How to decide what gore is unnecessary gore?

[Rukmini_writes]

I just deleted almost an entire chapter and am currently rewriting it into a completely different plot. I think I will reuse the plot in a later chapter because it shows an essential personal demon that the protagonist will have to overcome (and it would have a lot more impact relationships-wise in terms of character growth), but I was wondering what the normal expectations are at.

I don't consider myself a good judge of things like that. I sometimes feel like I am a borderline psychopath who is faking all her emotions. It is a very odd sort of imposter syndrome feeling, where I feel like I have to remind myself that I should feel a certain way for a given stimulus. Even when I was at a funeral, I had to tell myself that normal people are sad at them before I started feeling my heart grow heavy and tears forming. Even then, I could only feel sad for short intervals and then I had to send another reminder again and again. Does that happen to other people too? Somehow, my default state is either happy or angry.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. The protagonist was called a name by someone which made her feel bad because it made her sound like someone who didn't care about the price of a human life. She just had to kill someone (work if like that) and name-calling was done by the person she was protecting by killing the person she killed. The guy is killed off-screen, and then the body is dragged and thrown into the sea after the protag punches holes into the body, so it doesn't float back up. The conflict is one she dealt with before herself. The morality of things and the whole, "If you kill them to make someone else live, how are you better than that person?" was supposed to be explored for a chapter. I was wondering if this is all too much to be discussed in any novel (mine is primarily a romance, so even bigger '?' because of that).

I mean, there will be deaths. But I wanted the first death to have the gravity it deserves, even if it was not the first kill by the character (due to the nature of their occupation).

 

[RepresentingWrath]

Overall, gore is the same as everything else. If it adds to the scene, keep it. If not, it is unnecessary.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Romance can combine with gore. I have seen it a lot. Just write what you want to write about.

 

[Tempokai]

If it's completely unrelated to the plot and has no meaning besides being shocking, it's unnecessary.

Let's say your isekai MC does gorish attacks towards goblin (who has zero plot relevance in the plot), so detailed it only makes MC look like someone who got out from the mental hospital and the you, the author, probably not right in the head.

The good way, is like with other devices, to make relevant to MC (revenge, for example), antagonistic (character buildup for a villain), or showing emotions (like tragedy).

 

[Sweetmeat]

Write the details that your MC notices in that situation, not every detail. You can add characterization and insight to their state of mind based on what sort of observations they make. It's better to go in depth on one or two things than vaguely mention everything. If they're feeling guilty, talk about how the victim's eyes are frozen conveying their fear. If they're feeling disgusted by their actions, talk about the gross guts that are spilled out. Etc.

 

[Succubiome]

I don't even like gore.

But if you think it's important to your story, include it-- if you've written a lot of chapters, and gore is wildly outside of your tone from before, you might wanna include a disclaimer, but if this person's work includes murder and it's been a known thing, it doesn't feel out of place in the narrative to me at all.

Heck, if people want to include gore for purely shock value/entertainment, more power to them-- not my thing, but who am I to judge?

Like strictly speaking, including gore in a story is always unnecessary, but like... all things are unnecessary?

However: if the gore feels out of place to you, but you also don't wanna shy away from the impacts of death and killing people... you don't have to show a brutal death onscreen to make it feel brutal?

 

[Rhaps]

As a master of overly flavored details, a.k.a, a Dungeon Master, gore is unnecessary to the plot.

Then again, it depends on the setting. If its grimdark or horror, then add gore in. But not too much, just enough for the reader to feel uncomfortable or it will become derpy and edgy.

 

[ThrillingHuman]

drag those intestines across the floor. Stuff the stomach with the lungs and fill the lungs with blood. Ground all the bones. Blood to the Blood God!

 

[HelloHound]

it's unnecessary when it messes up the story's pacing

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Does it matter to the story and if so, decide how much you think your audience can handle. Based off that assessment, describe as closely to the the amount you concluded. Don't make it take forever to mess up the pacing. Your audience will need breaks so switching perspectives or characters can help if you're writing a longer gore scene.

 

[TheEldritchGod]

Gore is good. More gore is better. Always have all the gore.

Just make it funny.

Describe how the child's head is detached from his body as the exploding acid-ice bolt detonates inside his body, sending the head flipping through the air to roll down the stairs to land at the feet of his mother. The head, covered with residual acid that is melting the face-off, is clearly still alive for a few seconds as it is silently trying to scream, but can't because it doesn't have lungs.

Comedy like that shouldn't be used all the time, or your reader might stop taking the book seriously, but when used correctly levity is an excellent tool to let the reader calm down and breathe for a while. Then you can hit them again with something horrifying/serious.

 

[IanWhite2105]

It really depends on what you are writing. A horror story has a high bar for what is considered excessive but a mystery or shounen novel would have a much lower bar. A good rule of thumb is wether or not it adds anything to the scene.

 

[J_Chemist]

Effect.

What effect are you trying to achieve by your writing? What do you want your reader to perceive of your scene? How you write, what you include, and how you angle the descriptors based off how your character is understanding the scene in front of them all point towards the way you want to be writing.

For example; Our character is a seasoned fighter who's seen many a battle. He's moving through an area with his team when he comes across another no-name fighter that he's going to smoke without batting an eye. Here's how I'd write it;

Spoiler

Banking the corner, the Soldier moved with slick grace, heel to toe, heel to toe. Sliding along the wall of the building as he moved at a tempered pace toward the next corner. His team at his back, he kept the sights of his rifle pointed straight, his eyes affixed to the sight picture and the view beyond his rifle's muzzle. Focused. Steady. His breathing controlled as he remained vigilant. As they reached the corner, his feet came to a smooth stop. A hand touched his shoulder. One beat, two beats... Squeeze.

Smoothly, he rotated around the corner, slicing it as he moved, checking for shadows with weapons. As he moved, he spotted a figure. Fifty meters. The red dot in the center of his scope snapped to the silhouette's chest. The figure moved, brandishing a weapon. The Soldier's finger twitched, lightly squeezing the trigger. One pound of pressure, three pulls. The rifle bucked against his shoulder and jolted in his hands, his forearms flexing to withstand the kick of his rifle.

At the other end, the figure's torso exploded. Blood splattered the wall as their body was smacked by the three expended rounds. Red paint coated the wall behind the figure as they collapsed, their ribcage pierced and shattered, organs within scrambled and torn to pieces. Without so much as a word, the Soldier turned away from the crumbling threat and hurried across the road, moving on to the next building.

As another example, he's someone who's never shot anyone before. Going through the same scenario.

Spoiler

Breathing hard through clenched teeth, the Soldier clutched his rifle almost desperately as he held it firmly against his shoulder. The sight picture in front of him sway with his breathing, and the fidgeting of his fingers. He could feel the sweat beneath his gloves causing the poly-leather to stick to his skin. Yet, he trusted his gear and held onto his weapon. His trigger finger pressed against the housing, flexed and strained as he kept it ready to move to the actual mechanism. Walking briskly, he mentally reminded himself to keep his steps short so as to not make the muzzle bounce so much. But such was hard when he could hardly breathe.

"Keep moving, 2-6." The voice whispered into his ears, reminding him of the personnel at his back. Men he'd trained with, ate with, slept with. Brothers who were counting on him to do his job.

2-6 moved along the wall, passing beneath an overhang that he forced himself not to look at. Such was the job of the man behind him. He kept his eyes down the road, scanning the doors, windows, corners, alley entrances. Anything within the twenty degree sector assigned to him at their front. When he came up on the corner to their direct left, he dug in his left foot and stopped short. When the hand touched his shoulder, he flinched. It remained there, steady like ice as he took in a long and deep breath. At his exhale, the hand squeezed.

The soldier jerked out to the right and sliced the corner, moving almost too quickly for his instincts. When he stepped out, his scope passed over something that stood out- a moving object of a body. A figure. His scope jumped and he recentered the rifle on the target. He blinked and froze. Then, he saw the metallic shimmer of a rifle. That trembling, flexed finger jumped to the trigger and he yanked. Desperate to fire first. Once, twice. Thrice. Four, five. Rounds spit out of the chamber as he clung to the weapon, holding it with all of his might to keep it from falling from his hands.

He watched the body beyond jolt and quake with each impact. A shoulder exploded, splattering red against the wall. He struck lung and torso, caving in ribs and coring out the target. Then, he struck skull. Brain matter, blood, and chunks of meat exploded as pink mist scattered from the impacts. The target crumbled to the ground, flopping onto the street in a lifeless pile of flesh and pooling blood. The rifle in the target's hand skittered across the ground as organs and dark red liquid spilled out from the impact points.

"Keep moving, 2-6." A nudge came from both the headset and the man to his left. The Soldier exhaled his held breath, and forced himself to look away. Shaking even more than before, he hurried along, continuing down the street in hopes of making it back to that bunk he so desperately missed.

In the first example, the Experienced Soldier strikes the target, notes the impacts of the rounds, and confirms the kill. Then, he moves on. In the second, the Inexperienced Soldier freezes and jumps a little, frightened, and fires more than he needs. The lack of accuracy causes more damage and we see the effects of his jitters. His mind also registers the additional details (the head splatter, the organs spilling, the blood pooling) because he also freezes to stare. After, the Inexperienced Soldier continues to suffer from the effects of the scene, while the Experience Soldier chalks it up to another day at the office.

Both are correct, but both come across different. Use Gore to amplify the emotions of the scene. I write plenty of it in my story but each scene comes across differently based off what my Character is feeling, the circumstances of the fight, and also what I want the reader to see. If it's a standard fight, I'm keeping details minimal to move things along. But if I'm writing a massacre or a one-sided beat down with plenty of rage and hatred, I'm putting in the gritty details- limbs being torn off, eyes being targeted, skulls being crushed, bodies blown apart, etc.

Go with what you need to achieve the goal of your scene. Then move on. Don't bog down your story with it or overwhelm your reader with the unnecessary BS of your torture fetish. While it's fine to have one, don't make it the center of your store. It's flavor text.

 

[melchi]

Go with what you need to achieve the goal of your scene. Then move on. Don't bog down your story with it or overwhelm your reader with the unnecessary BS of your torture fetish. While it's fine to have one, don't make it the center of your store. It's flavor text.

This

 

[Deleted member 84247]

Go with what you need to achieve the goal of your scene. Then move on. Don't bog down your story with it or overwhelm your reader with the unnecessary BS of your torture fetish. While it's fine to have one, don't make it the center of your store. It's flavor text.

Unless the story is a torture fetish type of story. Then only bog it down with the kink.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Write what you love, and someone else will also love it. If you don't trust your own taste, you can get a beta reader so you have a second opinion.