And then they brought out the hot pokers
Mar. 21st, 2007 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pbrayA few days ago, I mentioned the difficulties involved in writing certain scenes. ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sylvia_rachel asked if I'd mind describing my process, so for those who care, it's behind the cut.
Please note the standard disclaimer: This is my process. It may not work for any other writer on the planet. Your actual mileage/wordcount will vary. Do not attempt unless you are a trained professional or are being supervised by a trained professional. The writer assumes all risk for any injuries that may occur from attempting to follow these instructions. The text below contains spoilers for THE SEA CHANGE--do not read if you are concerned this may interfere with your enjoyment of this book.
In the submitted version of THE SEA CHANGE, I wrote the scene where Josan is about to be tortured and then cut away. The next we see is the aftermath, where the torturer proclaims himself satisfied with Josan's innocence. I didn't show what happened to Josan, and allowed the reader to draw their own inferences as to exactly what had happened. There were hints from Josan's POV, but it wasn't explicit.
My editor, the all-knowing Anne Groell, called me on this. She pointed out that I was ducking the scene not because it wasn't necessary but because I didn't want to write it.
Most of Josan's actions throughout the rest of the story only make sense if we understand what happened to him. In order to strengthen his characterization and make him believable, I had to show what he had gone through.
Writing these kind of scenes is hard. In this case, because it was a torture scene, I had two choices for POV character. If I picked Nizam (the torturer), that would require me to get into Nizam's headspace. Nizam's a professional and extremely skilled at his job. If I was describing the scene from his POV, this would mean that I needed a decent working knowledge of torture techniques, and a theory on how Nizam would apply them to break down his victim. Entirely possible for me to acquire, but in this case it wasn't necessary. Since the focus was on using the scene to understand how it impacted Josan's character arc, I chose Josan as the POV character.
Choosing the vicitm as the POV character has its own issues. It's easier, in a way, in that Josan doesn't necessarily understand all of what is happening to him. He won't know the names of the specific devices or techniques, nor why things are done in a certain order. But it's also hard, because the victim is the one suffering. I need to describe what's happening to him, and his reactions--make these believable and gut wrenching without crossing the line over into melodrama.
It's tough for me to get into the headspace to write these kind of scenes. In this case I started where I always do--by picking music to write by*. In an eerie coincidence, tonight's episode of Criminal Minds opened with a horrific scene of a family being burned in their own home while haunting music played in the background. That specific song was on my playlist while writing the torture scene, so I was immediately in that gruesome headspace even as the show was recounting its own version of terror.
Then it's simply a matter of writing. It sounds easy, but it's not. You start with the question: What happens first? How does that feel? Then what happens next? The trick is that you can't allow yourself to flinch. You can't avert your eyes. You have to keep looking, keep taking in each detail as you push the scene to its limits. It's like witnessing the aftermath of a car wreck--my tendency is to look away, but in this case I'm required to stop and stare. Think of me as an anti-doctor--I ask the character "Where does it hurt?" and then rather than offering comfort, I figure out how to make it hurt even more.
The result, after four drafts and two critiques byjennifer_dunne aka "The Best Monkey", is a scene that I'm happy with. It's dark. It's damn dark. It doesn't describe everything--for instance I leave open the question of whether body parts were amputated**, but it's sufficiently horrific that the reader will completely understand why Josan will do absolutely anything to avoid being placed in that position again.
I didn't enjoy writing this. There's a part of me that isn't comfortable with the fact that I can slip into this headspace, and imagine the violation and degradation of another human being. A tiny part of me that wishes my first reaction upon hearing a description of torture was to be shocked at the very idea, rather than feeling the immediate urge to point out that what they had done would be ineffective and why.
But it's a necessary part of the story that I wanted to tell, and in the end I'm glad I did it.
Notes:
*For those who are keeping score at home, the music I used as the soundtrack of despair was composed of Celtic CDs (Clannad, Anam and Enya), Steve McDonald's Sons of Somerled, and the soundtrack for the Miami Vice movie.
**Josan has healing powers which may stretch to regrowing body parts. Nizam speculates on whether Josan possesses this ability but I don't actually say if he tried this experiment with his prisoner.
***For the record, no hot pokers were used.
sylvia_rachel asked if I'd mind describing my process, so for those who care, it's behind the cut.Please note the standard disclaimer: This is my process. It may not work for any other writer on the planet. Your actual mileage/wordcount will vary. Do not attempt unless you are a trained professional or are being supervised by a trained professional. The writer assumes all risk for any injuries that may occur from attempting to follow these instructions. The text below contains spoilers for THE SEA CHANGE--do not read if you are concerned this may interfere with your enjoyment of this book.
In the submitted version of THE SEA CHANGE, I wrote the scene where Josan is about to be tortured and then cut away. The next we see is the aftermath, where the torturer proclaims himself satisfied with Josan's innocence. I didn't show what happened to Josan, and allowed the reader to draw their own inferences as to exactly what had happened. There were hints from Josan's POV, but it wasn't explicit.
My editor, the all-knowing Anne Groell, called me on this. She pointed out that I was ducking the scene not because it wasn't necessary but because I didn't want to write it.
Most of Josan's actions throughout the rest of the story only make sense if we understand what happened to him. In order to strengthen his characterization and make him believable, I had to show what he had gone through.
Writing these kind of scenes is hard. In this case, because it was a torture scene, I had two choices for POV character. If I picked Nizam (the torturer), that would require me to get into Nizam's headspace. Nizam's a professional and extremely skilled at his job. If I was describing the scene from his POV, this would mean that I needed a decent working knowledge of torture techniques, and a theory on how Nizam would apply them to break down his victim. Entirely possible for me to acquire, but in this case it wasn't necessary. Since the focus was on using the scene to understand how it impacted Josan's character arc, I chose Josan as the POV character.
Choosing the vicitm as the POV character has its own issues. It's easier, in a way, in that Josan doesn't necessarily understand all of what is happening to him. He won't know the names of the specific devices or techniques, nor why things are done in a certain order. But it's also hard, because the victim is the one suffering. I need to describe what's happening to him, and his reactions--make these believable and gut wrenching without crossing the line over into melodrama.
It's tough for me to get into the headspace to write these kind of scenes. In this case I started where I always do--by picking music to write by*. In an eerie coincidence, tonight's episode of Criminal Minds opened with a horrific scene of a family being burned in their own home while haunting music played in the background. That specific song was on my playlist while writing the torture scene, so I was immediately in that gruesome headspace even as the show was recounting its own version of terror.
Then it's simply a matter of writing. It sounds easy, but it's not. You start with the question: What happens first? How does that feel? Then what happens next? The trick is that you can't allow yourself to flinch. You can't avert your eyes. You have to keep looking, keep taking in each detail as you push the scene to its limits. It's like witnessing the aftermath of a car wreck--my tendency is to look away, but in this case I'm required to stop and stare. Think of me as an anti-doctor--I ask the character "Where does it hurt?" and then rather than offering comfort, I figure out how to make it hurt even more.
The result, after four drafts and two critiques by
jennifer_dunne aka "The Best Monkey", is a scene that I'm happy with. It's dark. It's damn dark. It doesn't describe everything--for instance I leave open the question of whether body parts were amputated**, but it's sufficiently horrific that the reader will completely understand why Josan will do absolutely anything to avoid being placed in that position again.I didn't enjoy writing this. There's a part of me that isn't comfortable with the fact that I can slip into this headspace, and imagine the violation and degradation of another human being. A tiny part of me that wishes my first reaction upon hearing a description of torture was to be shocked at the very idea, rather than feeling the immediate urge to point out that what they had done would be ineffective and why.
But it's a necessary part of the story that I wanted to tell, and in the end I'm glad I did it.
Notes:
*For those who are keeping score at home, the music I used as the soundtrack of despair was composed of Celtic CDs (Clannad, Anam and Enya), Steve McDonald's Sons of Somerled, and the soundtrack for the Miami Vice movie.
**Josan has healing powers which may stretch to regrowing body parts. Nizam speculates on whether Josan possesses this ability but I don't actually say if he tried this experiment with his prisoner.
***For the record, no hot pokers were used.
