What are your thoughts/feelings/opinions on tackling controversial or taboo subjects in your writing? I want to write stories that touch on these sorts of things but don’t necessarily want to deliberately offend or shock. I mean; that’s not the reason why I want to write about such topics. I want to write about them because they happen more than we think and most taboo topics shouldn’t be hidden. They should be open and exposed and talked about so they’re no longer something to hide and be scared of. I’m interested though, in what other people think?
I'm all for them. And I don't believe being attracted to 'shocking' things is at all bad for creative people. It can lead one in the right direction.
For this, I go back to a novel like To Kill A Mockingbird. That tackled what was a very controversial subject at the time - Scout Finch was based on Harper Lee herself and the things she encountered in her lifetime. Look how successful it was.
I do this a lot in my writing, but usually not to far extremes. Some of these topics cross my mind and I like to tackle some of the ugly sides of things head on. I feel the best way is to be as open and honest as possible, without being egregious in description. You somewhat want to ween the reader into what you want to talk about, without pushing or scaring them away by overwhelming. It's also important to pair these taboo/controversial subjects up with some sort of point or reason. These out there topics can really drive readers away from you if you can't give a purpose more than shock and awe. The path of corruption, or downward spiral is heavily used, but quite effective.
I go by Oscar Wilde's rule that there's no such thing as an immoral book. Books are either well written or poorly written. That is all. So it's not a question of what topic you choose, but how you cover it. Of course, what is considered "poorly written" is subjective, but there are few questions I asked myself before I wrote something. 1. Should I even go there? Is putting this topic going to add value to the story? And that includes not just whether you should tackle the subject at all, but how far should you go with it. In All Quiet on the Western Front it was appropriate and necessary to into the level of detail that the author did. In the movie The Watchmen it wasn't. In fact, if anything, the excessive violence and gore was distracting! This is the difference between realism and shock value. To know the answer, you have to figure the themes and ideas your story needs convey. I would expect a story tackling child abuse as its main theme, to contain some hard to read sections such as the case of A Child Called 'It.' 2. How much time are you willing to spend with the topic? What you get out of discussing any kind of theme or topic in a story depends on the time you're willing to put into it. Building your knowledge on the topic, will build your confidence writing about it. Even if you intend only to make it a part of a character's subplot, understanding it will elevate your writing and thus lessen the chance that people become rightfully offended. (Note, I said rightfully offended. Sadly there are some people who will be offended over anything. Best to ignore those folks) 3. Trust your audience's intelligence and maturity. I think the biggest defeat in being able to discuss taboo topics in literature isn't the fault of the audience, but the fault of the authors themselves. An author who does not trust their audience, will likely find his or herself spoon feeding a moral ideology instead of an actual discussion of the topic. I have read a couple stories where the author seems to think their audience are either stupid or bad people. And they themselves are there to tell these bad people how bad they are. So the story comes off as this preaching. And it's silly. Most people know right from wrong. If you're going to discuss incest, for example, most people know that's wrong. What they don't always know is exactly all the consequences and may make some assumptions about the topic. After all, it's taboo for a reason. Trusting your audience is especially true if you intend to exaggerate the consequences of a taboo topic say for a horror book. You trust your audience is smart enough to know that, even though it is rooted in some truth, it's still an exaggeration and doesn't need you to deconstruct that for them. They get it.
I write about the topics that are relevant for the story and the characters in it. If a character is racist, racism will be addressed. What readers need to understand is that not every single word you write down is your opinion as a writer. Not every sentence has to conform to some newspweak-like standards. People should be smart enough to see the story for what it is. After decades of constant discussions we have finally arrived at the point where we don't see a film/game that portrays violence explicitly as something that promotes said violence. The same thing should apply to any other topic: Just because rape/racism/homophobia/[insert any other thing here] is portrayed in a novel/film/game doesn't mean that it is condoned or endorsed. Sadly, we are not at that point yet, as some outrage over a certain scene in the "new" movie "IT" has shown. But there are always stragglers in any society. So, why would anyone tailor their stories for the dumbest person imaginable?
Clearly he's never read Fifty Shades of Grey, LOL! Sorry I couldn't help it. OT: to be brutally honest, you don't need to ask permission to write. Just write what comes natural to you, don't worry about offending people's sensibilities. I just wanted to reiterate this,
My wife's book Ruby by Karen D. McIntyre deals with a young teacher in the 1930s who is kidnapped, raped and forced into prostitution, along with many other girls. That is about as controversial as you can get, but it has gotten good reviews and is selling well. It is a real kick-in-the-gut story of survival, endurance, resistance, escape and recovery. I can't believe she wrote it, but it is a helluva good story.
LOL! Well, he would argue that it's a poorly written book and a lot of people who like BDSM would attest to that. From what I understand there are some well written BDSM novels out there.
I ran across this quote just the other day, and it makes perfect sense to me. I think it's fine to write about any topic you choose, any way you choose. BUT—and this is a big one—you must be prepared to take the flack for it, if you upset people. Your readers may be over-sensitive folks, or you might have picked one of their red-line topics, or they may just be nitpicking faults. You don't need to cater to anyone's attitude. However, you will be judged—as a person as well as a writer. So make sure your writing actually says what you meant for it to say. Then ...let the pearl-clutching begin. Whatever you write, you won't please everybody.
Just remember: The people that get offended by everything are loud ... But not the majority. As long as you writr a good story, there will be enough people ro look past the triggers and see it for what it is: A good piece of entertainment. The recent joker movie is a great example of that.
It certainly is possible to offend or upset people—and sometimes they can have a point. As a writer, just try to ensure that your writing reflects your own attitude on these topics, if possible—and be willing to take the flack that comes with displaying your own attitude. If you mistakenly upset people you didn't mean to upset, it's always worth having a look at how you managed to do it, and perhaps alter things a bit if you can. But it's not possible to write a story where somebody's not going to pick fault. Write a story where ethnic minorities aren't included, because you're not sure of how to portray them from their own perspective, and you can get accused of ignoring them. Write a story where modern ethnic minorities ARE included, and you can run foul of people who think they haven't been properly represented, or that you, the author—who is basically WASP?—can't possibly know what it's like, etc. Or you're being preachy. Or racist. Or you are guilty of tokenism. Or prejudice. And etc. Just try your best NOT to be any of those things, but depict all your subjects as individuals in specific situations, not as generic representatives of a certain race or culture, and you'll probably be on the right track. But there's no 100% guarantee. Somebody is certain not to like it.
I'm white. One of my side characters is going to be a black police detective who grew up in the ghetto and gets shit from some of his former neighbors for "selling out, acting white, ect". A piece of writing advice that gets really misconstrued is 'write what you know'. That shouldn't involve only writing for your own demographics - it defeats the entire point of fiction. No, I'm not black, but I can make pretty damn good educated guesses on what his life would be like using my basic understanding of social conventions. As long as you aren't being mean-spirited, no one should get flak for trying to write more diverse casts.
Research definitely helps. Just hang around some spots in those areas for a bit and listen. You'll here the differences in language and tone. Also ask. You'll find a lot of people are willing to tell of their experiences there. Be careful with guessing.
Better yet, talk to a black person, let him be your coach. If you were writing about a nuclear power plant, and had a degree in literature, you would certainly want to have someone who had tell you about it, Same with ethnicities
I bolded that bit of EFMingo's statement. Very important to keep this in mind. When in doubt, find out. Don't guess.
Doing some college stuff in Southeast DC was definitely an eye opener for a kid who grew up in very diverse Orlando.
I like tackling controversial ideas. One thing that makes me nervous though, is keeping the balance of truth and tone. It's too easy to spin into exploitation or the promotion of something you didn't intend. And depending on your subject and how you tackle it - you have to watch going in just to destroy the opposition or being so fair-minded you lose sight of what you intended to say.
The other problem, and I see this a lot anymore, is the idea that you can't write what you are because all <fill in the blank> are the same. It essentially turns black people (or whatever) into a stereotype. "You can't write that because you don't have this one very specific lived life experience!" Well that's just assuming that all <fill in the blank> have the exact same experience! They don't! The idea that all black people or all Asian people or all white people are the same, isn't that just the slightest bit racist?
Right. One of my best friends is black. His dad is white (phenotypes are weird like that). He grew up in the suburbs. He likes anime and hockey. He's not exactly the jive-talking soul brotha stereotype these gated-community NIMBYs think of when they imagine all black people.
I know. Most of my black friends are all middle-class suburbanites with college educations and driving BMWs. These kinds of people simply don't exist, according to some.
The moment someone tells you that "you dont know how it is to be X" they disqualify themselves from any debate. Because what is implied is that you dont know, but they know. More over they imply that they do know how it is to be part of a group theyre not. Usually this happens in conjunction with white men, when a black person says for example "you dont know how it is to live in the ghetto" , they ignore that they dont know what hardships white people could possibly have in their life. We are expected to treat minorities with respect and I get that, but then white people are seen as a monolithic group... I usually dont describe the skin colour of my characters. If the reader wants to insert some black, asian, native american people here and there, go ahead. Just dont blame me for lack of representation if you imagine them all being white.
