Dark vs Wholesome: Why Choose?

While at Knoxville Book Festival 2026, I had an interesting conversation with someone. I was talking to them about my books and that I like to write green flag characters for the relationships. They replied with a “Oh, but I love my dark fantasy and dark romance.”

The thing is, so do I.

I like reading some dark romance. Not all, but there are a lot I like. I love the spicy heat and I love the deep passion and yearning (to the point of being unhealthy, right?). Like many of us readers, I’m okay with this in my fictional worlds because there is usually an element of security built into these situations. Something that says “I know this is dark and intense, but it’s okay because xyz means you’ll always be safe with me.” (There are books that do not have this, but those are usually too dark for me.) These are fun to read and escape with for a time.

But when I’m writing, I don’t want to do that.

I like to escape with a dark fantasy here and there, but I don’t want to live in one. We spend so much more time in the stories we write than the ones we read because we are going through them over and over again through edits, formatting, marketing, all of it. To write a dark fantasy for me would feel like living in one without a break.

Something that feels strange to communicate to strangers is that I’ve had some truly abusive relationships. No one has ever hit me of been physically violent with me, but there were clear abuses. Ones I’m still not ready to talk about.

But that has a lot to do with why I don’t want to write red flags (unless their villains). I don’t want to spend so much headspace and time with characters that I don’t feel safe with after taking so many years to heal as much as I have. (I still have healing to do, though) I also like the idea of depicting not perfect, green flag characters when we live in a sea of red flags in our real world. With green flag characters, I get to explore those moments of healing by writing these relationships trying to be healthy; especially after emerging from a toxic one.

I still like dark romance. I like to experience the intensity of those relationships that, while scary, I KNOW are safe. Nothing makes me squeal and giggle like a good “touch her and die” or a “who did this to you,” but oh, do I love it when a green flag character gets pushed to those moments too. Especially when you don’t expect that to come from them.

But that is what makes books so wonderful. There is a genre and a type for everyone and you are not limited to liking just one.