in my story I am trying to show that currently there is no true/ easy answer when it comes to bullying if you know what I mean. I am trying to hold off revealing the main bully till the end by mainly showing cyber bullying for example anonymous texts
Okay so I have a few questions first, Is the story from the bullies prospective or the person being bullied or both? Is it a fictional story or is it more factual stuff you are hoping to write? From what you've said I feel like the main character is the one being bullied online and you want to reveal the bully towards the end of the story so my advice is based on that. Is it a friend turned foe perhaps? Bullying can come in many shapes and forms, without knowing a bit more about the context of what your writing it's hard to advise. Is it bullying in a typical high school setting? in the workplace, or even between a couple? (formally known as gaslighting.) Is its physical, mental or sexual harassment? Maybe it's all of those. From personal experience they all tend to go hand in hand. Your right there is no easy answer to bullying. The way you choose to portray this is upto you. Is it that school teachers turn a blind eye? (I know my certainly did) is it the kids fear of their parents going off all guns blazing if they tell them. Is that people aren't willing to help in fear of becoming victims themselves? Or maybe the person being bullied is stigmatized with shame and guilt and they don't want to come forward. Bullying often ends with the person being bullied blaming themselves and thinking if they weren't who they are they wouldn't be getting bullied. It's can be a sensitive topic but there are lots of ways you could write it and again, depending on why you want to write it. Are you trying to shed light that not enough is done? Are you wanting to help victims of bullying or is to create a fictional story highlighting one characters perspective and how they navigate the internal turmoil that bullying so often causes. Either way there are lots of routes you could go down with a story like this. I hope that gives you some ideas of what routes you can take.
Hi thank you for replying This story is about a group of people being bullied It Starts off as verbal and briefly in the beginning goes to physical bullying A bit The story starts out as a young girl with cerebral palsy meets Someone who just came out as gay they are both in middle school She is. Familiar with the boy but Didn’t meet Then they meet some other people while being bullied They meet a girl who is just been diagnosed with a learning problem as I would call it in the book and a friend of hers who is I would say a typical boy And they also need someone who has Family issues Who also happens to have autism The girl diagnosed as having a learning problem goes to a new special-needs class And ends up befriending a girl with down syndrome this bullying turns to anonymous cyber bullying and they cannot figure out who is The bullying is in they initially brush it off Seeing it as an empty threat and generally out of fear The character with CP and later on the Other typical character Say they must go to someoneBut The gay character and the other character who is autistic refuses later in the story they come to the character with CP the typical character and Boy who is gay I’m self and say they’re just trying to protect the other kids are being bullied then later in the same chapter he gets jumped in his middle school Or gay bashed whatever you would call that he up in the hospital as with a brain injury so police investigation comes on The bully turned out to be the best friend that he had before he came out I am trying to add the scene or two where they go to some kind of figure and tell them about the bullying because I don’t want the moral to seem off like telling an adult figure is the only thing you could do Also I amWondering is the character ending up with the Bain injury to cliché what do you think? And If you or anybody here can give me advice on how to portray It without being too cliché as well Or cringe worthy as I would like to call It
yes shedding light that non-enough is done is exactly what I’m trying to do although I am also wanting to help kids dealing with bullying as well In someway
I don't think having the character seriously injuried is cliche per say, or bullying stories in general. Even it if was cliche they can still be well written. One of my favourite all times books is called boys don't cry, and it focuses on two young brothers, one of whom is gay. He falls in love with another guy in his all male friendship group. They end up outing him and very viciously assaulting him leaving him permanently disfigured. His love interest didn't do anything to help him in fear of being attacked himself. In fact, he even helped them assault him. My best advice would be to research people who lived through these experiences, and have told/ or willing to tell their stories of course! and what effects it had on them, so you can approach with realism. I would also suggest a trigger warning if you intend to self-publish on wattpad ect. Ect... as these kinds of tropes in your story could be triggering for a younger demographic. You said your aim is to highlight that not enough is done surrounding it. So maybe highlight certain failings like teachers ignoring what's going on (For example in 13 reasons why, Hannah tells her counsellor she was very seriously assaulted about a fellow male student and the counsellor downplays it as boys being boys (I really, really hate that phrase.) Or worse yet that she invited the incident for how she was behaving/ or lack of behaviour at the time. Maybe it could be a parent who doesn't realise the seriousness of this and things it's just kids, or worse yet that it builds character. Remember to include some positive insights as well. It can be hard to portray some lightness in these kind of stories but without I fear, a reader would quickly become overwhelmed by constant negativity. Everyone needs respite. Even if the kids find some solace with a hobby or something. Earlier you mentioned that you wanted to portray a resolution without the kids having to go to an adult, but so often that is the only solution to prevent these things from happening. Could it be a helpful neighbour? A doctor? A older sibling. Telling someone is a very, very hard thing to do. If your end goal is that the character ends up with a brain injury what are the legal repercussions of that? Do the bullies get charged with attempted murder? Clearly explusion is a given, do they see the errors in their ways and try to reach out? If you show how damaging it is to all parties involved, then that could be a good way to reach out to people.
From my experience, it seems school administrators and staff generally are afraid to hold bullies responsible for what they do and instead treat it as if both people are equally responsible. Apparently it's because they understand bullies are generally made by bullying parents, and they don't want those parents coming down and raising hell, bullying the entire staff. Their hands are tied (staff and administrators I mean)—they're not allowed to really stand up for themselves against bullying parents, so they're sort of forced to acquiesce and treat bullying among kids as if it's a matter of "You two need to shake hands and get along", which of course is a huge win for the bully who will smirk quite openly about it as the victim squirms, knowing nothing is going to be done to help them. They're thrown to the wolves. I offer this in hopes that you can draw some ideas from it @jenniwrites and it might inform the story to some extent.
Great advice also I was just wondering do you have any tips or adding positive insights. Lightness Without it being filler?
You could just show the kids who are getting bullied sticking together. Maybe one could be upset and the other comforting them and they reminisce about a good memory, or how they can find solice with each other. What are their likes and dislikes, why does the reader want to empathise with these kids more than anyone else they read about? Are they indisputably kind, courageous? Firey? I think there a lots of moments you could add naturally that don't feel like a filler. If its showing the importance of their friendship then it has a purpose to your story.
That's a great idea. I think a lot of people wonder why cyber bullying is a thing. Just don't go on the internet. But they don't realize how it works. So I think it's great you're covering this. I like it. I would suggest start studying some stalkers as well as studying actual cases of cyber bullying. Some of the things the bully could do, borrowing from Pretty Little Liars, is the cyber bully knows things about the protagonist. So that way, just turning off the computer and ignoring it, isn't a choice anymore.
I have a little experience with being bullied. However, it was face-to-face and not online. I will insert a trigger warning here as it may be needed- in my 8th grade year (i.e. a few months ago) I had a guy bother me daily and I couldn't do anything about it because we had lockers very close to each other. It was either him being so bad or me being so sensitive, but it prompted me to self-harm. Self harm is an EXTREMELY sensitive subject and I would not recommend employing it in a story unless you include warnings and you're very careful about it. A little more of my experience- The bullying included very forward insults and comments, unwanted touching and mockery. I don't think I told my parents until about a week progressed. I did, however, tell my therapist, who told my parents. I don't know if the characters in your story have professional help. They do have their friends, though. And I told my friends about my issue very quickly. I do think that friends can be of equal help to a bullying victim.
