English: Emotions Q-sort (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Okay, I’ve been writing my little “darkness” series for a few days (think it’s going to wrap up tomorrow). This is part of a bigger story that’s been running around in my mind for several years, so you’d think I wouldn’t be affected by it. Well, I’m here to tell you today, that’s just not how it is.
This afternoon, as I was writing the post to be published tomorrow, I really felt emotional. I felt so bad for the poor, frightened little boy (Sean…hmm…have you figured this out yet?). I felt disgust for his father who apparently has abused the child for most of his life (I say apparently, like I don’t know the facts of the story). And I felt downright hatred for the boy’s mother who was an active participant in the abuse.
Why do you think I felt hatred for the mother, but not for the father? I mean, aren’t both parents supposed to nurture and protect their children? Why place a higher level of blame on the mother than on the father?
Does your writing raise questions about what you believe and why you believe it? Does it cause you to look deeper within yourself to examine why you feel as you do? And do you want to read books or stories that make you feel uncomfortable? Thoughts about any of this would be welcome.
Related articles
- Rules and Truth in Fiction (authorsofmainstreet.wordpress.com)
- What is “emotional manipulation” in writing? (jillianreadsbooks2.wordpress.com)
Filed under: blogging, writing | Tagged: child abuse, Personal Stories, short stories, Violence and Abuse, writing |
Run4joy59's Blog 
I can somewhat relate. I wrote things that made me uncomfortable. I’ve actually had a sort of empathy with my characters. When one of my favorites would get hurt, I’d feel that pain, physically.
I also like how you state “I say apparently, like I don’t know the facts of the story”. I can even relate to it, as I sometimes feel I don’t know all the facts of my story (yet).
It depends on the story, subject matter and the like if I would read something that makes me uncomfortable. If it’s a story which only purpose is to make me feel as uncomfortable as possible, I’d probably decline. However if it has good plot and all that and characters I feel for, then I would definitely read it.
I guess the sense of uncomfortable also means you connect to the story and feel with it.
I think you’re right…I think there are some things that are written with the sole intent of making us uncomfortable…I can’t imagine doing that, but hey…whatever…I think one definition of a successful story is one where you empathize with the characters, sometimes even the “bad” ones…
I can agree with that definition 🙂