forum Should I just have a thread about my worries in writing?
tune

people_alt 5 followers

@Rvan group

Well, I might not be able to cover all of that, but… Here's what I got :)

Death: If there's a death, especially a sudden one, in the story, some characters might not go directly to mourning. They might, probably, be in a lot of shock at first. They don't have to be immediately sad, they could have a moment where they just don't know what to say. There could be silent tears, where if friends/family are together and they just cry.

War: Maybe add a lot of stress when war is happening? Like if a country is just beginning to go to war, the government officials are probably running from office to office, making phone calls 24/7, families are worried if there will be a draft. Later in the war, many families could just be worried if they'll get a letter back from their loved one. The people in the military are prolly worried about if there will be a sneak attack on their base or something.

Depression: Make sure to include other characteristics about the character, so the character seems more human rather than a blob made purely for the purpose of being depressed. Some might be what they do on a day to day basis, like are they into any sports/clubs? What do they do with their friends? Etc.

Psychopathic/sociopathic thoughts: I'm not positive on this one, I haven't tried to write a psychotic character yet, but maybe have it be the character reassures himself/herself a lot on things? Maybe thinking something like, “No, no, I'm sure it's fine. There are too many animals in the world anyways, it's not a problem that I kill them for fun. It's not a problem."

(Sorry I couldn't help with some of the other topics, I haven't ever tried writing them before and I don't want to give bad/slightly offensive advice on accident.)

Good luck writing :D

@kat_i_am

Hi Flowerfur :)
I feel like you're dealing with some really sensitive topics- I personally have no idea how to write any of them (and they're not in my niche, really)
like Rvan said, no one wants to give bad/slightly offensive advice on accident
Have you tried looking outside Notebook.ai?
There's lots of resources out there on the internet.
I'm not on tumblr, but maybe try the writing side of tumblr?
And then, of course, Google is your friend :)
sorry I couldn't be of more help!

@Rvan group

I don’t mean to pry, but could you give more context about what you’re writing?
I still don’t think I’ll be able to cover the topics I didn’t already try to cover, but I might be able to add more if you could tell me what doesn’t make sense/doesn’t help/doesn’t apply…

@Rvan group

…Um… I guess I’m trying to ask what part of my advice doesn’t help so I can try to give you different advice

@The Seliph-loving Gryffindor who also loves dragons and cats

Death: A main theme is death and how it affects those around it.
War: There's a war, duh.
Accidental underage sex/incest: Actually this was planned due to the sister wanting to leave her father's kingdom to stay with her caretaker. Something else, however, was not planned. Also, there's an obsessed teenage girl, though this one isn't incestual.
Post-traumatic stress disorder: Many characters go through horrible things, some especially.
Depression/suicide: 1 character has never been shown love, and was once on the verge of suicide, another depressed about the death of his long-term wife he loved more than anything or anyone, to the point where he almost kills himself.
Racism/infant abduction: Dad of Act 1's protag takes him from his mother at the tender age of 1 due to thinking no races should interact with one another.
Parental abandonment: Duh.
Psycho/sociopathic thoughts and actions: Main villain despises his mother to the point where he kills her and forces her to helplessly watch the world below. Also, a lot more evil characters.
Abusive relationships: Said villain abuses a girl who is a major protag of act 2. He is also in sort of a rapey relationship with her.

@Rvan group

For depression, the one who lost their wife, maybe have that character always think about her and have certain smells/sounds/tastes/senses in general remind him about her.
…I don’t know what else I can say :( sorry…

@Riorlyne pets

As others have said, those are some really heavy topics and I would imagine not many writers on here have personal experience with some of those topics, let alone all of them. And those that do may very well prefer not to discuss them, which is completely understandable.

Your best friend when it comes to writing about these sensitive topics is research. This quote is from Ellen Hopkins, speaking about how she researches for her books (her work incorporates sensitive themes, including drug addiction), in this interview:

Primary research is always best. You can research facts and statistics online, but when it comes to really understanding an issue, you have to talk to someone who’s been through it. And not just one person, but many, as every experience is different and you’re trying to find common denominators.

I found that interview by searching "writing about sensitive topics". I think that if you do specific searches related to worries you have about your writing, you'll be able to find a wealth of information from people with experience (both in life and in writing).

Some example search queries:
"how to write a character with PTSD"
"how to write a psychopath/sociopath"
"how people cope with death"
"how to write about war"
"writing trauma related to rape"
etc.

@The Seliph-loving Gryffindor who also loves dragons and cats

Um… I think I F**KING SAID MOST RESEARCH DOESN'T WORK FOR ME CONCERNING THIS! When I searched up "writing trauma related to rape" it did not help! Most of what I got were rape victims saying they were raped and that they used it in their writing! There was nothing relating to how to write rape! Well, there was one thing, but it doesn't work with the story!

@Rvan group

Geez… you don’t have to get so mad about it. We’re just trying to help. You aren’t going to get perfect answers from just a few searches. Most of the time you have to dig a lot for issues like these. You have to search a lot of different things too, like for the PTSD one, you might need to search different things, like ‘symptoms of PTSD’ ‘Coping with PTSD’ et cetera.
The people on this small site aren’t going to have all the answers. Maybe someone will in the far future will, but no need to swear about it now just because we don’t know much about these topics ourselves. Your best bet is to just keeping on scouring the internet.

@Riorlyne pets

I'm sorry that your research so far has not led to the information you're looking for and that my advice was not helpful to you. It's possible that modifying your search terms might help to narrow down your search. For example if "writing trauma related to rape" brings up accounts of writers writing about their own rape and you want examples of rape in fiction, you could alter your search to "portrayal of rape in fiction" (this tends to bring up everything fiction does wrong but you could pick up tips from what not to do). With that search I found this article which has a checklist of things to consider if writing about rape. I think it is really informative and would be helpful but it may not be what you are looking for.

Unfortunately I don't think there can be a quick, easy answer to tackling such heavy topics well. When it comes to internet research, if you do decide to try it again, realise that you may have to refine your search several times before you find what will be helpful to you. I hope that you'll be able to find what you're looking for.

Deleted user

Death, is a very strange thing in writing. The thing about death, is that it doesn't give you those extra 90 seconds to say your dramatic, sad, fond farewells. It's not theatrical, it's cold, it's dark, it's either too fast or too slow.

War is a very ugly thing. War can turn the smartest, strongest people into idiotic weaklings, and it can likewise do the opposite depending on who you are. But war isn't just fighting. There's a spiritual struggle. The best thing I can think of, is Avatar: The Last Airbender. Notice that it wasn't just a show about nations fighting, although that was the core of it. It was a show about how the war effected people, how it was adapt or die, for the people of the remaining nations. Remember how socially awkward Azula was, because of her father's warmongering? That's a well written war, right there. The fog of war, is always in flux.

Accidental underage sex, is tricky, are we looking at this culturally, legally, morally, because all of these things can take a toll if your characters get caught, even if they don't and they evade the law, what's to say that other things can't factor in and take a toll on.them. It depends on them.

Accidental incest is something I can't help with, that's up to the characters.

PTSD is strange, the human mind can be as resilient as a diamond, or as fragile as an egg, depending on what happens. But there are uncountable ways to break a person, and any dark events they take part in, well, they never go away, sadly.

Depression, obviously context is important, I guess that's all I got here.

Infant abduction, the one thing to remember, is that human babies are unbelievably fragile.

Suicide, well, this is sometimes a matter of pride, depression, severe degradation can cause this too. But usually I find the strongest cause is a combination of a masdively shattered will, and underdeveloped sense of importance to others.

Racism, well, is racism, sometimes there isn't any rhyme or reason to it. Sometimes it's how people were raised, sometimes it's due to xenophobia and misinformation, but most of the time I find that it's punks with no cultural, moral, or personal character, who don't know their mouth from their add, not that anyone else would be able to tell either.

Parental abandonment, eh? It's hard to tell why this happens unless the person who did it explains themselves honestly. Sometimes there's a reason, sometimes there's not.

Psychopathic thoughts, eh? Often due to mental disorders, certain events, or other means. It can manifest as the "holy mission" type or the "our purpose is a lack of purpose" type, but it's not that simple.

As I'm sure you can imagine, none of these are nearly as easy as I've made them out to be, and research from primary and secondary sources is heavily encouraged. Hellsing Ultimate has like 120% of these, so just go watch that, but it's really, really, really, really, really… really, dark and graphic and adultlike, as well as being batshit insane and pretty campy. End of the day, you get the idea.