A Band of Trolls - gruesome death scene

[dandelion]

I was discussing the untold slaughter scene with my ogre-mate last night, and how I've set the story up so that Aiydn eventually has to tell her tribe-mates what she saw. We tried to determine how much gory detail needed revealing, and discovered that it's a very fine line that depends a great deal on audience satisfaction. Ohhh, that onus of all writers - the dangling loose ends that make readers feel dissatisfied when they reach the end of the book.

I need help finding out what counts as a 'loose end' here, and what becomes 'overkill'. Does the story work if I never reveal another gory detail about the deaths of Mahrundl and his comrades? Or would that be an utter disappointment? Does the fact that Aiydn witnessed the aftermath compel me to write out all the dialogue when she finally shares what she saw with the other trolls? Would it work better if I somehow made the slaughter mean something, plot-wise?

No promises on that last one, though. Senseless murder is a disturbing concept, but I'm willing to write about disturbing concepts. Also, I can't guarantee I'll be clever enough to tie everything together neatly.

Please vote and let me know what would satisfy you, and I'll use this as a guideline for writing the second half. Thanks.

[mahrundl]

Dandelion, I'm torn on this. On the one hand, I do want to know, and I imagine that the battle description would be as good as everything else you've written. On the other, sometimes taking away the mystery can reduce the impact of the story, and a hidden terror can be much more frightening than a known one.

Aiydn probably needs to heal, although it may be her lot to spend the rest of her life haunted by her experience. But even if she does heal, her healing does not necessarily mean that she needs to reveal what she saw. Perhaps she will become one of the tribe's new protectors, and she must accept that she alone will ever know the horror of what she saw. (In fact, the trolls weren't slaughtered - they were corrupted by the wizards and turned to evil. Aiydn realised that they could never be cured, and tries to hide the black mark on the tribe's honour by pretending they were killed instead.) That's at least a possible situation in which the details need never be revealed.

I'm going to cast an Other vote to abstain. What ever you decide, I'll be happy with.