McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Controversial Topics

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Uilos:
Hey guys, I've been working on this novel for a while now, and as a practice I've been writing short stories that help develop my main character and the world around him.

In one of the stories I write about Rape (both sexual and mental) and the overlying choices that the victims has afterwards, to either let it consume them or to use the pain inflicted on them as a source of strength.

Now, I've written about alot of the things my age group (college age) is known for, drinking, drugs, and morals as strong as kleenex in a monsoon. But this is by far the darkest I've delved.

My question is, have you ever written on a controversial topic? What was your experience writing it? Of people Reading it?

Tasmin21:
At age fifteen, I wrote a short story about teen pregnancy, and had to endure three months of my mother asking "Are you SURE you're ok?"  *grumble*

That's about the sum total of my experience. I think maybe it soured me a little.

blgarver:
I've never outright chosen to write about something controversial.  I'm not Mike Moore...ahem.  However, I'm not out to really make a message or present a point to any particular audience either.  I think with a lot of the stories centered around controversy, the writer more than likely is trying to convey some message.

Frankly I'm not informed enough about too many controversies to write anything about them.  There have been a few concepts/issues that have sparked an interest, however.  I'd love to write a story about Skidmore, MO.  Look that town up sometime, perhaps there are stories about all the wierd and hush-hush stuff that happens there.

Concerning rape, that is a particularly touchy subject, obviously.  I usually avoid subjects of that nature simply because I've had a pretty good life, and I don't really have a lot of experience with genuinely bad situations.  I know a few girls who've been abused pretty much through their entire childhood, and I don't even begin to assume I understand what that's like.

Matrix Refugee (formerly Morraeon):
I'd write about a contraversial topic only if it was absolutely integral to the plot and the characters' journeys. I have no patience with Michael Moore or Dan Brown-esque writers who seem to write about contraversial stuff just for the shock value or to sell more copies of their screeds.

Uilos:
It is more or less a look inside this character's reasoning why he is the way he is. The main character was a victim of systematic psychological abuse (to the point where it can be defined as Rape) and neglect from those in charge. Later in life, he meets a person like him (it's a fantasy setting) who has been sexually abused by several men over the course of her life, and he asks her two questions: Do you want to use your pain, or be used by it? and Where do you want to go from here?

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