What wouldn't you write?

KTC · Dec 17, 2014

The_Ink_Goddess said:
So we have tons of threads on the darkest scene you've written and read, and discussion of different taboos in YA, but I wondered: what do you personally consider "off-limits" to write about, and why? Is it because of writing YA, or just because of writing in general?

I have changed my views recently...with the help of therapy. (-: It used to be I wouldn't write about the topic that happened to be my biggest darkest secret. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I often skirted this issue in my YA stuff. Purposely avoided the elephant in the room while somehow often alluding to it. Now, however, there are NO topics that are off-limits to me. I will write what I have to write to write the story I want to write. As I have become more authentically me, I realize that I shouldn't put walls up to force the writer me to write AWAY from the things I most understand and 'get'. So, short answer...there isn't a thing in the world I wouldn't write about.

Hapax Legomenon · Dec 17, 2014

I can't write contemporary. Whenever I try to read contemporary I feel like I'm reading about another planet that assumes you to already be familiar with every small detail of it, so if I tried to write any, it would probably sound too alien to be contemporary, anyway...

Lillith1991 · Dec 17, 2014

I don't think there are topics I wouldn't write about actually, though there are genres subgenres I'm not inclined to write. For example, YA Splatterpunk. There's just something about the idea that squicks me out, and makes me grateful it is something that has very little if any chance of getting published even if I did cross that line. Other than that? I can't say, because I always think when including serious topics in my work.

ETA: Actually, there is something I have zero interest in writing. Rape to love or rape as love, are two tropes I absolutely despise and wouldn't use. They trivialize the topic in a way that makes me want to castrate someone.

xDream · Dec 17, 2014

KTC said:
I have changed my views recently...with the help of therapy. (-: It used to be I wouldn't write about the topic that happened to be my biggest darkest secret. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, I often skirted this issue in my YA stuff. Purposely avoided the elephant in the room while somehow often alluding to it. Now, however, there are NO topics that are off-limits to me. I will write what I have to write to write the story I want to write. As I have become more authentically me, I realize that I shouldn't put walls up to force the writer me to write AWAY from the things I most understand and 'get'. So, short answer...there isn't a thing in the world I wouldn't write about.

Congratulations. I'm really glad that you've been able to change your views.

Kayley · Dec 17, 2014

Honestly, I can't think of anything. As someone else mentioned, I write what needs to be written to tell the story. I might not be comfortable with it, but I'll do it.

E.g. in my next YA book, an older brother cuts off his little brother's dick to remove his ability to produce heirs. As someone who squawked at a similar scene in Game of Thrones, I know it won't be the most pleasant thing to write about, but I'll write it because it's what happens in the story; it would seem untrue to the story to avoid the scene simply based on my own misgivings. I considered having the older brother rape the younger brother instead to establish his superiority, but as others have mentioned, rape is overused as a plot device. It helps that the scene is relayed through the sister (who was forced to watch the proceedings) rather than being witnessed directly by the MC.

In one of my previous YA books, a female MC was raped and then cut from cunt to neck and hung from a balcony. The latter part was seen directly by the MC.

So, really, nothing is off-limits for me. :tongue

EDIT: Actually, I agree with Lillith that I wouldn't write anything that would reinforce rape culture. When I write about rape, it's always described as such and is viewed negatively by the MC. Well, except in the instance described above, but that's because the MC in that instance is a prick...you aren't supposed to agree with his views.

JustSarah · Dec 17, 2014

Well there did not used to be limits, though in switching over to chapter books and middle grade, along with like just friggin darkness induced audience apathy from reading my old work as a reader I've decided I prefer much subtler approaches. I just chalk my old short fiction an aspect of my immature youth.

It's the difference between showing every detail, and showing only the important details.

rnpudel · Dec 17, 2014

Good question. I wouldn't want to write from the POV of an animal, or child abuser, or rapist. But writing from the survivor's POV would be okay for me. In one of my manuscripts the MC saves a dog from a physically abusive situation and accidentally kills the abuser. So I guess it kind of has animal abuse in it, though not much seeing as she's stepping in to stop it.

mellymel · Dec 17, 2014

incest. everything else is a yes, or a maybe 'cause ya never no.

The_Ink_Goddess · Dec 17, 2014

I was too tired last night to add my own, so here's my list for the moment (although none of this is ever definite because you never know):

- M/f sexual abuse/rape - not because it doesn't happen, or because I think it's less damaging when it happens to a guy (absolutely not). I occasionally crawl along on a very dark contemporary about a dad who gets his wife and their teenage son embroiled in a very nasty family feud after he publishes a memoir that implicates both his parents in sexual abusing him. It will probably never be published or even queried as I find it too unpleasant (despite the fact that nothing occurs on-'screen' at all, even working myself up to the topic is bad enough). However, I think that female rape victims - sadly, even if they're the main character(s) - too quickly become plot devices in and of themselves. A woman is angsty? Rape. A woman is angry? Rape. A woman is cold? Rape. I think it's sexist and disturbing.

- I would never write "present-day" sexual abuse of either a male or female character (not yet, at least) for that reason. Right now I find it far more important, for all my characters, that them and their progress are the main events, not their abuse. I understand why others would feel differently, though.

Slightly lighter note:

- Sci-fi. I think I could work myself up to fantasy, and that it's only a matter of time before I try some light spec-fic or magical realism, but...sci-fi...how? I don't have the brain, don't have the interest, just don't understand it. Why would you all want to write about fantasy lands when we already have a whole horrifying, terrifying planet? :tongue

- No family. I occasionally have to fridge or dispose of a parent or both but, even then, there are surrogates, aunts, uncles, grandparents, siblings...

Animal abuse doesn't bother me overly (I am writing a horror MS set on a farm, after all...) but I cannot abide fridging the family dog because, though I'm not much of a dog person (I have a slight fear), I have a squishy place in my heart for the pooches that always get hurt - the big soft loving dogs. I've also always written extremely active characters that fight and demand and bite back (while frequently unbearable for their narcissism, obnoxiousness and general lack of decency so they're not kick-ass action girls) but I'm currently writing a MC that struggles with anxiety and I didn't anticipate how 'difficult' it would be.

Niiicola · Dec 17, 2014

Ever since I had kids I can't even read graphic descriptions of a small child/baby dying or being killed, especially if it's from the POV of the parent -- not that that comes into play much in YA, of course. I'd never rule anything out, but it'd really mess me up to write something like that.

Satisian · Dec 17, 2014

Sex. I just can't write it. I'm a prude; sue me. I tried it once. The MC and LI were in bed. Things were getting hot and heavy. So I tried to write a sex scene and it was the most embarrassing, awkward, and quite frankly torturous thing I have ever written. So I copped out and wrote a fade-to-black and that was that.

Also, rape and sexual abuse. I'm not too keen on that either. I prefer my villains to be the chaste megalomaniac types though, who are too focused on taking over the world to be interested in any of that "trivial" stuff, so it rarely comes up.

Christabelle · Dec 17, 2014

Hmm, I've been thinking about this quite a bit. For genres, I wouldn't write erotica, sci-fi, or anything "-punk" (steam punk, cyberpunk, etc.). I just don't have the right imagination for any of those.

I'd like to say I write whatever needs to be written. Right now, historical seems too challenging for me to start, but when I think of all the research I've put into my current contemporary WIP, I'm not so sure I wouldn't try it some day. I have lots of interesting ideas floating around from all my Victorian lit classes in grad school.

Rape and abuse -- maybe, if the story warranted it. I've already written some teenage boy/father abuse scenes, so I wouldn't say never on those.

Writing a different culture would be difficult in terms of hoping to get it just right, but my current WIP has some elements of that. That's why I'm obsessively researching.

I hate it when an animal dies in a story, but again, if necessary for the story ... maybe.

I have trouble with sex scenes, and I've never written a go-all-the-way scene, but some of my characters are very frankly sexually active, and some are curious, and some are virgins. I just have trouble writing the deed in a scene.

So, I figured there would be a lot that's off limits to me, but maybe not as much as I thought.

katci13 · Dec 17, 2014

I can't say never ever, because as soon as I do, I'll get a story idea that falls into that topic, but I don't consider anything I'm interested in to be off-limits. If I'm interested, I'm doing it.

That said, anything that entails a lot of upfront research, I'm probably not going to be too thrilled about. But again, if I wanted to write the story bad enough, I'd totally just suck it up and do it.

Emermouse · Dec 17, 2014

Satisian said:
Also, rape and sexual abuse. I'm not too keen on that either. I prefer my villains to be the chaste megalomaniac types though, who are too focused on taking over the world to be interested in any of that "trivial" stuff, so it rarely comes up.

I once did write a story that had a character who was raped by a villain. I like to think I avoided some of the traps associated with that trope in that the rapist wasn't a megalomaniacal type, more a hateful troll who liked to do things just because he could. In fact, the rape was an impulsive, spur of the moment kind of deal: he saw a woman and decided to rape her because in his words, "I thought it sounded amusing at the time." She doesn't fall in love with the guy; in fact, she becomes determined to kill him.

In my latest novel, I've decided to give one of my characters a background similar to that of Precious from Push by Sapphire. Basically, she was sexually abused by her uncle. Eventually she reached the point where she couldn't take it anymore and ran away from home, only to wind up working as a child prostitute.

Thing is in both cases I stayed away from giving much by way of detail. I mostly used a few strokes, like describing the character as "looking up at the ceiling and praying it would all end" because yeah, sex is something I'm squeamish about and also because, rape should feel brutal and you should feel the horror of the scene. You don't want someone beating off during that kind of scene.

I've also got an idea for a historical fiction I don't know if I'll ever write. I won't say never because like I said before, I don't believe in never statements, but writing a historical novel (especially the one I have in mind which is an alternate history) would require so much research and if you run into someone who happens to be a history buff and get something wrong, you run the risk of losing credibility. Plus in order to write the alternate history novel kicking around in my head, I'd basically have to do tons of research not only on history, but since it involves people who actually existed, I'd have to write a story that not only constructs distinct voices for each character, I'd have to make sure their personalities aren't completely indistinguishable from what is known about them.

lenore_x · Dec 17, 2014

Genres! I used to say I could never write historical fiction, but then I wrote a book that took place partially in the mid-80s, and since I was born in the mid-80s... effectively I had to research like it was a historical. It actually wasn't as bad as I feared. There are amazing resources out there. (Besides people who remember the 80s.

)

I would love to write mysteries but I don't know if my brain works that way. And I may be incapable of writing true sci-fi? I tried to write a book once about people with the ability to perceive alternate realities, and I came at it with a sci-fi mindset (multiverse theories and all that), but what came out had a pretty damn paranormal feel.

Robert Dawson · Dec 17, 2014

When I mention my writing to my peers they're all like oh you should write a book about statisticians

Well, I've published a short story about probability theory ("Lucky Stars", now up on Perihelion), one about calculus ("Final Exam"), and one about the axioms of Euclidean geometry ("Fifth Postulate"). And I'm now trying to sell one about statistics ("Ladies' Night", coming soon to a yet-to-be-determined superior SF zine near you.)

There are stories to be told.

kuwisdelu · Dec 17, 2014

Robert Dawson said:
When I mention my writing to my peers they're all like oh you should write a book about statisticians

Well, I've published a short story about probability theory ("Lucky Stars", now up on Perihelion), one about calculus ("Final Exam"), and one about the axioms of Euclidean geometry ("Fifth Postulate"). And I'm now trying to sell one about statistics ("Ladies' Night", coming soon to a yet-to-be-determined superior SF zine near you.)

There are stories to be told.

Oh I'm sure there are.

I'm not the one to tell them.

I think my father wants me to write something like Numb3rs or the next Da Vinci Code where the protagonist is a statistician instead of a symbolist or something like that. Which could be cool and all, but that's just not what I want to write, and I get kind of tired of hearing it.

(I will happily weave in mathematical metaphors every once in a while, but I have little interest in writing stories where that kind of thing is the driver of the plot.)

It's not like I'm totally ruling it out. I just don't like people telling me what I should or shouldn't write.

Emmet Cameron · Dec 21, 2014

I can't see myself writing beastiality or consensual incest. Ever. I just cannot picture a scenario in which I'd find that necessary to tell a story.

There are other things I don't feel ready to tackle now but plan to eventually. Some of them are in the realm that KTC talked about above -- the hard stuff close to home. I still have work to do processing the real events before I'm okay putting them in fiction I think. And then on the flip side, there's stuff I know I want to write about, but it's going to take a me a while to work up to because it's stuff I *haven't* been through personally and I know I have a lot of homework and processing to do before I'm ready to create a character who has. Like one character whose parents are neonazis who she possibly killed, or another one who escaped slavery just in time to become a 200+ year old vampire kinda thing who might need to eat her descendants but was also a very good dancer before she jumped in front of a train. I have done none of the above.

Nogetsune · Dec 21, 2014

Nothing is off limits for me theoretically, but in practice I tend to shy away from things that I can't "get right" even with extensive research: mainly rape. Now, back in the day, I didn't shy away from that, but I had a good friend that was BETA reading for me flat out say that the way I used rape in a particular plot was both disturbing and cheap at the same time, despite the fact it was not inflicted upon any of the main characters or even prominent side characters. After that, I now don't touch rape, because I realize that I probably can't get it quite right seeing as I'm neither a victim myself nor have any close ties with victims....and rape I feel is one of those things that no amount of research can make a writer do well....It's something you have to experience on a personal level either by being a victim yourself or having a personal link with a victim to truly "get"...or at least thats what I think.

Surprisingly, I am otherwise very open to both violence and sex, though I tend not to write the latter because most of my plots don't call for such things. However, I openly wrote on and helped staff a prose-based erotic sci-fi role play forum for a grant total of 4 years, so while my stories may not call for it I am no stranger to writing sex. I just prefer to write about other things.

Violence, however, is a guilty pleasure of mine, and I once shelved an entire plot at least partly because it ended up becoming an id-driven human centipede-esc nightmare that made me question my own sanity. I may return to it, however.

Genra-wise, about the only thing I would not write is romance because I'm terribly un-romantic IRL and thus don't feel I'm fit to write in that genra. While I HIGHLY prefer SF/F I'd actually not be appose to writing contemp if it was something that tickled my fancy, such as say a a plot about a borderline sociopathic 1%er teen trying to get control of their parent's money and power while falling in love with one of their servants or the misadventures of a ruthless defense contractor's daughter as she brokers deals in 3rd world countries for her parents and falls for a now teenage child soldier/assassin who she recruits to be her personal bodyguard.

Man, why do I have so many ideas for contemp despite the fact it's the genra I have the least interest in?

WriterBN · Dec 22, 2014

I couldn't write a romance novel if you put a gun to my head. Well, in that scenario I could try, but it would be really, really bad.

startraveller · Dec 30, 2014

I've been thinking on this and the only subject I can't ever imagine writing is anything echoing a Lolita relationship. Any romantic or sexual relationship between an adult and a minor (maybe an exception for 17-19 age range) makes my skin crawl.

Isobel Lindley · Dec 30, 2014

startraveller said:
I've been thinking on this and the only subject I can't ever imagine writing is anything echoing a Lolita relationship. Any romantic or sexual relationship between an adult and a minor (maybe an exception for 17-19 age range) makes my skin crawl.

Me too. Or any of my triggers: pregnancy loss, eating disorders and self harm.

And I could not, ever ever write a plot in which a fat, laughed at character with no friends loses huge amounts of weight, has a makeover and suddenly her life is perfect. I was deeply scarred by Sweet Valley High. And making her anorexic several books on just came across as "she overdid it a bit".

History_Chick · Dec 31, 2014

Contemporary fiction. Ughh, I wouldn't know where to start.

I have no problem writing about incest, rape, or other such things, but it can't be written in modern day.

Edita A Petrick · Dec 31, 2014

I could never write something that does not hold my interest for longer than a day. If a story line or a headline or a topic appeals to me, and I carry it around for a day, then there's a possibility I could write it.

But if I wake up the next day and that appeal is already fading, then it's a no-go. i try not to 'box-in' my wills and wonts.

Callegro · Jan 1, 2015

History_Chick said:
Contemporary fiction. Ughh, I wouldn't know where to start.

I have no problem writing about incest, rape, or other such things, but it can't be written in modern day.

This made me laugh! Especially when combined with your handle and avatar.

Hats off to the people who can do historical fiction, all the research that's needed, being able to show the time and that world to the reader without boring them, it's an impressive feat and one I could never do justice to.

I hate to say it, but I don't think I could write male slash. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad as $%^ that we are finally getting some great representation of different sexuality and the fact that 2014 was a great year for members in the trans community, makes me have hope for our future. I just can't see that I could write a convincing and truthful romance and sex scene.

What wouldn't you write?

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

Hapax Legomenon

Lillith1991

The Hobbit-Vulcan hybrid

xDream

Hopeful Fish

Kayley

Someday.

JustSarah

rnpudel

mellymel

The_Ink_Goddess

we're gonna make it out of the fire

Niiicola

Twitchy

Satisian

Christabelle

katci13

creative genie

Emermouse

lenore_x

Robert Dawson

Getting The Hang Of It

kuwisdelu

Revolutionize the World

Emmet Cameron

Nogetsune

WriterBN

startraveller

Isobel Lindley

writing as Eleanor Beresford

History_Chick

Edita A Petrick

Callegro