I wasn't sure where to go to ask this question, so I thought I'd try here, if anyone can give some insight.
My daughter is 5 years old and is always coming up with some interesting tales of her own. They are elaborate, detailed and intricate, and quite often, involve death, decay and the strange. As a fan of horror, I find them to be amusing, but there's been a few times when she's told a story that raised others eyebrows. People have stated "Her stories are a bit dark and macabre don't you think?" and my response has always been "It worked out well for Stephen King." Which made me think, what would Stephen King do?
While some have been concerned that this sort of story telling could be indicative of a future serial killer, I view it as my daughter has an off-the-beaten-path view of entertainment like I do. I want to encourage her to continue her story telling, even when it involves monsters eating people and boogie men being killed and coming back to life. Tonight's story was about a king who was mean to his subjects and they killed him, but then in undeath he became nice and they let him back in the castle. So really the story is about redemption even when redemption seems impossible
So here I am, trying to figure out a way to ask Stephen King what sort of advice he'd give me to help encourage her storytelling while also not getting Child Protective Services called on us because she likes scary things. I say that somewhat jokingly, but I do worry that people will get overly concerned that having a dark sense of story telling means something horrible and diabolical when it's simply her style and her taste. And I don't want her to think something's wrong with her just because others think something is wrong with her. At 5 years old, it's very easy for her to be discouraged by someone questioning her in a judgmental way. I know I'm a bit biased, but my daughter is intelligent and creative and I want to nurture that.
That was a bit rambling, so given all that, does anyone have any suggestions they can provide or, if possible, is there any chance Mr. King ever views these message boards and can provide some guidance for my daughter? Thanks so much for reading this far!
My daughter is 5 years old and is always coming up with some interesting tales of her own. They are elaborate, detailed and intricate, and quite often, involve death, decay and the strange. As a fan of horror, I find them to be amusing, but there's been a few times when she's told a story that raised others eyebrows. People have stated "Her stories are a bit dark and macabre don't you think?" and my response has always been "It worked out well for Stephen King." Which made me think, what would Stephen King do?
While some have been concerned that this sort of story telling could be indicative of a future serial killer, I view it as my daughter has an off-the-beaten-path view of entertainment like I do. I want to encourage her to continue her story telling, even when it involves monsters eating people and boogie men being killed and coming back to life. Tonight's story was about a king who was mean to his subjects and they killed him, but then in undeath he became nice and they let him back in the castle. So really the story is about redemption even when redemption seems impossible
So here I am, trying to figure out a way to ask Stephen King what sort of advice he'd give me to help encourage her storytelling while also not getting Child Protective Services called on us because she likes scary things. I say that somewhat jokingly, but I do worry that people will get overly concerned that having a dark sense of story telling means something horrible and diabolical when it's simply her style and her taste. And I don't want her to think something's wrong with her just because others think something is wrong with her. At 5 years old, it's very easy for her to be discouraged by someone questioning her in a judgmental way. I know I'm a bit biased, but my daughter is intelligent and creative and I want to nurture that.
That was a bit rambling, so given all that, does anyone have any suggestions they can provide or, if possible, is there any chance Mr. King ever views these message boards and can provide some guidance for my daughter? Thanks so much for reading this far!