I started watching a series last night with my sister; after the first episode I told her I couldn't watch anymore. The fact is that it terrified me. I was beyond terrified, actually; for those of you who saw me posting at 3AM - I wasn't sleeping.

So it raised a question in my mind which I thought I'd ask you guys.

Is it our responsibility as writers not to write violent/traumatic descriptions in too vivid a way. You see, I hear so often about someone who watches something, plays something or reads something, and they then go off and do it. So they might read a murder novel, and then go and commit the crime. Is this the writer's fault at all, or can the blame not be linked to them?

As a writer, should we be careful not to make our torture scenes, fighting scenes, murder, etc. too vivid? If you write in great detail about something, and someone reading is tempted into committing what you have written, can part of the blame lie with the writer?

It could even go as far as adultery, or impurity. If you write things that go very in-depth, and through it this causes your reader to stumble, does part of the blame lie with you?

Is this something you have considered at all? What are your thoughts on this?

Now, interesting enough, my parents started watching the series that terrified me, and they like it. Everyone is different, I am not saying because the series scared me it's wrong. It's just that because it scared me so much, it made me ask these questions.

I agree that this should be on our minds as we write. Even if we worldbuild from a purely endocosmic perspective, we should always write with a healthy dose of exocosmic assessment. Keeping in mind who our intended audience is (and perhaps who the likely audience will be, regardless of our intention), what messages we want to send to them, and considering what kinds of messages/effects we might unintentionally send/induce...awareness of these things should guide our treatment of these subjects.

Ooh! I have a good bit I could say on this, but I want to see other people's posts, first! So I will sit by and watch, for now.

Very nice post, cephron.

*Nods* So, for example, if you were writing for adults you would go further, whereas you would hold back on certain things if you were writing for children?

Thanks for the reply.



I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts, Airi.

Yes, definitely. That much is nothing new, is it? This is what the whole rating system is for. Originally, anyways. But yes, that's a perfect example.

I think it mostly depends on the purpose of your writing. If you want to show something in a certain light, you highlight certain parts. You don't need to go into detail about a torture procedure unless that is expressly what terrifies your character and his terror benefits the telling of the story. I know a lot of people who really didn't like The Dark Knight because the Joker was just so sadistic and evil. I liked it because that was the point. The bad guy is well played because you don't dislike him indifferently. If you've seen movies where the main characters are criminals and get their just punishment at the end, it was probably dissatisfying. It's because the focus wasn't the badness of what was done but the doing or even sometimes the funness or necessity of what was done. If you vividly describe the pain of badness and the joy of goodness other people tend to understand (granted a children's book should probably avoid vivid descriptions of the feeling of having one's shoulder dislocated or some such pain, but they can still be told that such a thing will hurt). But if you gravitate toward reversing the two (even if it is to show how hard it can be to leave badness) than people get confused and sometimes believe you as you describe the funness of badness or the dullness of goodness.

For this reason, I find it very important for a story to have lots of black and white boundaries. We don't tend to follow Saul's example of disobedience or Pilot's example of peer pressure because they had such blatant ramifications but even in the Bible, there are some places I noticed at a young age that had things happen that I thought was wrong with no apparent penalties. They make sense now because of deeper understanding but for novel and story writing I think every cause needs a clear, perhaps small on occasion, effect.

That was a brilliant post, Rin. It is important, I agree, not to glorify the wrong doing.



Yes, I agree.



I can understand that. Yes, I think you see that a lot more these days. People create a 'bad character' but you end up really liking them, even though they do terrible things.

Ah, a thought provoking comment concerning children's stories.... The need for clear cut black and white differences...

I'm writing this right after I read the original post before I read other people's thoughts because then I forget my own thoughts, so hopefully I'm not repeating anything...
I think these are definitely things to think about. Especially if you are being very detailed about something gory, you need to know your own reason for it, is it constructive? Does it drive the theme of the story along somehow?
Another thing to remember is that God is in control - we need to have a care what we write and be in prayer all the time about it, but then we can't have any control over how people view it/respond to it.
The most likely case I think someone would actually commit something bad because of a story would be like if it's a romance type thing-and it seems to me that it would be easy to discourage this by showing that committing that sin might feel good at first, but will end up ruining you (at least in a way).
I hope these somewhat random thoughts help...

Yes, they do help. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, Wolf.



I agree it's very important to be in prayer over what we write.

I think there are two different issues going here. One is the portrayal of blood, gore, and frightening images - things that might "scare" the reader. In this case, I think we need to consider our target audience and our end use, and put in the amount of description that best tells the story in a way that facilitates our end purpose.

I believe that intense material should not be included just for the thrills, but rather to fulfill an intentional purpose, like increasing the effectiveness of a moral. Additionally, the sensitivities of our target audience need to be considered. Therefore, a book for children will have less intense material than an adult novel, and a story that's supposed to be innocent fun will have less intense material than a story that deals with weighty themes. I think we authors should have ultimate boundaries in terms of intense material that we never cross, but in most cases the amount of intense material that is appropriate for a book is a very contexual issue.

However, when it comes to readers, we cannot control who will be scared by it or who will find it acceptable. Every reader will absorb our book differently. We can keep general guidelines in mind based on our target audience, but there will always be readers within that range who fall on different sides of the spectrum. For instance, I found Doctor Who to be too creepy. Yet one of my favorite books - "Angel Fall" by Coleman Luck - is far, far worse in terms of horrifying images. But I remember Angel Fall for the spiritual impact; Doctor Who just gave me nightmares. Therefore, Angel Fall was completely acceptable for me - in fact, the intense material made it more impacting - while Doctor Who wasn't edifying.

However, for many people, Doctor Who is innocent fun. I'm sure there are a lot of people that couldn't handle Angel Fall. And what about the LotR movies? Some people talk of the violence in those. Me, I'm halfway through the trilogy and haven't had a problem with it yet. It's all very personal.

We authors can't control how our readers will react to our book. We can't control who will get nightmares from it. But we can control how we're using the intense material. I think we need to focus on telling the story. Determine our end purpose, pray about it, and use the appropriate amount of intense material. If our heart is right, and we're right with God over it, then we have done our best. We only need to market the book appropriately and let God do the rest.

I think the same goes for portraying sin. We cannot control who will be caused to stumble by our words. But we can control how we are portraying sin. I think if we are portraying sin in a God-honoring way with the intent of making a good point, and we are right with God over the content, our book will have the appropriate effect.

Our intentions when portraying sin have a big effect on how we write the scene; consequently, our intentions have a big effect on how the sin is perceived. If we're portraying a murder in a book to show how wrong it is, I doubt anyone would read that and be inspired to commit a murder. The way we portray the murder will show how evil it is. On the contrary, if we portray a sexual encounter for the sensory thrills, glorifying the emotions and imagery, then we are portraying the encounter as tantalizing. Then I think we do run the risk of intriguing our readers to explore the same sin.

Therefore, my ultimate opinion is - if you're writing for God and are crafting our book to promote good, our portrayal of sin will expose it rather than glorify it. As such, most readers will be positively rather than negatively effected. The few that are otherwise are not our concern, as long as we were fully right with God over our writing.

Brilliant post, Aubrey! Made total sense, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.



Definitely; like my Parents loving the series that I found so scary; some people are more sensitive than others.



*Nods* That makes sense, yes. The portrayal of sin etc will make a big difference on how it is received.

A very well thought out post; thanks.

Very well put. Good post!

Your mention of the Lord of the Rings movies reminded me, Aubrey, of another aspect: emphasis. It's one thing to include one scene, or a handful of scenes, that are violent, scare, or otherwise "intense" to serve the needs of your story; it's another to include many such scenes throughout your story, but again because your story needs them; and it's quite another to add such scenes, and such elements to existing scenes, for the sake of adding "intensity" or "grittiness" to a less "intense" story. (I didn't object to the level of violence in the Lord of the Rings movies, but I did object to the filmmakers' lengthening of battle scenes longer than was necessary, and the insertion of unnecessary (gratuitous) battle scenes, when they were making such major changes (largely cuts) to the story that could only be justified as "they have to make cuts/changes to make the story fit into even three films." The filmmakers' priority was obviously not the story Tolkien was trying to tell, or even plausibility, but rather spectacle.)

Another example of varying levels of sensitivity can be seen in The Hunger Games. Many people love those books, and the violence does not seem to bother them. However, others are unable to read them for that very reason. I read a comment on a website, and the commenter read only the premise of the Hunger Games, and was so horrified at the concept that it gave her/him panic attacks.

You definitely can't predict the effect certain things will have on each reader. But I think intent plays a huge part in how things affect me. If the writer intends to shock and horrify, wouldn't it be more likely to shock and horrify?

Now yes, that is a good point, Aemi. I enjoyed The Hunger Games (the film) and yet my sister who could easily watch what I couldn't, (mentioned in first post) didn't like it at all.

I really don't know how The Hunger Games would affect me. Would it horrify me? Maybe not. Would the images stick in my head long after I put the book down? Probably. Is that a good thing? I don't know.

Ultimately I believe we need to show sin for what it is, something horrible with dreadful consequences. We cannot make light of sin and its effects. If our character does something awful in our story, then we must show its consequences and not just let it pass. And then show good for what it is, not just for the good feeling of it, but also the blessings of doing so. Like others have said, we cannot control who will be effected and who will not, but still stand on biblical standards, so as to show the truth.
These are my thoughts on the issue.
-The Maiden

Because of this principle that what is sin for some of us isn't for others, and vice verses, I will never try to change someone's convictions.

It is so much nicer than if we all had an exact and tiresome code to follow... instead, God writes His law on our hearts.

The Bible shows many things in black and white, but there are gray areas, and it is in those gray areas that convictions come into play, both in life and in our writing.


Are you ready to write your monster post now?

These monster posts are stacking up!

Not at the moment... I have a real life person in need of surveillance, but when things calm down, I will.

Yes, they are.

Okay.