Writing: Tears and the Darkness

My first story, Coming to Grips. I've been told that much of the tragic power of the story came from the buildup. Everything was going great, but then it turned out to all be a lie. And after that, it got even worse, when the character's loss of hope led to their own missed chance for happiness. Starting out with pain and suffering inures the reader to it, and the pain and suffering later loses its effectiveness.

I think the same is probably true for darkness. Start light, then start the descent into darkness once the readers develop an emotional connection to the character. Build up the story, then send it all crashing down again, into the depths of darkness. A character turning evil is far worse than a character who already is.

My conscience, however, remains unsettled. It really shouldn't bother me to write these stories, but in a way it does. The premise of Tyro's whole existance in Equestria, for example, is the concept that these story-universes can be real. When I write something, does that make it happen, in some other world? If I had written Coming to Grips as a self-insert, might Twilight actually have appeared? There's really no knowing for certain. Like I've said before, if I were to meet Tyro, he'd probably try to kill me for what I've put him through, and I probably wouldn't try to stop him, because I would have more than earned that fate.

On the other hand, perhaps those things would happen even if I stopped writing. Maybe all we do is channel the reality of some other world onto paper. Again, there's really no way of knowing. If Twilight Sparkle shows up one of these days, demanding answers, I guess I'll find out. But that day nonforthcoming, I might as well keep writing.