Avoiding "Darkness induced Audience Apathy"

I started using tvtropes last year and while visiting the YMNV pages of some works I was introduced to the concept of "Darkness Induced Audience Apathy" which can happen in bleak pessimistic stories and makes the viewers/readers/ and so on loosing their interest because they think that it will not become better. I didn't know about this before and now the point is that I want to write a Cyberpunk-style Dystopia. Both genres tend to be located on the cynical side of the Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism and my story should also be this. As far as I am planning now, there will be multiple characters dying, Grey and Gray morality, some backstabbing and lots of characters with tragic backgrounds, including a pessimistic protagonist. All of these are according to the article ingredients of this phenomenon, so how can I avoid to induce "Darkness Induced Audience Apathy"?

Are you familiar with the Humans Are Bastards trope? basically that deep down everyone are horrible people and when push comes to shove they will reveal that, try to defy it

There are plenty of people who are willing to look out for each other even in the darkest of times, and your setting is the perfect place to explore that

It obviously doesn't have to apply to everyone, there are no shortage of bastards out there after all, but making it clear that there are a few good apples left can go a long way

tl;dr Keep things believable and reasonable, always ask why would anything happen and how it relates to the rest. Establish that things can be good and always leave a chance that they will be good.

The full version: You should always ask for a reason and try to justify the events in a plausible way, like with character death. Do they have to die? Why? Why not? How? How is it going to affect the story and the other characters? Never kill a character just for the shock value and if you do anyway, then only once. Keep everything within certain meassures. What would seem ridiculous and illogical in real life is probably not going to make your story look very serious and understandable either. Even though you can still use that if you provide an explanation that's suits the genre and story. Look up Willing Suspension of Disbelief if you haven't already. I guess those are just general things to keep track of, though.

Also, give your hero a stable point they can return to and a motivation. Avoid adding too many complaints about how much the world sucks, because it may come across as wangst. The Crapsack World setting should be apparent from narration and events.

My favorite example of good writing regarding this is Kamen Rider Build. It deals with things like politics, war crimes, dehumanization, torture both psychological and physical, depression, PTSD, suicidal tendencies, terrorism and death in general. Needless to say, it's incredibly bleak and emotionally draining. Still, it works because it starts fairly innocent. Even though the setting is outlined as an unstable Crapsack World right in the first couple episodes, the story works up to speed with comedy, suspense, Power of Friendship, whole lot of worldbuilding and some Big Damn Heroes moments. It set your expectations and then subverts them in one brutal moment. There is still hope after that. That's the scary part. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but you don't know if it's the end of the tunnel or an incoming train until you get there.

You can also check the reviews of Onision's books to know what not to do. I recommend the ones done by booktubers STRANGE ÆONS and KrimsonRogue.

Edited by Flame on May 1st 2020 at 11:05:04 AM

I plan my protagonist's personal problems to be not really connected to the conflicts driving the story. So, as I want to begin it, she doesn't really care about any of the dystopian issues.

Take e.g. the beginning of 1984, where Winston wonders if the world has ever been different, but he doesn't remember anything about that so he just leaves it. He doesn't know anything else and so is kind of Conditioned to Accept Horror. Even though I think that 1984 can't be enjoyed, it sure serves as a great example of inducing completely logical and justified depression and apathy with surgical precision.

This is an old thread so I doubt anyone will see this response, but this is a topic that's interested me as well. Terrible Writing Advice has a good video on what not to do for these settings, although a few of his points have been mentioned here already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5SSD8hVQrg

Don’t make every character horribly unlikable and don’t make the stakes so ridiculously bleak that there’s no point in caring about the outcome.

That's the best TL;DR.

Helps to have a few characters who are the story's moral core and who don't die. Remember the protagonist can be a pessimist without being a huge wangsty asshole: He could be the Anti-Nihilist who acknowledges they're all doomed but lives to a personal moral code. Have there be something he can do that matters so there's a point to the story, even if it's just to help one character escape the apocalypse.

Cliches are a large part of what induces DIAA, since lame, unrealistic edgy tropes are no more interesting than diabetes-inducing tweeness. Try to vary your characters' tragic backgrounds so they're not all about dead or physically abusive parents, torture, or that one thing. Recognize that trauma has symptoms besides being a hardbitten Deadpan Snarker, and research them. Don't be afraid to get uncomfortably close to reality with either your characters' struggles or your society as a whole—within the boundaries of taste. Grimdark is just a tragedy on a world scale, and tragedy is based in the same human flaws we see in real life.

As @Flame said, violence and deaths that don't serve the plot have no place being there. Cut 'em.

Since this thread's the better part of 2 years old, I assume you long ago got started on this, if not finished it, but hope it helps someone.

Edited by Wheezy on Dec 15th 2021 at 2:52:45 PM