On Grittiness

Earlier this week, my boyfriend suggested an article for me to read (you can read it here); it was by an author that neither of us had read, but my boyfriend is intending to.  The article deals with grittiness in fantasy, and, from what I read, I quite like his point - that getting into the gross, honest, painful details of the story is one of the best ways to make the tale compelling.  I do like, however, that he notes that including gory details of death scenes isn't always necessary, but those scenes should be included if that is what drives the story - the fights, the deaths, the moral ambiguity, the pain of doing unpleasant things.

I think that America in general, especially in politics, is starting to get rather polarized - black and white, good and bad, they're-not-my-party-so-they're-an-unenlightened-moron kind of deal.  I'd like to use more grittiness, but, to be quite frank, none of my writing demands gory death scenes.

What all stories demand, though, is honesty.  Telling things like they are.  Though there is some sort of poetic way to imply some things without saying, "That night, these two characters had passionate sex, and it was great," I do think that you should only use implications if the words that would have been said in the scene don't directly forward the story - if it isn't critical that someone's self-esteem is built or broken in bed, then the scene should simply be, "THEN THEY HAD SEX," and then cut to the next morning.

I believe honesty is necessary in fiction, but sometimes honesty and straightforwardness can be simply boiled down to someone saying that the sex was great last night.