Writing Emotional Subject Matter -- discuss.

[verasteine]

blue_fjords, I blame you.

Okay, open discussion for anyone who feels like wandering in. I'm working, by request, on a meta on how to write emotional or difficult subject matter.

For the writers among you: how do you deal with emotional subject matter in your stories? Do you think about how to construct the fic, do you think specifically about how the

Comments

[amand_r]

Okay. I write a lot of shit that is emotionally complicated, because in a lot of ways, my life is fuckety fucked in that respect. when I write, I go to that place. In fact, I think it might be safe to say that I use fanfic as a medium to express that. Since my husband died, I haven't been able to get into any fandom without writing the required suicide fic. I know there are lots of emotionally charged and delicate subjects out there to handle, but for me, that is the only one I can speak to with any bit of resonance. So as a reader, in that respect, what I need to see, to make that realistic, is an unfolding of character that leads me there, and that's not easy to do, because sometimes it comes out of nowhere.

As a reader/writer, when I'm looking at a fic, mine or others, that deals with sensitive material (I am assuming you mean things like rape, death, incest, etc?), I am looking for a respectful way of treating the subject. There's nothing worse than a person who laughs off non-con through the characters. What I think then, is that this person has never been there, and has no feel for it, and then I think, well, how can they possibly write these characters with any degree of accuracy? Then I hit the back button.

In a lot of ways, I think rm is right. for me, also, it's "what am I doing as that character?" In fact, it's almost always that.

Oh look at that! I just reread your original question and I completely misread it. When I saw "emotional" I interpreted it as "sensitively emotional," as in "charged subject material." I FAIL THE META BOAT AGAIN!

I ain't deleting this.

[verasteine]

Hey, don't worry about it! I think "write what you know" and self insertion in fic is something all authors do. I think it's the only way, really. And I, too, sometimes, find outlets for things through my art.

I'm not only talking about rape, death, etc., although those are on my mind. I'm also thinking about depression, divorce, etc. Because, yeah, writers who can't write noncon without sensitivity are bad, but there's a lot of stuff out there that thinks that depression is just having an off-day, or that self-harm is just a fun way to get Jack and Ianto together.

Glad you didn't delete, btw.

[amand_r]

Okay, you know, that's a better starting point then for me. I do a lot of self insertion, even in canon characters. I really identify with Ianto in a lot of ways, and Jack and Owen (though less with the girls, I wonder why.). Anyway, aside from the emotional identity thing, I don't think I've ever had to research something for emotions, like depression or cutting or miscarriage or whatever. I think that it comes naturally in a lot of ways. I mean, Jesus, you experience one loss, a big loss, and it's like, game over. You have your comparison for the rest of your life. You have the dark place forever. Then when considering how someone would feel to lose, like, oh say, Lisa, I think, "okay, if that had been my husband, how would that have played out?" And it's easy to go there (everyone would be pumped full of holes, BTW). But even if he was still alive, I can still sympathize with Ianto.

When I need to empathize, I usually try to drege up the worst example in my head. When I think of the cannibals, like, I think to myself, "okay, what if they ate your mum? or your daughter?" and then I find that I'm in the headspace to write that I think would be a reasonable reaction to it.

My guess is that people who don't get into depths of emotions in writing don't think about it. They want to grind something out, and they don't want to have to stop to think about the characters and how they would have felt, because they themselves are doing their own self-insertion. The writer isn't interested in why Ianto is cutting/drinking/doing the lambada, the forbidden dance with the paper shredder. They want the sex, and they think that if they punch in something POWERFULLY EMOTIVE, then we'll all ride the wave of Evanescence through to the sexy climax. (Don't get me started on people who write songfics and use the lyrics to convey what they want to say or express about a character.)

I don't know, I wrote a lot of Twilightesque vampire fic when I was 15, while I was listening to the soundtrack to Twin Peaks. I think when I wrote it, I was CRYING, but the other day when I dug it out of a box in my basement, it was like reading Sweet Valley High, and there was no character at all. So maybe beauty is in the eye of the beholder sometimes.

[verasteine]

I mean, Jesus, you experience one loss, a big loss, and it's like, game over. You have your comparison for the rest of your life. You have the dark place forever.

This. Oh, yes. Absolutely true.