Writing romance, does it embarrass YOU?

I can understand that. In my first Anakin/Padme fic, there is intramarital rape and Obi-Wan has to deal with the aftereffects and writing it as something that has the right level of trauma, but is still in-character was very hard. And it was even before I had personal experience with the matter. I've also written a story wherein the two main characters were best friends until he raped her and this isn't revealed until you see a lot of hostility and fear between them and then the description of the actual act is done in a series of remembering sensations that suggest obliquely what exactly happened.

 

Rape is a situation that's pretty hard to keep PG. It can be done, and in fact I had to allude to a similar situation in a fic. Using the third-character's-reaction method is also what I did and it kept things from getting too detailed, because the third char couldn't possibly know the details.

Won't work in every story, but it's a good trick when it does.

 

My character is in first POV, he was raped as a child so I used a memory sequence, and then he Bonded someone against their will -which he thought of as rape- and I wrote that from HIS first person POV. It was tough, but I think I managed well enough. I needed to keep the audience sympathetic to him and her.

I still haven't delved into smut, I am really uncomfortable thinking about it. I will probably try PG style just to see if I can do it but I am very conscious of the younger readers in my thread so I know it won't be too bad. That and I would embarrass myself.

 

Sorry.... But it will come again...

 

Romance doesn't make me blush. Used to, but not anymore. Not even stuff above PG-13 makes me blush anymore. Of course, considering how much mush/romance I write these days, I'd either have to get used to it or my head would explode from all the blood in my body being in my face.


Dana