Balancing Sex and Violence in Fiction

Right now, I am dealing with an issue that comes up frequently when it comes to my writing.  Sex and violence are an undeniable part of human existence, but I don’t want to use them gratuitously.   I use them a fair amount, don’t get me wrong, but only when I feel the narrative calls for them.  These are strong elements that, when used incorrectly, can really detract from the story you’re trying to tell.  But when used appropriately, the story can make a big impact.

I’ve learned that these two elements make for great character development, and they can often advance the plot in useful, engaging ways.  In the midst of a sexually charged moment, we can see how the characters feel about each other.  Are they open to the other person?  Are they defensive?  Can we see hints of impending changes in their relationship that might be important?  Their actions speak volumes about how they feel about the other person and how they feel about themselves.

Violence, which conveys much about the world the characters inhabit, can also be transformative.  When confronted with a violent scenario, we can see that character on the most fundamental level.  When things get tough, what kind of risks are they willing to take?  Do they turn and run, do they fight, or do they join in with the madness?  Can they be trusted?  Or perhaps violence is in the character’s past, and it forged them into the person they are in the present.

The language used must also be taken into consideration.  The words chosen during intimate moments greatly influence the overall feel of the scene and highlights the attitudes of the people involved.  Are the descriptions clinical, poetic, or verging on pornographic?  Any of these are acceptable as long as they are in line with the established characters and their situation.  The same goes with violence.  If a character is clinical in their analysis of a violent act, that can say a great many things about who they are.  They might be a sociopath, or a detective who is accustomed to approaching gruesome scenes in this way.

The trick is balancing the two, and making sure they always enhance the story.  If they don’t, then maybe it’s best that they aren’t there at all.  I can't pretend to be an expert at this yet, and I'm still learning, but I think this is an issue that most writers need to contend with, so I thought it was worth mentioning.

Struggling With Narrative Pace

I plan to spend a good portion of my writing day revisiting the parts of my short story that I’ve already written in the hope of improving the narrative pace.  Given that I usually write novels and not short stories, I’ve always had trouble switching over to the kind of pace demanded by shorter pieces.

I’ve come up with a strategy for dealing with this.  Hopefully it will help.

Step 1: Write an outline detailing all of the major plot points of the piece.  This will give me an idea of whether I have realistic expectations regarding how much I can realistically fit into a short piece.   There’s also the bonus of being able to determine the best order of events right off the bat.

Step 2: Determine about how long I want the story to be.  Having a good estimate of page length or word count should help me as I write by keeping focused on moving the story along instead of getting bogged down by tangents.

Step 3: Decide the most crucial scenes that I want to devote the most time and attention to and write a rough draft of those first.  Once I know approximately how long those are going to be, that should tell me whether or not I have a chance of achieving the desired length with the rest of the scenes written and added in.  If I think it’s going to go too long, then I need to revisit the outline and decide what, if anything, I can cut.

That’s what I’ve got for now.  Hopefully it’ll be a good start.

Idea Overload

I feel I need to acknowledge and address one of the biggest problems I have as a writer.  And before I say what that problem is, I should point out that it wouldn’t be a problem at all if only I knew how to manage it properly. 

The issue is this: I have too many story ideas.

My main obstacle is that I have new story ideas brewing in my mind while I’m still working on another project, and soon that new idea is pushing the story-in-progress to the side.  I can’t let that happen.  I promise myself that I will take notes when new ideas come, and I will allow those ideas to blossom, but I need to continue to work on the task at hand while all this is happening.  This obstacle is better than having no new ideas at all, but allowing myself to lose focus ultimately hinders my progress.

That same issue rears its head when I write short stories that end up growing until they become novels.  I keep thinking of new plot threads, new conflicts, that would fit into the framework of the story I’ve outlined, and soon the scope of the project is so large I have to admit that it’s no longer what I set out to create.

Perhaps that isn’t so bad.  Maybe I need to let the project become whatever it needs to be.  Or maybe I really do need to learn some self-restraint.  This is simply another question I must keep in mind and work through as I keep writing.

Questions

The more research I do, the more my goals in life scare me.  The odds of achieving success in this field seem more frightening than inspiring.  Yet I can’t let that scare me off, even knowing how much work lies ahead, because I want this so much I can’t imagine not doing this.

I keep asking myself why anyone would want to read anything I write.  I suppose this is a common self doubt that most authors experience at some point.  The main question I have has to be this:  How do I overcome that self doubt, or how might I use it as motivation to spur me forward rather than allowing it to drag me down?

In college I studied both writing and philosophy.  Both were writing intensive, and both required me to ask a lot of basic questions.  In philosophy, however, I think I adopted the wonderful, though sometimes terrifying habit, of asking so many questions that my brain temporarily overloads.  It can be great for the creative process that is storytelling, provided the seemingly endless list of questions can be managed.

I think a key thing that makes a story interesting to readers is raising provocative questions, or setting up a scenario that lends itself to speculation.  The plot should be unique, or the characters should at least be dynamic.  We need to care about the people in the story, we need to genuinely wonder what will happen to them.  And as I write, I continually ask myself how to get to that point.  If there’s anything I’m good at, it’s asking questions.

I just hope I’m asking the right ones.