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Comments
Doyle's death itself was kinda weak though.
It's the reactions that make it work, admittedly. But I think that not even that can be said about a lot of the deaths in Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dollhouse. Not all of them, though. Off the top of my head, there's the whole Ilyria affair. And uh
that dude in the Messenger.
But again, they work because we see the people we like hurt rather than because we see people we like die. Which is kind of not really good, in my opinion. Especially considering that we're supposed to feel bad for the dead, not for the mourning.
I need to write something soon, so I can feel less awful about myself in those quiet moments when I'm not distracting myself with mindless (and not-so-mindless) frivolities. Granted, fretting does nothing, particularly fretting in public, other than make me feel a tiny bit better about myself in an utterly unproductive way. But I guess that it does keep the issue in mind.
On the upside, I have been thinking a lot about the content of my work and how I want to construct this thing, this vast, glorious, pretentious, ludicrous thing. So many moving parts to consider, to many pieces working together in complex layers of sympathy. Sure, it's massively self-indulgent and dense enough that it will probably go over a lot of people's heads, but so what? I feel ambitious, yet without any desire for satisfaction of the ego beyond the joy of having created something beautiful, if only beautiful to a few. I am about to thrown myself upon the pyre.
It feels good.
But I'm still afraid. So much to do.
Meh, people always underestimate the market for a Finnegan's Wake sequel.
I still don't get the point of Finnegans Wake. I really don't. At this point I've come to terms with Joyce overall (A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man wasn't that bad), but I still don't understand why this one exists.
I am pretty sure booze and farts were involved in the creative process.
it apparently came about over the course of seventeen years, so booze and farts were almost certainly involved here
So, apparently Charles Bukowski already ran with the "dude has an unhealthy obsession with a mannequin and makes love to it" idea that was part of that ventriloquism story idea. So for some, it's apparently not over-the-top, like my teacher said, provided I make it believable? I was already planning on reading South of No North anyway, so this is a pretty interesting development.
So, I've decided to put a rape scene in this script of mine. I'm really satisfied with the thematic beats of the story, and I feel the main heroine being raped here by another major character will be very significant, and come together even more with the ending. The thing is though, is that it will be female-on-female, and I'm worried about my ability to successfully write such a scene effectively and seriously.
Oh dear.
I've been doing some research on the subjects of rape, female-on-female rape, and writing rape in particular. Unfortunately (or fortunately I don't know), I am a screenwriter, so there will be a large lack of descriptive prose. I feel that will make it a little easier to manage. But the themes are still there, and will be pervasive in the rest of the story.
This is not reassuring me in the least! No! Why would you talk about this?
Because this is the general writing discussion and I am WRITING a blueprint for a film that would have a rape in it, and I wanted to see how IJBM felt about this, and ask if they maybe had any tips. I understand that it is a very controversial and unsettling topic for many, but I'd like to think we could talk about this.
I imagine it would help if you provided anything! Anything beyond "So I decided to have one MC rape another and it totally fits in the themes lol" because that is all you have given!
Please forgive me if I do not take this as a positive sign because seriously
Yeah, I would sooner look for anything besides rape to create tension in a story.
Well you aren't helping by making it seem like I'm horribly unserious about this. I am not treating this as a joking matter, and you saying "So I decided to have one MC rape another and it totally fits in the themes lol" is really insulting.
*removed*
I'm well aware how sensitive of a topic rape is, thank you very much. But if you are honestly trying to tell me that it should NOT be used, then that is something that I will have to respectfully disagree with. I may come to see that it is not the right way to go, for MY story, but I can think of plenty of works of fiction that have effectively used rape to the benefit of the story and the drama. Am I that good of a writer? That I do not know.
You aren't helping by not treating it very seriously when you posted about it either.
Very well. I quit because anything I have to say is only going to piss one or the other of us off.
If I will say anything, it is "I very, very strongly advise against doing this".
I don't see how absolutely ANYTHING I have said has indicated that I'm not treating it extremely seriously.
Well, you are right about that.
Fine. I'm willing to listen to criticism and know when I should not do something.
I've decided to look into other ways of bring the power and dominance dynamics to play in my script. I apologize for even bringing up my idea.
Heh, if you didn't ask and just wrote it instead, then there might've been reasons to apologise.
I wish I'd seen this earlier. Now I'm curious about your story.
It probably wouldn't have been very good anyway.
Why did you edit out that summary of the plot you posted? But from what I remember of it, why does it have to be rape? Why isn't assault traumatic and threatening enough? But yeah I'm just going to turn to somebody smarter and more eloquent than me about this - From Greg Rucka's response to an ask about the potential rape scene in the new Tomb Raider game
Honestly Saturn, it doesn't sound like your story is giving it the weight it deserves, treating it instead as a a big dramatic thing to add to the end of the story.
One has to be cautious about sex scenes, you do one not the best possible way and legions of folks go around telling everyone your story is all about creepy fuckery. I'm playing with writing a piece of a story, and for this reason I'm thinking if it wouldn't be better to just get rid of anything bolder than implicit vanilla.
Nitpick: It is in the middle, not the end. But I understand. I've decided not to do it at this point. As Alk and CU have suggested, I'm going to look elsewhere as far as tension goes. Thank you for the constructive criticism.
[gadfly]See then you are just contributing to the cishetero normativity and pushing vanilla sex as the only acceptable sex. [/gadfly]
Rule Zero of writing - you just can't win.
Specifically I've been thinking of stuffing in a religious sex ritual, described implicitly.
Well, the thing that I'm inclined to note (which you probably already know) is that "the best possible way," as you put it, is to make it entirely meaningful; if the religious sex ritual informs the decisions/life experiences of important characters, ties into some crucial plot point, and makes some comment that makes the reader think or feel something real, it's probably fine as long as your writing isn't biased, but if it's just there for worldbuilding, I'd be warier. And people will be squicked out by it either way.