I have been thinking that most likely a lot of you have certain self imposed limits. I mean characters, situations, places or anything you are not willing to put in any of your books, at least at this point. Maybe it's an explicit sexual scene, perhaps a blasphemy against your particular religion (if you're a believer and participate in any given religion) or it may be something like child abuse or... yourself? Maybe you would never write an autobiography...? Anyway, where are you NOT willing to go?
I refuse to let my characters get disfigured... One time in an RP my partner wanted to take my vampire's fang as a trophy. Hell no.
Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh..................!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have problems NOT to get my characters disfigured. Right now I have eye-lost in my two first novels and I say to myself: "You know you cannot do this anymore, like EVER, right?" Riiiiiight...!
Hard limits (in writing and not the adult fun times): No child abuse (bit personal), or really harming a pregnant being (be it a person or extraterrestrial). Though I have slightly broken the second in my novel already in a way (the beings clutch of pollinated seeds were surgically removed by enemy scientists ). Other than that, and the really bad stuff you could do regarding children, pretty much everything else is on the table. Oh yeah, before I forgets anything to do with animals other than eating them, or having them as pets (cannibalism is ok though ).
I have a character who has tortured a baby, engaged in slavery, admitted to killing her son, stole, murdered, rejoiced in other people's hysteria, presented a mother & baby as live bait (they die), set up a torture chamber, ordered somebody to be disemboweled, and created an army of walking dead, all in one book. And she's the heroine. But my characters won't do romance.
I had never thought about this until now. Child molestation is the only thing I can think of. A character may have been molested when they were a kid, and that's fine because it's realistic. But actually writing that scene, I don't think I could do it. At least not in explicit detail.
I'm not good at writing explicit sex. But it's not because I won't go there, it's a skill issue and I'm more embarrassed having others read a sex scene I've written. I don't enjoy reading explicit violence but especially if it's describing torture so I don't write it either. But there is child rape and sexual slavery in my story so I allude to it with only some of the details described.
I had a scene in my WIP with an autistic character. Ultimately, I removed him, because I knew I was not able to write him well.
What is your book about Selbbin? We, Romans, love controvertial readings. Anything corrupt or degrading to the human soul is welcome to the colliseum...!
That's mine, too. Not so much an autistic person, but trying to write anybody whose persona or culture I don't actually understand. I've shied away from several character types because of this block of mine.
A child finding hope in spite of homelessness, abuse, exploitation, poverty, misery, starvation, greed, corruption, people's innate selfishness, drug abuse, and love.
I remember what Stephen King said in On Writing. Every writer has his/her tool box. Some will have bigger tool boxes than others, but you should only use what is in your tool box.
I'm basically wiling to write anything as long the story doesn't put something horrible in a good light. I'm quite willing to write about dark topics.
Nope. If it needs to be in my book for some reason then I will add it in. But I'm not going to add in some random sex scene or random murder scene when I don't need it and it adds nothing to the story.
Interesting responses so far (from everyone, really). I feel like I want to read stuff from several members right now. I totally agree with you, daemon. I've really tried to write something more "comercial" and I feel so bored and disgusted toward it that I simply cannot keep doing it. It feels like prostitution, and that's something I don't think I can do (even when I would certainly welcome the money). Look, I WANT TO READ A GOOD MANUSCRIPT...! If someone here feels like his/her work is pretty good, please PM me with some details. Sell me the virtues of your work and I may read it within less than a week. I am a good critic. If you tell me exactly the kind of review you want I will deliver it. I don't do grammar related corrections, as English is not my first language, but I can read it and offer feedback just fine.
I'll probably write almost anything, but I have a thing for young heroes. I am unlikely to write the death of a young character (teenage or younger) unless it's a heroic death. I really recoil against kids just being randomly blown away by bombs or random gunfire. If they choose to risk their lives to save someone else, and they die in the attempt, that's okay. But if it's just a random kid-death, I'm not likely to write it.
Oh, yes. I've sent my manuscript to a friend as a kind of test-the-waters beta reader but I had to remove all the sex scenes first and replace them with "AND THEN THEY HAVE SEX" because I had a hot flush (and not a lustful one) just thinking about her reading them. It seems so personal, like she'll read it and go "THAT'S what she thinks good sex is? Oh dear."
