How to you write sensitive parts in your story ?

[ACE977]

By "sensitive" I mean violence, sex, intolerance, disgust etc.

I ask this, because the live isn't bright pink and at one moment you must achieve a degree of realism in your story.

By example, the movie Game of Thrones is full with nude and blood scenes. And the book too !

 

[hopewrites]

It depends on the moment.

If anything "sensitive" has happened in your life you know that there was context that informed the moment.

So it is with writing, use the context to inform the moment.

Unlike life you can gloss over, dance around, or omit the nastiest bits if they don't fit with everything else or are not fit for your target audience. Allusion and symbolic language works well in those cases.

 

[ACE977]

It depends on the moment.

If anything "sensitive" has happened in your life you know that there was context that informed the moment.

So it is with writing, use the context to inform the moment.

Unlike life you can gloss over, dance around, or omit the nastiest bits if they don't fit with everything else or are not fit for your target audience. Allusion and symbolic language works well in those cases.

How about this: if you have a character in your story, and you want to add realism, can you wrote about his physiological needs ?

I know, if you write about hunger and thirst it's very easy and people are OK with this.

But if you write that your hero male / female need to ... pee ? Of course, I don't intend to describe the process, I only want to mention this in a story. Why ? Because this action it is important in my story.

What do you think ?

 

[RX-79G]

People have to pee in fiction all the time. It isn't a problem.

 

[HareBrain]

Because this action it is important in my story.

Then you should include it.

 

[Dan Jones]

But if you write that your hero male / female need to ... pee ? Of course, I don't intend to describe the process, I only want to mention this in a story. Why ? Because this action it is important in my story.

In my novel a character needs to pee, but he's been terribly disfigured, so the mundane act of peeing becomes a psychologically painful act and is relevant to that character. As Harebrain says, if it's relevant, include it.

 

[Peter V]

It is essential it fits with the context of the work as a whole. It may appear incongruous if it is sanitized in comparison to the rest of the story and equally so if it noticeably more graphic. Graphic for graphic's sake may work, depending on target audience but I do not tend to really like it. My novel features a rape / murder told retrospectively which is not particularly graphic - it would certainly not appeal to a fan of Fifty Shades but is harrowing enough for the protagonist to help shed light on their personality and actions. I very much hope it also promotes empathy for them and at the same time anger towards the antagonists of the story - I want my audience to care what happens. If the telling is too far removed from the nasty reality of events, this will not happen.

 

[NbDawn]

I guess it would depend on your audience and the niche. Think about how the Harry Potter books don't outright indicate Harry is probably physically abused as well because it is geared towards the younger age group. The younger your audience, the more you simply just want to allude to sex and violence. A sci-fi and fantasy geared towards adults can get away with more. And a sci-fi or fantasy erotica can get away with much much more.

 

[allmywires]

Make sure that whatever lines you are preparing to cross, you are doing so with empathy and, like others say, for a reason. If you need to have a rape in your story, then don't let it be a throwaway line done just to tick a box (or whatever the reason is that compels people to write about such a heinous act in such a casual manner). Make sure you truly understand what your are putting your characters through and are therefore translating that to your readers with the appropriate degree of respect. If you can't do that then you shouldn't use it as a plot point.

 

[hopewrites]

Example:
Harold stood behind the counter refusing to look as dismayed as he felt as yet another customer joined his que. Unobtrusively jiggling his foot he weighed the consequences of leaving his post vs wetting himself.

One more and he'd make a dash for it.

 

[tinkerdan]

I think there is a huge divide between what the story calls for because you want to put in the story and what it calls for because it's necessary to move the story forward.

If it's sex and nudity and it's involves something vital to the story then you may want to; but there are plenty of ways to show intimacy without describing every part of the body and rough physical acts and still get the point across[unless the rough sex or something special about the body parts is necessary.]

So take that and then substitute blood-violence rape or whatever other quandary there might be.

Honestly if those are all necessary for the story then maybe you need to work on your character's who might be looking all one dimensional at that moment. Some of those things can happen where no one sees them.

On another note: If you find yourself using them a lot then maybe think about balancing every one of those explicit scenes with one that is super subtle yet equally as charged with similar emotion.

 

[Steven Sorrels]

In my current WIP, there are a few scenes of love making between my MC and a secondary character, both of whom are women. I did my best to illustrate the passionate nature of the acts without becoming too graphic, as the rest of my story is fairly tame by comparison. If I were to go into too much detail, it would distract from the main story and appear as if I were writing it just for the erotic kicks, which is certainly not the point.

It all comes down to context. If it fits, write it. If not, either leave it out or re-work the idea into something more suitable.

 

[Susan Boulton]

Write what you believe informs your reader of the nature of your world, character, and drives the plot forward. Try not to think whether it is sensitive or not, think only on whether it needs to be written to drive your story. It is also better to write a scene and then later delete or edit it, rather than not to have written it. By writing a scene it gives you, the writer, an insight into your character and plot, even if the scene does not make it into the last draft.