legit-writing-tips:I’m going to get this out of the way right now, before I have a dozen asks come...
I’m going to get this out of the way right now, before I have a dozen asks come in on whether or a specific instance of rape is “okay.”
It’s not.Rape isn’t an interesting plot detail. Rape isn’t a way to make your story dark and edgy. Rape isn’t a way to craft a dark backstory. There are smarter and more sensitive ways to get the same results. Using rape is cheap, cheap, cheap. It’s an easy way out.
Unless you are a skilled writer who knows how to handle the subject matter appropriately and who understands the culture surrounding rape then, sorry, just stay away. These are things that NEED to be talked about and NEED to be written about, but by the right people and in the right contexts.
Certainly not in fantasy, or horror. Definitely not in fucking romance.
Sorry guys. I try to be kind, but this is an area where I’m putting my foot down.
Okay I’m going to go ahead and tackle disagreeing with this one because I’ve always thought this blog should be about showing that writing has no finite rules that are easy to follow.
Let me start by saying, if you are going to include rape in a story, it is defiantly essential that you are willing to dedicate the time and effort into getting it right. Always. For this I agree. Not so sure I agree with the statement “the right people” need to be writing it because, like writing POC, I think any writer can tackle great issues even if they themselves haven’t experienced them. It’s simply a matter of dedicating a lot of emotion and time into research to get these delicate topics right. I think one good way to possibly gauge if you’re doing a topic of this nature justice is to ask; Does this event have a lasting impact not just on plot (as the OP said, rape is not an edgy back story or something to simply make your plot darker), but on the characters themselves, and therefore the reader. Rape is a serious topic, and if it’s going to be included in your story, it needs to leave a dent in the hearts of the reader. It needs to have an impact. It needs to hurt you to write it.
Now that I’ve said that, here is where I disagree with the previous post. There is no real world topic that is genre specific (real world as in race, gender equality, ect). Not a single one. Genre’s are not brick walls we throw up between authors and books to insure topics of a certain nature never cross boundaries. Genres are loose categories that books are placed in after they’ve been written. There are many books that could be placed in more than one genre. Author’s have a very hard time choosing a genre for that reason, because it should be a guide for readers not for authors. Writing for a genre is one way to end up writing meaningless, vacant plots and characters. Writing is not meant to be formulaic.
You can have a fantasy story in which rape is a serious topic, perhaps because you wish to tackle the issues of rape culture in the US by drawing similarities in a fantasy world. Perhaps you’ve experienced domestic abuse, and you’d like to tell that story but you’d like it to have the happy ending of leaving the toxic relationship and realizing the differences between a healthy and unhealthy relationship. That story might end with a healthy relationship between a once battered woman and her knew lover, and that story may be categorized as a romance novel. But that shouldn’t be a writer’s concern while writing. A writer’s concern while writing should only be getting these serious and difficult topics down on paper, and doing it right.
One of the beautiful things about fantasy, in my opinion, is it’s ability to show us the truest things about our world by taking us out of it and drawing parallels. Someone used the example of Maleficent the movie when rebloging this post, and it’s a great example so I’m going to use it as well. Her wings being removed was a symbol of rape, something the actress and writers have confirmed. When she acted out the scene, she had ideas of rape, and what that would be like for the character in mind. So it shouldn’t be that hard to imagine what the scene might have looked like if she actually had been raped. This was an adaptation of a children’s tale, so I believe that is an obvious reason why it was a metaphor rather than the act itself, but had rape actually been used, would that have been unacceptable? If your answer is yes, is that because what happened to Maleficent was so much different or more horrible than being raped? (She was drugged and had parts of her body permanently removed by a man she trusted and loved)
Or is it because our culture has taught us that rape is something to keep quite about. Rape is not something to talk about, it is something not to share. Give us a story about a woman who’s body parts were cut off by her lover, but for God’s sake, don’t give us a story about rape, because that is too close to reality for us.
Well that is reality. And unfortunately, by closing our eyes, and not sharing these stories, reality will continue on existing around us. In my opinion, it is a writer’s job to share their pieces of reality, be that through realistic fiction, high fantasy, romance, or whatever other genre that best fit the needs of the tale that need be told. As long as the writer is doing justice to the terrible truths about our world, it dosn’t matter what setting or genre the book takes place.
