Some people that are into psychological stories think that "It will mentally scar you for life." or "You'll never think about your family in the same way." is a good recommendation, because it shows the reader how much bias that comes from own cultual dogmas. A bit like taking a course in ethics where your mind is wiped clean to think autonomously for a moment. How creepy is too too creepy for you? How do you prevent it from just being plain offensive or nasty?
I think the closer you get to reality, the more offensive or nasty the creep factor can be. For example, a story about child molestation set in the present day would be pushing it for a lot of readers. Especially if written from the perspective of the child. Personally though, nothing is too creepy for me. Nothing is off-limits for me when I write my stuff or read stuff, I'll dredge through the filth. Murder, rape, child molestation, torture, genocide, fundamentalist totalitarian regimes and so on.
That theory probably explains why readers aren't usually offended by imaginary human-animal breeds eating or being racist to each other, even thou the idea might evoke a lot of debate about what makes it right for someone to eat meat.
Creepy, offensive and nasty are different things. A bucket of puke is nasty and can be offensive to pour it on an aspiring author's freshly written manuscript but it's not creepy. That said, I can't think of anything that's "too creepy" in a book. You can probably go into taboo territory only so much if you want to get published and there are topics with are socially unacceptable or need to be treated in a certain socially acceptable way in order for you to get the book out before the general public. And those are the limits but within them the genre is vast and there are all sorts of niches that already explore the extremes.
there is no such thing as to creepy. With that being said, if after you write your work, you are a bit creeped out that you wrote something so awful…. you might want to seek professional help.
I think it's to do with what others find creepy. There are going to be people out there who have no problem at all reading really dark stuff like rape, abuse, horrific murders, etc. But there will also be people who couldn't bring themselves to read anything like that, myself included in that group of people. For some people like me they've experienced something bad and find it too painful to read about it and for others it may not be their type of reading. I think only you will know when you've crossed the line and it's time to tone it down, if it needs it. Good luck with it though!
I'm a bit late to the party, sorry. But to make this short, have you read the book Batman: The Ultimate Evil, by Andrew Vachss? I know it's a Batman story, yes, but hear me out here, please. In the book, Bruce Wayne meets a social worker, and agrees to follow her at work for a while. She takes him around town, and he gets to see a side of the town he hasn't seen before. We're talking child abuse here. To make matters worse, he's given the secret files from his own mother, who was investigating a ring of pedophiles. You can see where this is going. It's Batman, yes, but it's a very different story than anything I've read about him. Some parts of it is just... I don't think "creepy" is the right word, but it's just... ugh. The worst part is this is all based on the real world. People really are this nasty in real life. That's what makes it so powerful to read. Even if it's "just Batman", it's one of the books I've had the hardest time reading. And it's also one of my favorite books of all time, for the same reason.
I'm yet to find any piece of writing that I've had to put down because it was "too creepy". If I'm getting those vibes then I have to applaud the writer for writing something so well.
There's a quite cool creed of writers who espouse writer philosophy [books books, books I've read on writing], and then when they come out swinging they're like a big fat baby in the yard. Sometimes they try the difficult subjects with the masterpieces. I mean you hate them at first but eventually they are your bombastic brothers [and sisters]. One guy was really creepy with his handling of mercenaries chasing paedos across the Middle East. He was always trying to tread the line of goodness, but inject some colour nonetheless. It was grisly and majestic 'sexy kiddy, no, no, yes...' and on.. That was creepy - as you asked..
I find it creepy when I begin to suspect that an author is enjoying inflicting unnecessary pain on characters, or wallowing in unpleasant violence, torture, or sexual fantasies that really aren't something I want to share. I can read all of these things and accept them, as part of a plot. But I get creeped out if I suspect the author chose this particular plot to give rein to the fantasies. That's usually when I stop reading, and certainly stop buying that author's work.
Absolutely this. And you really can tell when the writer is revelling in it. Dipping into a topic just a little too often, spending a little bit too much time in it, describing it in an almost disturbingly detailed way. There's many ways you can pick up on that sort of thing. It's awkward, to say the least.
I'm not a prude in any way. I've had to write some graphic, unpleasant and disturbing stuff in my novel, as part of the plot. But I can assure you, I hated doing it. To the extent that a few times I had to actually get up and walk away from the computer. I hope my hatred for these kinds of events comes through in my writing.
Same here. I remember writing a death scene for a main character and it made me cry so I had to just stop for a bit. I'd been writing this character for like six years, giving her hopes and dreams and so forth, and it felt like I was killing my daughter.
Oh, I hate putting my beloved characters through hell—never mind killing them. My instinct is to care for them, not hurt them. So I find writing scenes where they are in pain or being hurt very hard to do.
I have reached 'skin crawl' levels at points in my WIP, but not to the degree of being considered too far. It just make sense to have elements that unsettle and challenge the reader to deal with the insanity of war and what can happen in Sci-Fi. Prevent? I don't pull punches when it comes to it. It is right there and it is unapologetic. Physically breaking people to death, stabbings, various forms of torture, an improvised attack involving sucking an eye out and eating it, live flaying, and at one point of the poor being rounded up and having their organs harvested to support the war machine. I have no problem inflicting nightmarish situations on my characters, or innocent bystanders. But it has much more depth and emotional weight than the Gore/Torture Porn that seems to be the new standard in Horror, even though I am not writing a Horror story, War is not sunshine and daisies no matter what time period it takes place in.
That depends on what do you find to be creepy. Usually, the character has to go through at some experiences to become a better person, or to his/her believes be challenged. Just, remember that whatever you want to write about must make sense to the story, not just an unnecessary let's say gore scene just for the sake of it.
Probably when it doesn't have a point or moral or someone to route for. I've written some pretty nasty stuff. And I won't let anyone look at it until I'm satisfied that it has some point and isn't just trash - my first novel features a pretty nasty villain but being only about fifteen when I wrote it he comes across slightly romanticized. Something I need to fix. I got turned off of reading Jack Ketchum cause I couldn't see the point of the Girl Next Door. I read a similar novel but felt it wasn't quite as nasty because you had someone to route for.
Nothing, especially what I've written in the last fifteen or twenty years, is too creepy for me. Oh, wait a minute--I wrote something that, over time, became very disturbing to me. That, I would say, was too creepy--uneccessarily creepy for me.
I agree with the others. Nasty,offensive and creepy are thre different things. The only books that were ever able to creep me out to where I felt CREEPED OUT and had to put it down for a while are books from Robert Mccammon. (I think thats how you spell it) and there was nothing nasty that I remember. Now I have read other horror books that were just down right disgusting or gory and I put those down never to pick them up again because it's not scary its just well...disgusting. I don't find any subject offensive I just think as others said it's about HOW it's handled. I just never think it's necessary to go into graphic details about uncomfortable or disgusting things and I put many books down because of it but many people like it also. So what can I say? It all comes down to personal preference I guess. Some thing are better left to the imagination