Ask an Editor: What is the writer’s responsibility?

This is a topic dear to me that has been making the rounds of discussion recently due to a certain movie based on a certain book releasing in theatres. Especially as someone who has worked in the romance industry, I get asked for my opinion on this one regularly.

What responsibility does a writer have to their audience? Is it okay to tell problematic stories?

 

My answer has been developed exactly because of working in the romance industry. A lot of people will say the only thing you owe a reader is a good story. I say bullshit to that. A lot of people will say that readers will know a story is fiction. Again, bullshit.

As a professional editor who has worked with an erotica publisher,  I think that nonconsent fantasy, for example, needs to presented *as a fantasy*, through the marketing material, an author’s note, what have you. Writing is communication, even fiction, and as such acts as social commentary. Presenting nonconsent fantasy straightforwardly without any context saying anything to the contrary is thus as endorsement of the material. Readers knowing something is fiction is, honestly, that’s a cop-out. The repeated presentation of nonconsent as acceptable only reinforces it in the societal narrative, and people contributing to the societal narrative via authoring books need to be responsible for what that output condones.

There are ways for an author to present a problematic viewpoint without endorsing it. If you don’t do this, you as the author are essentially supporting whatever content you are providing, because you wrote it. (Yes, I took poetry: don’t assume the I is the writer; however, the viewpoint has to come from somewhere.) Here’s the thing. I had an author once who wanted her hero to chase her heroine around the house and all the way into her car to prevent her from leaving during a difficult conversation the heroine wasn’t ready to have. The author couldn’t understand why I pared the scene down to remove that aspect. She repeatedly would defend her heroes’ bad actions by claiming they were an alpha hero and the heroine wouldn’t know she actually wanted whatever was happening. If the author doesn’t even recognize how her fiction is problematic, how is the reader supposed to?

Writing–particularly stories!–is meant to convey values from generation to generation, group to group, at its heart. Storytelling was an oral tradition designed to do this. Just because we’re all fancy with our Interwebs and our entire industry around it, that hasn’t changed. If you contribute a problematic story to the cultural narrative, you are responsible for it. So a story that features unchecked racism, abuse, misogyny, ableism? You may think it’s not your problem, but if you’re a writer, there is no way for it not to be. You are contributing to the narrative that shapes our society. And you can’t claim it doesn’t. Stories and society go hand in hand. The more open our society becomes toward LGBT people, the more we hear their stories. The same is true in inverse! The more stories we hear about LGBT people, the more open we become to them. The LESS we hear about them, the less we care.

This doesn’t mean you have to become a social justice warrior. But you do need to be aware of what’s in your story and what your story says, and take steps to mitigate problematic elements. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone gets things wrong. But you have to at least try. If your story features someone of a different race, make sure to find someone of that race who can read and make sure you’re not stereotyping or culturally appropriating. If you write something seemingly “easy” like romance, hire a freelance editor before you self-publish who should be able to point out problematic dynamics. Even if the editor thinks it’s fine for you to have them, a good editor will make you aware they’re there so you can decide if you want your story to convey what it does.

(If anyone is interested in such services, I do freelance. Email corra.jessica@gmail.com for details.)

So of course authors have the responsibility to tell a good story. But a good author has the responsibility to be aware of what they’re contributing to the social narrative.

I would ask you, if you are someone who thinks an author only owes you a good story, to keep you entertained–if you don’t think the author needs to worry about problematic material, what does that say about your stance on problematic material in our cultural narrative? The thing is, I’m not advocating censorship. I AM advocating awareness of what you’re saying and why you’re saying it, and being clear when something in your story is problematic if you do not condone such things. (If you do condone them, that’s your right too but you need to be aware either way.)

 

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