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?

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.

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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.