PARTY PARTY PARTY I WANNA HAVE A PARTY
Maybe some examples of fictional works that manage to convey the horror of such mass death effectively might help you write this scene. Here, I'll start:
Beyond that, I'd suggest maybe having the protagonist or a significant character visit the site of one of these battles at some point and reflect on the damage. Maybe you could cut away to people hanging wreaths around the necks of petrified family members, crying, hugging the statues, or expressing other token gestures of affection?
edited 12th Jul '14 4:50:34 PM by KSPAM
I've got new mythological machinery, and very handsome supernatural scenery. Goodfae: a mafia web serial
Resident pretentious dickwad
I think one way to get a reader closer to comprehending an incomprehensibly terrible thing is to show them a comprehensibly terrible thing that people suffer through to try and avoid the incomprehensibly terrible one.
For example, the protagonists of your story could come across a mother desperately waving around a cardboard box full of all her money and valuables in an attempt to convince a group of untrustworthy people smugglers to hide her daughter in the already jam-packed space under the seats of their car, just so the daughter might have a chance of getting away from Harrisburg.
This implies, quite correctly, that my mind is dark and damp and full of tiny translucent fish.
Simple, just show the brutal slaughter first hand, show the main characters recognizing it, show the victims grieving families, see, not too hard.
This shall be my true, Start of Darkness
FATAL Survivor
One of the best in my opinion?
Right, so I'm writing an Urban Fantasy where the Always Chaotic Evil army from an Advanced Ancient Acropolis is laying siege to our world in 2037. They do all commit all sorts of heinous atrocities like burning Paris to the ground and take for granite a whole bunch of people in Harrisburg. To make matters worse with Harrisburg, the people who are turned to stone have their minds trapped inside their stone bodies. Problems so far? A Million Is a Statistic that's what. I've tried Empathy Doll Shot (in words, obviously) and giving several of the dead a few paragraphs of obituary (a little girl and an elderly couple, specifically.) But I'm still not satisfied with that; I really think I could do more. Any suggestions?
You may fire when you are ready, Gridley