Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion Should I be concerned about dark/morbid writing?

My daughter, who is 9, is a great lover of creative writing (plays, stories, poems etc).

However these are always very dark / morbid. What ever topic she starts with, given any opportunity she will turn it around to something violent - battles, wounds, hell etc. I thought it was just a phase to start with but it does not seem to be. She says she does it because it is more intersting and more powerful, but I am not sure whether to be concerned that there is something underlying, or whether it is common among gifted kids to see things in a different, deeper, darker way.

For example she has just written this poem - she was told to pick a colour a write a poem about it - she picked black..

Black

An arrow shooting through a rotting moon
Bitter morning by a gloomy grave
The stars fading away above a winding passage
Silence of a miserable heart broken in two

A lonely figure wailing in a dark dangerous maze
Ghosts of hatred howling in a murky dungeon
The sneaky thief slipping down a dingy alleyway

Thundering footsteps treading through a field of scattered bodies
Smashed windows, cars ablaze, an evil face in the darkness



Has anyone else found this with their child, or have any advice?

THanks

Gemma

I would imagine she saw/read something 'dark' that made a very strong impression on her and really impressed her, so she feels that's what she should do as well.

I would try seeking out some material that isn't quite so dark that might inspire her.

(Though, I will say, most classic writing seems to be pretty 'dark' from what I recall!)

It can be difficult to distinguish "normal" dark creativity from something of a more clinical concern, especially when you add the intensity and asynchronous development of a gifted child. Even so, many of the creative geniuses of the past--say, Edgar Allan Poe--were, in fact, mentally ill.

In my day, we had "artsy death chicks". These days we have "goths". It does seem to me that pop culture in the last ten years has celebrated the darker side of art more than it did when I was a kid. However, I now live in Hawaii, and goths really stick out here. They are probably more likely to placed on a fast track to fairly intensive services here than elsewhere.

I'm thinking of the school counselors, behavior specialists, clinical psychologists, and school psychologists I've worked with in our district over the years. Not knowing the personalities and philosophies within your school district, I would ask the counselor or principal--in your shoes--if you could have a consultation with a school psychologist about this issue. I imagine they would be most likely to know about both the attributes of gifted students and some screening instruments which could help them determine if we are actually looking at a mood disorder.

Well, the West *is* going through one of it's dark zombie eras right now.

For Example:

Grimm - TV Series

My son, who is not, at this point at least, anything resembling depressed, writes quite of bit of work that could only be described as "dark", and has for years. Every now and again, he'll also write hysterically funny humor (mostly parody and satire), but it's relatively rare in comparison.

Gifted people often feel things intensely - pain, fear, joy, love, disgust, pleasure - and finding ways to cope with this can be tricky. Lots of gifted kids are much more aware than age peers of "dark" realities, such as mortality, pain and suffering. Writing is one way of containing, controlling, and mastering feelings.

Stephen King describes running his subconscious through a sieve, and taking all the foul, disgusting, horrifying bits and putting them into his books, and pouring the clean, pure, pleasant stuff back into his brain.

Your daughter says that she likes dark themes because they are more powerful. I think that it is probably true that they are very reliable ways of eliciting strong emotions in readers, in part because many more people agree on broad categories of imagery that they find strongly disturbing or unpleasant then agree on broad categories of imagery that they find intensely pleasant or appealing. If your goal in writing is to elicit an intense emotional response in your readers, horror is by far the easiest way to go, and you can get a strong response without having to have really honed your use of language to a high degree. (She apparently got a big enough response from her teacher and from you that you are posting here asking about it...)

Does she show any other signs of being depressed or anxious or having disturbing thoughts that are beyond the usual gifted "intense awareness of big issues" kind of thoughts? If so, then those signs are certainly worth checking out - but I wouldn't automatically assume that an interest in dark themes automatically meant that you would need to be deeply concerned about her mental health.

My D (now 16) was a very dark writer for several years. I recall a 5th grade teacher who was quite disturbed at D's choice of slave trading and murder as a topic for a story each child wrote and had bound in book form. D certainly has a serious streak, but hasn't turned out to have issues with depression, violence, etc. Of course you have to watch for other signs.

I would agree with maybe asking more questions and trying to dig a little deeper, but if she doesn't show any disturbing behaviors, I wouldn't worry too much.

First, it's developmentally appropriate for that age (actually starting at 7) to be interested in death and some gore. The concept of death itself is hard to understand, especially for kids who haven't really experienced it themselves.

Second, I would say, just like some girls like pink princessyness, no matter how many cars you give them, some people just like that darker side more. Is it strange for a little girl to choose black over pink as the motivating color?

My own DD8, has stated black as her favorite color since she was 2! And at that age would rebuff pink pastel clothing and pull black out of her dresser. Her first favorite move was Nightmare Before CHristmas and last year, she wrote in her school journal that the wolf was her favorite animal because it would eat all the other kids favorite animals. She also wrote that her favorite place to visit was the Boston graveyards and she didn't seem disturbed (more like fascinated) with the child headstones...am I worried? Not a bit! She's sweet and kind and loves animals.

I agree with this. I was beyond shocked last year when my ds' teacher posted a writing assignment on the classroom bulletin board that featured stories written by each student in the class and so many of the girls' stories were either morbid or all about vampires (it was about an even split). My own girls are the type of girls who are all about fairy tales and princesses and happily ever afters, so the first piece I read I was ready to run screaming to the teacher worried that this girl (who I know) was seriously in need of professional help asap.. then I read the other stories.. more of the same... and then I thought back to when I was the same age, and I was kind of fascinated by things like that too - but it wasn't anything deep or that anyone else needed to worry about, it was just a phase.

Best wishes,

polarbear

A related article from the NY Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/u...n.html?_r=1&pagewanted=1&ref=todayspaper