How Far is Too Far?

 

One of the biggest questions many authors face when writing is how far is too far. Should I put a taboo topic in my book? Should I limit myself and stick to something that is considered safer? My answer is, write what you want. It’s okay to push boundaries. One of my all-time favorite quotes is “Be courageous and try to write in a way that scares you a little.”- Holley Gerth.

To me, there is something freeing in writing our dark truths. In my stories, you will find characters that deal with what many consider taboo topics, such as mental illnesses like depression, anxiety, PTSD, self-harm, and addiction; along with other taboo topics, such as miscarriage and premature birth. 

Why do I put these topics into my writing? Because I have mental illnesses. I have depression, anxiety, and complex PTSD. I have also struggled with self-harm. I know many who have struggled with addiction and other mental illnesses. I’ve experienced the heartbreak of miscarriages and the fear of delivering my twins at twenty-nine weeks, wondering if they would survive. Thankfully, they did, and they are thriving almost four-year-olds. I have close friends who struggled and still struggle with infertility. 

My point is that the chances that one of your readers has experienced the topic that would be considered too far is highly likely. I’m a survivor of abuse, sexual assault, and attempted rape. Many would say that’s too far, but I still put it in my stories because I know the chances that someone in my readership has also experienced it. 

It adds reality to our characters when we give them complex and real issues that many of us deal with. Many of us are forced to suffer alone and in the dark with such taboo topics because it’s considered too far to put in fantasy and paranormal, or really any romance. The reality is those things happen. There is nothing wrong with adding a realistic situation for your character to overcome. Having something that’s considered bad happen to your character doesn’t make them less worthy of love. In fact, it’s empowering to see a character overcome tragedy and still find happiness. 

As a reader, I love reading when a character has experienced something I personally have. It adds a depth to the character that helps me feel a little less alone in my struggles. This is exactly why I put these so-called taboo and too-far topics into my books. Breaking the stigma and helping someone feel a little less alone is worth whatever backlash I might get. 

For me as a reader and author, I don’t find anything taboo or too far in writing. Can there be misrepresentations? Absolutely, but that goes for TV and movies as well. It happens, and my best advice is that if you want to write a taboo topic that you have not experienced, do your research. Educate yourself to the best of your ability. You don’t have to have experienced something taboo to write about it. 

Writing is my therapy, so being able to express my past, my experiences, and my feelings helps me. I know many authors write for therapeutic purposes. It’s a wonderful and healthy outlet—just like how many read to escape their reality. They want that temporary break from their day-to-day, so they escape in the pages of a book. 

Not everyone is going to love your book or what you write, so put the topics you want into your story. At the end of the day, it’s your book, your story, and you can make it whatever you want. There will be someone who will be touched by your story, and that is what makes it worth it. Even if I touch one person with my stories, that’s enough for me. If I can make someone feel a little less alone in their struggles, then it’s worth it. 

Don’t limit yourself. The beauty of being an author is the world is what we create it to be. We can create complex characters with real issues that people struggle with and put them in an epic fantasy world. We can write a paranormal romance and have a werewolf who deals with self-conscious issues. We can have a female in a contemporary romance struggle with her body image. Just because it’s romance doesn't mean everything about the story has to be rainbows and butterflies. Characters can go through struggles and still have happy endings. I’m all for writing happily ever afters. 

Don’t censor yourself because even if it’s considered too far, the chances are someone won’t think of it that way. Write what makes you happy. Write the story you want the world to see because it’s your story, your world, your characters, and it’s up to write a story you love. 

Birdy Rivers is an award-winning author. She was born in NJ and now resides in GA with her family. She has been writing since her teens and professionally writing since her mid-twenties. When she isn't writing she is raising her twin girls and spending time with family and friends. Before Birdy became a full time Author and an Editor she worked as a Medical Assistant. She enjoys reading, the outdoors, gaming with hubby, and music. Music and writing have served as therapeutic measures for her depression and anxiety. Birdy is a huge mental health advocate and often features the struggles of mental health in her stories.

 

I'll do anything for story, but I won't do that

 Taboo, you say?

I'm not against leveraging a good taboo now and then. Have done, in fact. Certain cultures have a taboo against writing anything into the skin. Tattoos are equated with magic spells etched into your body that have to pull their energy from somewhere. I definitely used that in the Nightmare Ink books. How could I not? It lends itself so well to 'what if' and to imagining the unintended consequences of flouting the taboo. That's tasty stuff and I did my best to respect the cultures that hold that taboo to this day. It's important to me that my characters face down whatever chaos results from the choices they make.

But.

I draw a personal line at taboos that hurt or exploit innocents. Want me to hurt animals? You can piss right off. You'll always be able to read my stuff with the assurance that the dog will not die. In my world, some taboos deserve to remain untouchable forever. I feel like the line between taboo and kink is informed consent. Taboo is about victimizing someone. Kink is about having a good time while playing with the edges of what's deemed acceptable by society. Based on that, I'm pretty dead set against breaking taboos in my stories unless doing so drives my point of view characters. My mains characters knew what they signed up for when they volunteered for a story. They get what they get. I'm going to do my best to push them past what they think of as their limits. I'm going to do damage that they have to either recover and grow from or wither and die from. But handing over some innocent bystander to a bad guy for some taboo breaking simply for shock value or to 'show' you how bad my bad guy is? No thanks. First, there are taboos that do not bear thinking about in any way, shape, or form. If I hate the whole notion of certain taboos, I'm not going to write them. There are too many other ways to get at what I need to motivate characters to change. Second, there are taboos that aren't a part of my experience and I do not have the authority to speak to them or represent them in fiction. I might not be able to get inside of those taboos to comprehend what purpose the taboos serve. By that I mean that most taboos are protective - they're meant to stave off harm to individuals, a clan, a culture, or a society. I had a boss who had immigrated from Iran explain that the prohibition against pork in his culture was a protective measure against trichinosis. That's understandable. An example of a taboo I can't understand is a current Tik Tok semi-comedic, semi-horror meme. It comes from Appalachia where the saying is "If you hear someone call your name from the woods, no you didn't."  I understand the intent - to protect you from vanishing into the wild never to be seen again. Whether it's bug or feature, though, I don't comprehend it because I lack the imagination to grasp not having a modicum of power over what happens to me when I walk into the woods to investigate something I heard. This taboo isn't my story to tell. I lack the mindset and experience of people who grew up with grandmothers who drilled the taboo into their heads.

Yes. I'd probably be one of the first to die in a horror movie, killed because I foolishly rolled my eyes at a taboo I couldn't wrap my brain around. 

Where's Your Line?

TABOO

There are all levels of good and evil, sweet and nasty, lovely and horrible in creative works. And there are all kinds of taboo across the globe.

Which brings me to our topic of the week: how far is too far in your writing and is there anything you find taboo? 

Everyone will have something they find taboo because we all live in society. You can’t have something be taboo without society as a whole viewing the thing/action as unacceptable. Which means, put taboo into your characters lives! 

I’m not talking about using it to write lazily, KAK talked about it Tuesday. Whatever actions are enacted upon your characters or are done by your characters should have purpose and move the plot or their personal arc forward. Yes, there is a pool of people out there that enjoy gratuitousness for the sake of gratuitousness, but you’ll reach a wider audience if there is meaning behind actions. 

That said, of course there are things too taboo for me to write about, but there are also ones that toe the line. Murder, stealing, adultery, taking advantage of the old…kinda sounds like the ten commandments. Those taboos have become so commonplace in entertainment, and sadly in real life for many, that their unthinkableness is very thinkable—which translates to, very easy to write. 

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to write a character with a high level of profanity. It’s just not in me. And I still want to write about hope. As long as I know where my lines in the sand are, I’m good. 

How about you? How do you know how far is too far?

A Bridge Too Far: Taboos in Fiction

 

       

 

Thanks to all the wonderful readers for their enthusiastic reception of SHADOW WIZARD! Just because it's so squee-worthy, here's a fabulous Reddit Gush about the book. Made me very happy!

This week at the SFF Seven, we're asking about limits. How far is too far in your writing? Is there anything you find taboo?

I think these are two different questions. I mean, they're literally two different questions, but I think the consideration of what is "too far" for me vs. what I find taboo are not the same at all. 

George R.R. Martin once told me about one of his favorite writing exercises to assign when he teaches workshops. He'd ask the students to write about the worst thing they ever did. Some, he said, were clearly fictionalizing. And others couldn't seem to come up with anything that terrible - which he figured for another sort of denial. But the point of the exercise was to demonstrate that all people - and thus all characters - can do really awful things. I mulled this over, and the conversation has clearly stuck with me, and I'm pretty clear that I do have places I won't go in my writing.

Some of the reactions to SHADOW WIZARD that I've seen remark on how awful some of the high houses in the Convocation are. In fact, some readers tap out on the world altogether, because it is so dark. I want to show in my work what absolute power does to people - it's a recurring theme for me - so perhaps I'm not so different from GRRM in that perspective. I have shown sexual abuse to the point of rape on the page, so that's clearly not too far for me. I won't show the death of a child or an animal-friend, however. That's just because it's too much sorrow for me. 

As far as taboos, however... I have a workshop I sometimes teach on writing sexual tension, and I delve heavily into taboos, especially as they apply to sex. In short, taboos exist in society for good reasons - they are instilled in us as children to protect our health (no dessert before dinner) and safety (don't touch the hot stove) and later they come from our larger communities to protect us all (murder is wrong). Because taboos are so deeply ingrained in us, breaking them releases a huge amount of emotional and spiritual energy. It's freeing to break taboos - which is why breaking sexual taboos (which often don't exist for very good reasons) can be so healthy.

The great thing about fiction is you can break all the taboos you want to! It's exhilarating for the writer and the reader. There's a reason we love kick-ass characters who kill with glee and ease. That releases the same energy in us as breaking the murder taboo, but without social or personal consequences. So... is there anything taboo for me in fiction? 

Probably not. 

Go-To Taboo or Just Lazy Storytelling?

 What are the limits? How far is too far in my writing? Is there anything I find taboo?

Yanno, it depends on the subgenre. When I write high fantasy, there are no taboos. Anything can be interwoven into the story as long as it's part of the development of characters or plot. However, depravity in its many heinous facets for the sake of pandering to the prurient interest is lazy and trite. We really should strive to be better storytellers when we express the loss of personal agency, the stripping of power, the crumbling of independence, and the hollowness of defeat. Similarly, villainy needs more depth than dick-sticking.

When writing UF and Fantasy Romance, there are paths I won't tread. Primarily because these genres are about empowerment and building strong relationships--personal, familial, and community. Thus, the readers don't want to suffer through scenes of sexual violence. They're tired of misogyny. They want consent. Mutual respect. Healthy relationships. Flawed protagonists who aren't Too Dumb To Live nor Too Testosterone-Laden to Think. The age of the Alphahole faded with dial-up, so did the Helpless Heroine. It's not that certain topics or tropes are taboo, it's that the readers' expectations evolved. They expect our storytelling to evolve too. 

How Far is Too Far?

This week's topic at the SFF Seven is how far is too far in your writing? Is there anything you find taboo?

First of all, let me say that this is a pretty complex topic if you sit down and really think about what taboo means across different cultures and how it can be used in fiction as a means to examine our own societal 'norms,' boundaries, and structures. When placed in the hands of a skilled and careful writer, taboo can be explored and provide an entirely different view of something we might otherwise never think about or understand.

Taboo by definition is: proscribed by society as improper or unacceptable.

The list for taboo subject matter could go on for ages, because everyone is different in what they find improper or unacceptable. For me, there are definitely lines that I don't think I will ever cross, like rape and incest. I can't make myself watch Game of Thrones, and those are some of the reasons why. For me as a viewer, it's just not something I want to see. I will also never watch Dahmer, no matter what anyone says, because that's too real for me. However, show me The Walking Dead with people getting eaten by zombies, and I'm just fine *shrugs.* 

One of the most recent taboo things I read was a scene in Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff, a book I will finish if it kills me. There's a newly emerging vampire-type situation for a character and his menstruating girlfriend. Menstruation isn't as taboo in the US as it is in some other countries, but it's still often viewed as an unclean part of a woman's life, especially in sexual situations. In Kristoff's hands, this scene read like poetry, you guys.

Salt and iron. Autumn and rust. Flooding over my tongue and answering every question I’d never known how to ask. Because the answer was the same. Always the same. Blood. Blood.

Kristoff, Jay. Empire of the Vampire (p. 37). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

And then, then God help me, I sank my teeth into her, her back arching, her every muscle taut as she threw back her head and pulled me closer, trying not to scream. And I knew the color of want then. And its color was red.

Kristoff, Jay. Empire of the Vampire (pp. 37-38). St. Martin's Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. 

I think writing is about pushing limits. It's about exploring darknesses along with the light. It's about discussing what lives in the shadows and what we as a society force into the shadows. It's also about tearing down social constructs that don't fit us as individuals and illuminating hate that just so happens to wear the clothes of taboo. Sorry, but religion doesn't get to decide what's right and wrong for all. 

I could talk for days on this topic haha, but I won't. Instead, I'll leave you with an article by Vylar Kaftan that explains the importance of writing the taboo far better than I ever could.

Here's an excerpt:

Taboos fascinate many writers and artists because we are rebels at heart. We’re drawn to the forbidden, the denied, the unacceptable. In order to show the world in all its beauty and grossness, we portray both the sacred and the profane, sometimes in the same sentence (holy shit, it’s true!). Many speculative fiction readers also find taboos fascinating, because they show what is different or excluded in humanity. A good percent of science fiction fans already feel quirky or weird compared to the ordinary world; it’s hardly surprising that stories about taboos often appeal to these readers. In this article, I’ll discuss briefly the nature of taboos and why speculative fiction is uniquely well-suited to handle these topics.

What's the last taboo topic you read about?

~ Charissa

I Need to Erase a Few Images, Thanks

 This week we're supposed to talk about an iconic scene from a book or movie or show that galvanized us and influenced our writing. I'm going to make it easy. It's the fight scene from The Princess Bride. Okay wait. Maybe the Iocaine Powder scene. Okay. Maybe the whole movie. (It really is the fight scene - the fight choreography and the quick quips and one-upsmanship.)

Then I'm going to leave it there to relay the images etched into my brain after Hurricane Ian came ashore yesterday. The family and I are fine. We were incredibly lucky. Ian came over us as a weak Cat 3 and we never got hit with the eye wall where the strongest winds were.  Still, we're shaken. The torrential rain and the wind we had (top gust clocked at 97mph nearby) was more than enough to cast fear into all of us. The worst part was watching the news streams of the monster storm destroying places I know and love - long ago, we declared the key lime pie at RC Otters on Captiva Island the best we'd found in Florida. The Ding Darling Wildlife Reserve on Sanibel Island was unmatched for wildlife spotting hikes. Yesterday, I watched those islands vanish beneath 18' of the Gulf of Mexico in real time. Yesterday, in real time, I watched while water swept into Fort Myers up to the roof line of single story homes. The friend who lives there and I checked in with one another just as Ian was approaching. She and her elderly mother hadn't been able to leave the area. They were at 11' of elevation. Storm surge was 18'. I haven't been able to raise her.

The worst part (for me) is that storm shutters turn homes into dark, blind boxes. It's as if you've taken shelter inside a ready-made tomb. You know weather is going to hell in a hand basket, but you can't see anything. If you can't see anything, you can't begin reacting until it's already far too late. Maybe that would always have been true - that even if you did see something bad coming (storm surge, for example) you aren't likely to be fast enough or have the option to change the situation. This may be one of those 'tell me you're a boater without telling me you're a boater' cases - I'm trained by boating to live with the illusion that if I see a bad situation developing I can mitigate it if I think and act quickly enough. I'm not sure storm surge has gotten a copy of that memo.

I'm privileged.

I slept in a dry bed last night in a house where the power never went out. Entirely. The worst privation we suffered was losing internet and cable TV. That felt bad enough because we couldn't go on keeping tabs on the storm and the people out there in it. But this morning, I could go outside. It was still windy. The rain had stopped. My climbing roses had beaten themselves to shreds. All the leaves are gone. The canes are shreds. A neighbor lost a tree. My oak tree is leaning and will have to be removed. The plants at the front of the house are all laid down to the south. The plants on the south side of the house are all laid down pointing due west. Part of our downspouts ended up in a neighbor's yard. My feral cat (who I desperately tried to catch before the hurricane came ashore) showed up for breakfast this morning. There are bright spots.

Because there was so little damage, I left to salvage what remains of the vacation that Ian nearly preempted. As we drove north out of the swath of Ian's destruction, vast caravans of rescue equipment and supplies passed us, heading south into the heart of the devastation. My chest hurts. I want to help, too, and have no skills to do so. I want to find my friend. And I have no skills to do so. And I'm afraid of what I'd find. It's a very mixed up place to be: Aware that but for the grace of the gods there go I, because if Ian had drifted a few miles north . . .; sad for all that's been lost, guilty for going on vacation, and relieved that my extended family in the area are all safe. There's no good or easy way to make the early part of this week okay. It won't be okay for a very long time. For some people, it will never be okay again.

Three of the four of us in the  house had never been in a hurricane before and the one who had admitted that his previous experience had left him with an offhand attitude about what hurricanes were. Until now. For context, Hurricane Charlie - the last hurricane to take the same path ashore. It hit in 2004. The entirety of Hurricane Charlie fit inside the eye of Hurricane Ian. 

 

Stu Ostro, a senior meteorologist at The Weather Channel produced this image. He published it to Twitter during that time that everyone was holding their collective breaths about whether or not this Godzilla parked off shore would ever move. Check out the original.

The Same...Yet Different Scenes

Writing inspiration comes from many places—as many as there are people in the world! But does an author have an iconic recurring-scene that inspires their writing?

I had to give this topic some thought. Even though I only have one book (audiobook) out in the world I have a number of complete manuscripts and to add to that, some are science fiction and some are fantasy. Each book was inspired by a different emotion, character, or scene. And they all, save for two of the fantasy ones, take place in different worlds. 

Despite all the differences, they do all share an iconic scene. Inconceivable, you may say. But these pivotal scenes are all rooted in my author purpose, that moral-of-the-story theme that’s at the heart of every tale I weave. 

So, my iconic scene and my author theme are aligned: it’s the moment you face an incredible terror and instead of looking to the side or reaching out for help, you face it head-on and discover the true depth of your own strength.

In The Mars Strain that happens when Jules realizes she knows how to defeat the strain and that, as much as she depends on her team, she knows the key and won’t stop, no matter how much she looses, until she has it. Yes, a little ambiguous, but I can’t spell it out too detailed in case you haven’t listened yet! 

Do you have an iconic scene that keeps showing up? Is it tied to your author theme?