much as the hero. Without a formidable antagonist, a hero has nothing meaningful to overcome. The strength of a protagonist is measured by the challenge they face. Instead of two opposing forces, imagine one person wrestling with both sides of the moral equation. Could a character pursue
Writing Tips: Villains, Heroes, and the Space Between Read More »
When it comes to lovable evil characters, Hannibal Lecter is one I’d like to give one big ‘ol squeeze. Isn’t he just the best? You can’t help but fall in love with the good Doctor’s wit, intellect and sense of propriety. If it weren’t for the odd liver and fava-bean request, you’d be happy to
Redeeming Evil Characters Read More »
He had learned early that people wanted endings that behaved. They wanted pain to tidy itself away. They wanted meaning to arrive on schedule, carrying reassurance. Stories were supposed to heal, to close wounds cleanly, to leave the reader better than they were before. Anything else was considered indulgent. Or cruel. But life had never
The Lie of Resolution: Why Some Stories Should Not Heal Read More »
Villains do fiction a great big, delicious favour. Without a particular kind of evil present in stories, heroes can’t develop into what they are meant to become. Thank God for the darker elements of humanity and the baddest of bad boys (or girls) to show our heroes (and readers) the way into the light. That’s
Stories With Great Heroes Demand Quality Villains To Make Them Phenomenal Read More »