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How real should horror be in a work of fiction? A question

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"Notepad Pencils" by Jess Watters is marked with CC0 1.0. To view the terms, visit https://creativecommons.org/publicdomaing/zero/1.0/?ref=openverse. Here I am, mumbling to myself as I craft my book. Suddenly, a question arises: while my tale is treated as ‘real’ within its universe, it isn’t. How dark should its elements be? Although the story isn’t reality but a product of my imagination, I aim to lend it depth and authenticity. This story contains dark themes. While in the midst of crafting it, I ponder: just how intense should these horrors be? My book is meant to be impactful, and I want readers to be engrossed. The dark elements not only build the world and atmosphere but also significantly enhance the narrative. However, I don’t want it to come off as distasteful or excessively grim. Throughout my life, I’ve witnessed genuine horrors, we all do in the end. From the moment I began writing, whether with a pen and paper or on my old computer, I vowed never to trivialize h...
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My Facebook Adventure: part 2

After having my Facebook account suspended for reasons still unknown to me, the decision was overturned on appeal.  Yay!!! And I don't really care. If I was banned permanently I would have been a tad irritated. Not because I was dead keen on being a Facebooker but because no one likes being banned from stuff. In the great scheme of things it doesn't matter. Well I would miss out on interesting information from a private group, but it isn't that big of a tragedy. However, I still find it worrying that big tech and automated systems can judge and impact people. I won on appeal but what happens to people, especially the marginalised or disadvantaged, who cannot appeal? I find this unhealthy and fear it will only get worse with the push to 'digital first' government and systems. We lack the power over such things and it'll get worse.
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On Facebook

Fun fact: I avoided using Facebook. I took inordinate pride in this fact. To my innocent mind it seemed a bit like hard work. So no Facebook for me thank you very much! Until I was invited to join a couple of private Facebook groups. As the information they had could only be found on these Facebook pages I took the plunge and joined Facebook. Everything went as these things go. Joining social media sites seems to be the same regardless of who they are. I then asked the group admins to join their private groups and had my page immediately suspended by Facebook. This was quickly followed by the said groups, who know me, accepting my membership. To put it in context this was the first/only thing I did on Facebook. If I was a spammer, or hateful, controversial, and a nasty piece of work than account suspension would be understandable. I did nothing, no posts, no spam, nothing. The only thing I ever did was use a private group box to inform them who I was, that's it. I've appealed m...
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