So I’m trying my hand at writing fantasy and paranormal dark gothic romance under the pen name Sheridan Grey. I am, of course, holding this new venture loosely, considering how often I’ve changed directions and how long I’ve been on this journey of trying to find the right balance between writing what I love and writing what makes money. But gothic romance may be the niche that hits the sweet spot for me.
What Do I Mean By Dark Gothic Romance?
I quibbled over whether to call my niche dark gothic romance or gothic dark romance, and I’m still on the fence about that. Because I know the relationships in these novels will be less fucked up than they are under Taryn Moreau, but will nonetheless be problematic and morally gray in one way or another.
But in general, by dark gothic romance, I mean:
- Bona fide romance: This will be romance in the current sense of needing an HEA and focusing on a love story plot above anything else.
- Unmistakably gothic: I want these stories to be very gothic in both atmosphere (dark, gloomy, decay, the grotesque and sublime, often historical Victorian vibes or modern but taking place in places that feel old and traditional) and central concepts (dark secrets, messy dramatic relationships, taboo elements, etc.).
- Dark elements: Every single story will have real darkness, often because the relationship itself is problematic and, by nature of the extreme power imbalance or other features, can never be completely equal or healthy. There will also be dark elements surrounding the romance, from werewolves that are legitimately violent and terrifying, to oppressive family curses, to dark worlds. And the endings won’t be wrapped up with a pretty bow, even though they’ll end in HEAs or at least HFNs.
In addition, I want to focus on extreme power-imbalanced relationships. That’ll often mean large age gaps, forbidden and (non-incest) taboo relationships like teacher x student and guardian x ward, arranged and forced marriages, breeding and pregnancy that isn’t welcomed by the FMC, and coercion, reluctance, and dubious consent.
In short, Sheridan Grey’s flavor of dark gothic romance will read very similarly to classic gothic fiction like Wuthering Heights, Carmilla, Rebecca, The Monk, and Dracula when it comes to the mood, dark transgressive drama, and story elements. Just with HEAs, explicit sex scenes, and easier-to-read prose.
Why Dark Gothic Romance?
I settled on dark gothic romance as my new niche for many, many reasons. I’ll try my best to list all of the major ones here.
- It’s marketable: This is probably my primary reason I’m starting this pen name (the only reason that comes close is getting to participate more in “author stuff”). I want a shot at becoming a full-time author, and writing gothic romance gives me much better odds than writing gothic erotic horror or whatever the hell Taryn Moreau writes. I can’t say exactly how popular paranormal and fantasy gothic romance is, but I do know that it’s popular. Add to that genres like dark academia, which I’ll be writing under this pen, and I have a much better shot at making a living from this author thing. And even better, gothic romance is a specifically defined niche. I can use the term in subtitles, blurbs, keywords, categories, etc., so readers who want it know how to find it.
- I can consistently hit reader expectations: This is closely tied to marketability, but the main reason I couldn’t write dark romance was that I couldn’t consistently think of stories I wanted to write that met reader expectations for the genre—primarily keeping relationships monogamous or at least not involving any other women. There’s something about a lot of my dark, toxic ideas that makes me want to write open relationships or non-relationships where the “MMC” fucks other women (and others) even if he only cares about the FMC. While I have some Moreau ideas that remained monogamous in my imagination, I just couldn’t rein it in often enough to consistently publish. For whatever reason, I can think of loads of ideas under dark gothic romance that are strictly MF and monogamous.
- It’s something I can get behind romance-wise: Dark romance would have been the obvious marketable counterpart to Taryn Moreau, but after reading the genre and studying its fans for a long time on social media and the like, I just couldn’t find a consistent way to write it. With something this dark, I wanted to explore more psychological realism and trauma, and I didn’t want my heroines to fall in love with their abusers. I couldn’t think of enough stories that I believed would end in the victim and her abuser living happily ever after, and I deeply disliked the idea of writing those stories unless they naturally ended up that way. So ironically, less dark MMCs work for me. I can get behind and consistently, convincingly write a somewhat (or very) unhealthy relationship that still has its flaws and downsides in the end, but is nonetheless about two people in love.
- I love gothic fiction: I was pursuing Goodreads’ gothic fiction page, and I was kind of floored by how long it took me to scroll down before I found a book I hadn’t already read or, further down, wasn’t on my TBR. Depending on what you include under the umbrella, gothic fiction is my favorite genre. I used to say it was dark fantasy, but that falls under gothic fiction. The genre leans into the dark, erotic, transgressive, problematic, drama-fueled, and taboo elements I crave in fiction, essentially bundling what I want into a single package, even if it’s not always that clearly or consistently defined. I’ll have an absolute blast writing a gothic pen name, even with romance at the center of it.
- It has a much lower risk of censorship: This new pen name is going to lean way more into reluctance and dubcon than noncon like Taryn Moreau does. The dark titillation in the relationship will often come from the extreme power imbalance, the sadomasochism of the heroine submitting to sex acts she often doesn’t want and that often come with feelings like humiliation and pain, and the taboo from the relationship’s inherent feeling of “wrongness.” These things are much easier to get away with, but will fun for me to write, since I’m actually more drawn to the sadomasochism of reluctance and trauma than I am to flat-out nonconsent (though I like both).
- I get to participate in way more author stuff: This was one of the main things that have been weighing me down the most, only writing hard-to-define fiction (especially when I can’t use the words that would best attract my ideal readers) that isn’t very popular. Whether it’s not being able to participate in writing contests, finding few cross-promotion opportunities, not being able to share openly what I write in author groups and get feedback, or not being able to go to local author events, or not being able to effectively participate in marketing with my author friends, I’ve felt quite isolated as an author. The prospect of finally being able to fully participate in author spaces is so exciting.
- I think it’ll reduce some of the pressure to be a great writer: This new pen name primarily exists to make money and to be commercial, so I’m hoping that will help me worry less about the prose being excellent and the themes or character development being compelling enough or whatever. I can channel writing excellence into Taryn Moreau if I really want to and lean more into being a commercial romance author under my gothic romance pen name. Not that I won’t aim for quality and explore nuanced characters and ideas, but I do hope that I can separate myself as a writer from this pen name.
- It’ll free up Taryn Moreau completely: Having a commercial pen name whose job it is to make money takes all of the pressure off of Taryn Moreau to be commercial or meet dark romance reader expectations at all. While I mostly wrote what I really wanted to, some of my decisions were still influenced by the fact that a story was really close to dark romance, and if I could just leave this element out or change this ending, dark romance readers might actually like it. Now that I have a pen name dedicated to making money, I feel completely free to write exactly what I want as Taryn Moreau.
So What’s Changing?
Not much, really. Since I publish and market so infrequently under Taryn Moreau, that pattern will simply continue. Moreau isn’t going anywhere, but I do plan to focus hard on Sheridan Grey in the near future. Here’s an overview of what might change.
- Less marketing under Moreau: I didn’t do much to begin with, but I’ll largely be pulling back on marketing for Taryn Moreau. I’ll have to decide what’s worth keeping. The newsletter, though it might continue to be hella infrequent. Maybe I’ll still post here and there on Facebook. I’ll have to explore what’s actually sustainable for two pen names. On the other hand, I plan to be way more active as Sheridan Grey than I was as Taryn Moreau. I’d like to continue sharing recommendations for quality non-romance dark erotic fiction and thereabouts somewhere, though. Maybe as a static blog or resource on my Taryn Moreau website. Maybe on Goodreads too. I’ll likely lean much harder into passive marketing that’s evergreen and that compounds over time.
- Possibly more Moreau shorts: For a while, I’ve been thinking about trying to write longer works under Taryn Moreau to be more marketable and appealing to dark romance readers, but now that I’m not very concerned about selling, I may lean more into exploring the dark ideas I have for Moreau as short stories or even flash fiction. Maybe as simple erotic scenes. Probably on Ream and, when long enough, on Smashwords and the other dark erotica-friendly websites. That might actually lead to me publishing more frequently under Moreau. Who knows? Either way, I plan to have so much fun getting to explore tons of ideas quickly.
- Weirder, rarer, and more unhinged shit under Moreau: Taryn Moreau will truly become my “fuck it” pen name. No more worrying about whether this type of reader will like it. No more worrying about whether X platform might not allow it (I’ll just publish it on my website). No more caring that this kink or that relationship pairing isn’t popular. In particular, I’ve been itching to write more fiction involving multiple women both in and out of romantic relationships, more fiction that doesn’t remotely resemble romance, more body horror fiction, and more graphic violence and gore scenes (which is a no-no on Smashwords if you’re writing erotica). Oh, and unicorns. I really want to write something with dark, weird unicorns. I might experiment more with things like audio recordings and artwork. Whatever I want.
My hope is that Sheridan Grey will become a prolific, successful pen name over time and, instead of stifling Taryn Moreau, will actually lead to more output and creativity. But who knows? I’m not confident at this point that Sheridan Grey will ever get off the ground, much less publish consistently. My life and capacity for doing anything productive are far from stable, even with the recent diagnoses and treatments I’ve gotten. But I live in perpetual hope.