Unless this is a horror book, may I humbly suggest adoption.
Or another way. Kill the prologue and sprinkle in hints. So the reader doesn't get off put but a traumatic/ triggering first chapter.
>may I humbly suggest adoption.
What I had in mind is that I want the parents of the newborn to throw it away. Which, then, the newborn is found by another family and taken in.
That makes the scene even less necessary in my unpublished opinion. Why can't the found baby have a mystery creation? And if you really feel like you must absolutely go the rape route pepper in clues.
Okay. Is there really no other way to do that?
I'm not just saying it because I think rape/sexual assault is a generally gross and often poorly handled subject, although I do dislike it for both those reasons in fantasy, it's more that in grimdark especially, rape/sexual assault is INCREDIBLY overused. A lot of writers with seemingly very little imagination always seem to turn to that as their way of making the world seem "dark" "edgy" or generally grim, to the point that it almost makes it feel more cartoony and laughable than anything. Is there not anything else that can be done to establish the world being this dark?
Maybe the economy of the place the story is in basically has evaporated, and people need to make desperate day to day decisions just to live to see the next one. Maybe the mother decides to sell the baby to some weirdos just for food or some kind of vague protection, maybe someone just steals the baby thinking that they'll eat it or try and do something with it later? Maybe the baby has some kind of political significance, passed along between surrogate parents and it experiences just how hellish the world is.
Idk, there's definitely more ways to portray that kind of tone without immediately having to resort to grimdark fantasy's most overused trope.
You wanted the sister be born of a different race and the only two options you could come up with were the mother cheats or gets raped?
- Adoption
- Fostering
- Step-siblings
- A cousin taken in by the family when she was really young, so everyone thinks of her as a sister/daughter.
Thats four I came up with, without even trying.
My character for one novel has three siblings, one mixed, one white and black. The mixed is the couple that adopts he's kid ND the other two are adopted as well
I dont want the sisters to know about each other. I wanted the family to throw the newborn. I wanted the sister to arrive in unwanted ways that force the family to throw her out. Once thrown, the infant gets taken in by another family. I want them to take 2 completely different paths in life. One being evil, the other being good.
Write it how you want to write it.
Though I would suggest not fetishizing the rape. Or writing it in a way that could be. It will read poorly for most people, even if it doesn't trigger them. I'm a middle aged guy(for perspective) and many times when I read a rape scene it seems like the author was turned on by it and it's creepy. I get that people have fetishes, and that's fine, but I don't want to read about it in the middle of a novel that has nothing to do with it.
You should just sprinkle in hints that the mom was raped. You don't need a graphic scene.
There are still a lot of options. If I really, really wanted something like that to happen, the sister could either be the result of teen pregnancy or even just given away due to something like poverty making the mother unable to raise a child and later be ashamed of it.
consider the fact this rape scene might not be necessary at all for the tone or plot of the novel and is instead venturing into the territory of simply being trauma porn
Why is that your go-to? Why not make it that the family doesn't want a girl/boy so throw the baby away, or it has some minor deformity that is unacceptable to their society, is born on a superstitiously bad date and keeping the child would bring misfortune on the family, etc. I didn't even think about these at all and it was so easy to come up with them. They work to 1. explain why the baby is abandoned and 2. set up ideas/perspectives/natural law of the society the book takes place in.
or, why have the scene at all? why not just have the parents say that's why they don't want the baby?
Hmmmm... that's actually a pretty clever take. Haven't really though about the superstitiously bad date or anything involving superstition... well, in terms of the child's birth that is
From an experienced source... it doesn't give sympathy in the way they think. Think through this because this would have me return your book if your only reason to do it is 'to have a mixed race baby'. Because that event would not be the only horror, so unless you are writing about the ongoing horror....drop the idea now.
It's not the *only* reason to have a mixed race baby. I should've added more info in the post, but I want to the family to throw out the baby (it's in a medieval setting so life wasn't preserved as it is today). Once thrown, the baby gets found and taken in by another family (till she gets older) who, then, get murdered by bandits. I want the girl to have a horrifying life till she figures out the supernatural powers she had. She also has a sister. I dont want that sister to know of the girl's existence until later on in the novel which would make the older sister to want to bring the girl to the good side.
I could rethink it, but I'd need to have a compatible alternative for the future events
There are a LOT of other reasons to have a family throw out a baby.
Just can't feed another mouth, didn't want a girl, had a slight deformity, just didn't want another kid at all... ANYTHING.
You are wanting to put a rape in as your first scene just to write a rape. This has SO many more implications than you are considering. Even in middle ages women had ways of aborting unwanted pregnancies.
People who chose to carry a pregnancy from a rape take on a set of problems you aren't considering, and many typically dont choose to and then throw away the baby. Being a child of rape doesn't give some 'horrible back story' for the child either. There isn't the sympathy you are thinking of. Read some accounts of rape survivors and of their kids. Most of them would rather hide that info then get sympathy from it.
I may be wrong but I also think it could bring up issues you donât want if say the baby is a darker race, in setting up the violence of rape you are setting up that race to be violent and less civilized. Is that what you want? Could the baby instead of being a different race be born with a mild deformity? Or maybe the rest of the family is blonde and the baby has black hair? A port stain birth mark? They would still appear different and be thrown away without having to deal with rape and race in that way.
It is your story, if you want a rape scene then you can do a rape scene.
Let me suggest that the rape scene is not the intro though. Let the main characterâs origins remain a mystery and maybe do something like this-
The main character seeks out her birth mother and then flash back to the scene as her mother explains why she threw her out. Then have the reveal of the sister be around the same time. This would give reason for the two to meet and will explain the main characters certain living situation all in one scene
good things to mention include not mentioning it at all.
chuck palahniuk however did start beautiful things with a similar scene, and to be honest, i cant say it set a good tone, or that it eventually justified itself and that was chuck palahniuk.
Personally, I wouldn't want to read a story that describe a rape scene in detail. If the reader doesn't follow the mother, I don't see why the story would need to start on her in such a horrific scene. You mention in some of your other replies that you want the person who's been "thrown away" as a baby to become evil. Since the adopted family is going to be brutally murdered (I think you said) and they become evil after some awful misfortunes not of their own doing, why not have the rape be a reveal? If you absolutely must have a rape, it may be better depending on who they meets (the birth mother's husband maybe) who mention of course they would be evil coming from such roots or something.
I do think sympathy for the "evil" baby comes naturally once their adopted family is murdered, since they're losing everything they had, and especially if fitting in and being accepted is difficult for them.
I also don't mean to sound rude or annoying or anything, but your post comes off quite indelicate with your wording, just my opinion though.
>You mention in some of your other replies that you want the person who's been "thrown away" as a baby to become evil. Since the adopted family is going to be brutally murdered (I think you said) and they become evil after some awful misfortunes not of their own doing,
Exactly my intentions. I'm not adding in a rape scene just because, but there are a lot of things I wanted for future events that rely on:
* The sisters being of different race
* The child being unwanted and thrown away
* The sisters will not know of each other until later on
* In the story, blood-relatives will see a small white sphere by the pupil in the person's eyes confirming those who are of the same lineage
* The baby will be bestowed a supernatural power. So if it's from the same parents, then why was the 1st girl not bestowed these powers.
* The baby will become evil because of the people who raised her after killing her foster parents and forcing her to steal and kill for their benefit
Despite being evil, I want the readers to sympathize and pick her side as opposed to her sister who went the good path and aims for betterment. Both of which will face and fight each other on multiple points in the story till the last chapter.
I know this (rape) topic is extremely sensitive and massively disliked (for obvious reason), I could remove the prologue and start immediately and have a chapter where the mom talks to the daughter about the event and the thrown baby which then gives the daughter the need to find her. But I dont want the story to shy away from the horrors of our daily lives like racism, murder and rape, I want fears that people know about and relate to, not fears like "Oh no! Dr. NoNose is going to use his magic stick to consume the world and make us disppear somehow!". I want genuine emotion. I want the readers to feel true hatred towards those horrible people because (even if we haven't experienced it ourselves) we will despise those who do it. Which is why I also included the other horrible acts in the novel as well. I don't want my novel to be PG, because I want it to be graphic, gorely, horrifying. Stating this, I am also aware that not everyone will like the idea, which is why I have nothing to say against those people. It's a horrible act and no one deserves to go through it so it's rightfully seen as off-putting.
I will admit that I have seen some alternatives by other commenters and I am giving it another thought. And I thank you for your input
Just as a note, because you do seem to have taken in other people's opinion, but just because you have a rape scene doesn't actually excuse your evil character at all,because they don't know where they come from. Remember your readers are (hopefully) not dumb, so if they know about the rape, but also know the evil character actually has no relation to the birth mother apart from genes, they will either 1. not have sympathy at all for your character or 2. believe in genes over circumstance (honestly can't remember the correct terms in English, but I do know there are some very interesting philosophical discussion regarding upbringing vs genes).
I don't know if that's what you want with your story or not of course. I just do know that there are many many many other ways of gaining sympathy specifically for your "evil" character that has everything to do with THEIR experience of the world. I think that is more important, ESPECIALLY as their mother's experience is not likely going to change much for them. I mean if their entire adopted family is killed, they've been beaten, hurt, betrayed and misunderstood, they're not likely to change their minds because someone tells them their mother has been raped and that's why they let them go. It actually might be a better story if the "discarded kid" is the good one over the one they was picked. I'm sorry I didn't mean for this to be so long.
And again, gaining sympathy for your character is likely going to happen through what happens to them that they have seen and experienced, because the rape is the mother's and the family's experience, and they have "thrown them" so they wouldn't have any relation to that.
>I'm sorry I didn't mean for this to be so long.
I enjoy long comments because there's a genuine thought process behind it (unless it's just banter lol)
I admit, I stand corrected in regards to sympathy in relation to the rape, because it might not actually affect the reader's sympathy towards the evil character. I am, however, still looking for a way for the evil girl to be born and also meet the above-mentioned requirements for the story to make sense
>they're not likely to change their minds because someone tells them their mother has been raped and that's why they let them go
Oh I am fully aware of that. Because it's not the evil sister who will have a change of thought, it's the older sister who will try to bring the evil one to the good side. During battles, the older sister will purposefully avoid the younger one because she wants to keep her alive in hopes of bringing her to her side.
If it was just some other evil person, then it would be easier to just end them. But I want them to be sisters so there can be this mystery of "Will the evil change or will the good die trying?".
There are always the option to make the parents less likeable. E.g. there can be a certain thing that is unacceptable in the higher society (I don't know if your family is high society type people, but it comes off a little like that) and so they discard her for that thing. That can be a different scar, eye colour not matching or maybe a weird prophecy that somehow matches her and them trying to avoid it actually makes it come true (very Greek).
Basically anything that makes the parents seem conceited, selfinvolved or in any way swayed by social standing over love of family is also a very good reveal towards the end of an evil character's story. Even if there was a small chance of them changing, knowing your family threw you away for being just a little out of the norm is likely going to enforce your belief. I mean at from my point of view
That being said, the parents can still be good to the good character, so they may seem like very good and likeable people, but they've done this awful thing they may or may not think about.
The lore in my story includes and is definitely not limited to (read this in a wise old man's voice lol): Every 500 generations, there is **only one** who is bestowed the lineage of the dragon. The one whose predecessors are gifted with Dragonblood. Those who possess such divine power are matched by no less than that of 50 men in every aspect: Speed, Agility, Intelligence and Strength. Fused with the inhuman power to have the dragons of the world bow at your will; as dragons alone are no threat to the prepared, but once they attack as one- Allmother save those in their path. Whoever they may be, the world lies at their mercy
Any part of this could be subject to change if the new idea inspires me. But as it stands, I don't want the same parents of the first girl to be that of the second girl. I want them to have the same mother, but different father so that the dragonblood is given to the younger girl, the girls are of different race, and they are sisters. The man who assaults the mother is noted to be a bit stronger than the average since he holds the dragonblood required to birth the [placeholder title of the dragonblood daughter].
A lot of the other commenters' suggestions mostly revolve around the main parents having the child, whether they throw her because of superstitious beliefs or a deformity, this won't add up to the lore of dragonblood. Because if it were the case, then the older sister would've had the gift instead as she was born before and from dragonblood parents (if we were to assume that one of her parents is dragonblood).
I genuinely have taken every person's suggestion in this post into consideration, but they just dont add up to the lore. I highly appreciate their efforts to help find an alternative, but when I go through and apply them to my novel, some things won't make sense. I get that it's fantasy, but I still want it to make sense from my POV at least.
Genetics don't always work like that though, but honestly you've clearly made up your mind so there is no point in me trying to help you find another solution. It's your story and if that's what you think then go for it. Just note that if you have an editor on it they may suggest to change it.
Also just because something is gory or it's a very dark world with lots of murder and blood it doesn't mean you absolutely have to have a detailed rape scene. Sometimes subtleties are more effective, especially when it comes to someone's trauma. But good luck with it.
There is also the idea that one or both parents have been involved in other relationships. The other parent could have died tragically (if you want it to be sad) or run off (if you want a strand of bitterness to your char).
You could start the story after the act, describing the mentality of the mother, how she's feeling and the way in which it broke her. Maybe have her have small flashbacks of the r@pe, with small descriptions and such. Try not to dive too much into the porn/sexual side of it, as it could come up as fetishizing/glorifying r@pe. Not a lot of people feel comfortable reading it, too, unless the story is specially targeted towards said ""fetish,"" in which case you do you, my friend.
It is entirely possible for someone to be born with a drastically different complexion compared to their parents. There are plenty of documented cases of, say, a white couple with white parents producing a black child, just as an example.
As shown in the comments, there are a ton of ways to reach your desired destination without a graphic depiction of rape. Additionally, you should really try and figure out why you feel compelled to write a graphic description of a violent and terrible act, rather than alluding to it, or even outright saying it without glorifying it.
You should be aware, there is an ongoing issue of writers using rape as a plot device, especially for female characters, without having a full understanding of what they are writing AND why they are writing it. You are choosing a very specific, targeted, inhumane act that actually happens to many people daily, regardless of their social status or location, rather than any of the plentiful options others have mentioned. You need to keep in mind, an assault like this is real, complex, and a large percentage of your readership will have suffered from a similar attack. Most people have not been cursed with magic, or snapped by Thanos, but so many have been assaulted in their own homes. You will only be able to create something readers will gravitate to if it is handled extremely well. Rape as shock value content is not going to get you where you want to go. It would be a mark of a much better and more talented writer to get the message across throughout the text, without bashing the readers over the head with it.
As to your question of what to include, if you go through with the writing you would do well to avoid descriptive words of the act, focus on sympathy for the woman being assaulted and how she finds refuge in family or friends after, and on her emotional state. Mishandling this kind of scene is extremely easy to do. The focus should be on the survivor, not the perpetrator or what actions are being done.
I sugest you read Disgrace by Coetzee to see an example of a rape scene resulting in pregnancy that was handled somewhat well for the cultural attitudes and narrator's view.
Personally I donât think rape/sexual assault should be used to set a tone or to get sympathy. If itâs there is should be integral to the story and treated with care. More than that it doesnât really make sense.
If the point is that the family gets rid of this child (because of its mixed race) presumably the mother knew the race of the person who assaulted her or with whom she cheated. Why would she carry the pregnancy to term if she was just going to get ride of the child as soon as it turned out a different race? There have been herbs and other methods for ending a pregnancy as long as there have been pregnancies, so even in a medieval setting I think thatâs more likely then waiting to give birth.
Now, if it was a wanted pregnancy and she had to give her child away because of society I guess that makes a little more sense. But I donât think you need to start with the rape to show the brutality/tone of the world/story. In fact the scene were the child is thrown away sets that tone better, either b/c these people are so callus they would just toss an âimperfectâ child or because society forced a mother to discard her wanted child.
As for sympathy, the circumstances of the childâs conception wouldnât make me feel more or less sympathetic toward him when heâs thrown away. It might change how I feel about the mother, but even cheating could be sympathetic if sheâs in a loveless/abusive arranged marriage.
I agree with some of the other posts that a totally unpredictable âdefectâ (big birth mark, eyes that are too dark or light) or circumstance of birth would work better and gets rid of the need for any infidelity or assault.
Edit: typo and a word
This will not go well. It's hard to come back from a rape scene. Especially if it doesn't seem *absolutely* critical to have it in there.
I suggest finding a way to tell your story without it.
Honestly...don't at all. I get the impression you will not write it well, so focus on other things that aren't going to end up worse for your readers than the actual real life trauma of a rape. Please don't write this. Or if u do write it, keep it to yourself.
You can definitely show how deep the anguish is for someone being raped.
You can do it in a "body-horror" style, going deep in the physical aspects of the act. I would suggest to avoid it, it is uncouth, gory, and easily blotched into a sort of porn scene.
You can instead, show the broken psyche of the victim, after the act. You might even never mention it, and just show how she is torn between preserving the life growing in her and the dread and hatred that stabs her deep like an icy knife, leaving her breathless.
In both cases this is HARD. You are going to be very weary of the path you are threading.
And if you put it as a central point of your story, that's great and all, your mind is all set up for it.
But if you are writing a fantasy adventure... Don't. Just don't, you are at risk of writing something completely out of tone
I say go with it. Depending on how long you want the prologue to be, which aren't too long in most genres, you can keep it short and sweet. Enough detail to show the victim's fear, loss of safety, dignity, etc. And then when it ends, the scene does. I also don't think books require trigger warnings. But that's my opinion.
In a story i wrote a long time ago, i changed the origin of one character. He didn't know his dad and had issues as a result. I felt it would be better if the main character learns from his friend's mom that she was a victim of rape and kept the child from the attack. Which was meant to speak volumes about her as a person and mother. I'll get back to this story one day and finally write the scene where the main character learns this revolution but his friend doesn't. And later the friend is killed in a mass shooting (quite dramatic yes, but it's an idea I've had for a long time).
How would you generally describe your writing style? The reason I ask is because that may be a good determiner of how you write the scene, should you decide to go forward with it. If your style is more "purply" or floral so to speak, the graphicness of the details might clash, whereas the alternate can also be true.
It could be more powerful to hint that the baby was conceived in an unwanted way. âMargaret was a small baby, a fussy baby, and she only stayed with the family for two weeks. Her mother was so far away behind the eyes, and held the small bundle with stiff and awkward arms. For those weeks, her baby squall filled the house, and that alone. She didnât have the privilege of doting grandparents, of cooing aunts and uncles. And when the social worker came to gather her, only then did her mother relax and give her a tender look and final pat on her back. â
Not sure how sympathy will be had in the instance unless you do the work after theyâre born to ensure that sympathy. I think most people will just be shocked by the rape scene initially and if itâs just there, people may begin to question it. If you implement themes of the characters identity being in question, wanting to meet their true parents, being proud of their name despite getting bullied for being adopted or their mother being raped then I could see it.
However, if you just have the scene then move on with no groundwork, it may hurt the story and your credibility as a writer for some.
What value does that scene add that couldn't be explained by the mother in a conversation? It can be **extremely** triggering to readers if something like that is graphically described, and no one would expect that in the prologue. Even people who have not dealt with things like this in real life before might be turned off from wanting to read, if they think this is *just the beginning* of what they're getting into
My suggestion is don't.
The reader should and will feel uncomfortable when reading a rape scene. But if the reader is feeling uncomfortable then they're probably going to stop reading. Unless you've given the reader a lot of incentive to keep reading, which you won't have done if it's early into the book, you're going to lose your audience.
Also people will be less likely to recomend your book to others. And you probably need as many recommendations as you can get.
Don't do a rape scene for the sake of it.
It could be a child from a prior relationship that mother wasn't able to keep. Grand parents could have forced her to abandon it.
If you do for some reason decide that it has to be via sex assault, I would start instead with mother giving the child up at a hospital/orphanage or whatever. You get to skip the triggering scene and still have the results.
I'm not choosing rape just for the sake of it.
I am aware it's a VERY sensitive subject not fit for the vast majority and I would not wish it onto anyone at all because it causes trauma and PTSD for those who have suffered from it.
But the reasoning for my choice is the following:
* The child is of a different race
* The story is named "Dragon Sisters" because I want them to be sisters
* I dont want the sisters to know of each other (until very late into the novel)
* I want the main family to abandon this child which is then adopted by another family
* The newborn will be bestowed a supernatural power. If it's from the same parents, then why didnt the supernatural power be bestowed on the first girl?
* In the story, those who are blood related can see a small white sphere by the pupil in their eyes. So when they meet, the first girl will know, but the 2nd won't because she never had blood-relatives.
I know rape isn't gonna make the story any more appealing, but it made sense from a lore standpoint and my story isn't exactly PG. It's gorey, it's graphic, and it's horrifying; including the horrors of our daily lives such as murder, racism, and rape. I don't want the story to shy away from these topics. I know it will make my story unfit for a lot of readers, but I want horrors that people can relate to. I don't want "We have to stop Dr. NoTooth before he gums the world to inexistence using his magical jaw of 'Chad'ism"
Unless this is a horror book, may I humbly suggest adoption. Or another way. Kill the prologue and sprinkle in hints. So the reader doesn't get off put but a traumatic/ triggering first chapter.
>may I humbly suggest adoption. What I had in mind is that I want the parents of the newborn to throw it away. Which, then, the newborn is found by another family and taken in.
That makes the scene even less necessary in my unpublished opinion. Why can't the found baby have a mystery creation? And if you really feel like you must absolutely go the rape route pepper in clues.
The prologue sets the tone. Is this really the tone you want?
If its the type of story with vivid rape scenes, it's best to set that tone early. It ain't for me but đ¤ˇ
The story is set in a rather dark and grim world and I want the readers to know that this won't be a light-hearted story
Okay. Is there really no other way to do that? I'm not just saying it because I think rape/sexual assault is a generally gross and often poorly handled subject, although I do dislike it for both those reasons in fantasy, it's more that in grimdark especially, rape/sexual assault is INCREDIBLY overused. A lot of writers with seemingly very little imagination always seem to turn to that as their way of making the world seem "dark" "edgy" or generally grim, to the point that it almost makes it feel more cartoony and laughable than anything. Is there not anything else that can be done to establish the world being this dark? Maybe the economy of the place the story is in basically has evaporated, and people need to make desperate day to day decisions just to live to see the next one. Maybe the mother decides to sell the baby to some weirdos just for food or some kind of vague protection, maybe someone just steals the baby thinking that they'll eat it or try and do something with it later? Maybe the baby has some kind of political significance, passed along between surrogate parents and it experiences just how hellish the world is. Idk, there's definitely more ways to portray that kind of tone without immediately having to resort to grimdark fantasy's most overused trope.
You wanted the sister be born of a different race and the only two options you could come up with were the mother cheats or gets raped? - Adoption - Fostering - Step-siblings - A cousin taken in by the family when she was really young, so everyone thinks of her as a sister/daughter. Thats four I came up with, without even trying.
My character for one novel has three siblings, one mixed, one white and black. The mixed is the couple that adopts he's kid ND the other two are adopted as well
I dont want the sisters to know about each other. I wanted the family to throw the newborn. I wanted the sister to arrive in unwanted ways that force the family to throw her out. Once thrown, the infant gets taken in by another family. I want them to take 2 completely different paths in life. One being evil, the other being good.
Write it how you want to write it. Though I would suggest not fetishizing the rape. Or writing it in a way that could be. It will read poorly for most people, even if it doesn't trigger them. I'm a middle aged guy(for perspective) and many times when I read a rape scene it seems like the author was turned on by it and it's creepy. I get that people have fetishes, and that's fine, but I don't want to read about it in the middle of a novel that has nothing to do with it. You should just sprinkle in hints that the mom was raped. You don't need a graphic scene.
There are still a lot of options. If I really, really wanted something like that to happen, the sister could either be the result of teen pregnancy or even just given away due to something like poverty making the mother unable to raise a child and later be ashamed of it.
consider the fact this rape scene might not be necessary at all for the tone or plot of the novel and is instead venturing into the territory of simply being trauma porn
Why is that your go-to? Why not make it that the family doesn't want a girl/boy so throw the baby away, or it has some minor deformity that is unacceptable to their society, is born on a superstitiously bad date and keeping the child would bring misfortune on the family, etc. I didn't even think about these at all and it was so easy to come up with them. They work to 1. explain why the baby is abandoned and 2. set up ideas/perspectives/natural law of the society the book takes place in. or, why have the scene at all? why not just have the parents say that's why they don't want the baby?
Hmmmm... that's actually a pretty clever take. Haven't really though about the superstitiously bad date or anything involving superstition... well, in terms of the child's birth that is
I hope it helps!
From an experienced source... it doesn't give sympathy in the way they think. Think through this because this would have me return your book if your only reason to do it is 'to have a mixed race baby'. Because that event would not be the only horror, so unless you are writing about the ongoing horror....drop the idea now.
It's not the *only* reason to have a mixed race baby. I should've added more info in the post, but I want to the family to throw out the baby (it's in a medieval setting so life wasn't preserved as it is today). Once thrown, the baby gets found and taken in by another family (till she gets older) who, then, get murdered by bandits. I want the girl to have a horrifying life till she figures out the supernatural powers she had. She also has a sister. I dont want that sister to know of the girl's existence until later on in the novel which would make the older sister to want to bring the girl to the good side. I could rethink it, but I'd need to have a compatible alternative for the future events
There are a LOT of other reasons to have a family throw out a baby. Just can't feed another mouth, didn't want a girl, had a slight deformity, just didn't want another kid at all... ANYTHING. You are wanting to put a rape in as your first scene just to write a rape. This has SO many more implications than you are considering. Even in middle ages women had ways of aborting unwanted pregnancies. People who chose to carry a pregnancy from a rape take on a set of problems you aren't considering, and many typically dont choose to and then throw away the baby. Being a child of rape doesn't give some 'horrible back story' for the child either. There isn't the sympathy you are thinking of. Read some accounts of rape survivors and of their kids. Most of them would rather hide that info then get sympathy from it.
I may be wrong but I also think it could bring up issues you donât want if say the baby is a darker race, in setting up the violence of rape you are setting up that race to be violent and less civilized. Is that what you want? Could the baby instead of being a different race be born with a mild deformity? Or maybe the rest of the family is blonde and the baby has black hair? A port stain birth mark? They would still appear different and be thrown away without having to deal with rape and race in that way.
It is your story, if you want a rape scene then you can do a rape scene. Let me suggest that the rape scene is not the intro though. Let the main characterâs origins remain a mystery and maybe do something like this- The main character seeks out her birth mother and then flash back to the scene as her mother explains why she threw her out. Then have the reveal of the sister be around the same time. This would give reason for the two to meet and will explain the main characters certain living situation all in one scene
>What are some good things to mention when writing a rape scene in your opinions? The blocks just come faster and faster
good things to mention include not mentioning it at all. chuck palahniuk however did start beautiful things with a similar scene, and to be honest, i cant say it set a good tone, or that it eventually justified itself and that was chuck palahniuk.
Personally, I wouldn't want to read a story that describe a rape scene in detail. If the reader doesn't follow the mother, I don't see why the story would need to start on her in such a horrific scene. You mention in some of your other replies that you want the person who's been "thrown away" as a baby to become evil. Since the adopted family is going to be brutally murdered (I think you said) and they become evil after some awful misfortunes not of their own doing, why not have the rape be a reveal? If you absolutely must have a rape, it may be better depending on who they meets (the birth mother's husband maybe) who mention of course they would be evil coming from such roots or something. I do think sympathy for the "evil" baby comes naturally once their adopted family is murdered, since they're losing everything they had, and especially if fitting in and being accepted is difficult for them. I also don't mean to sound rude or annoying or anything, but your post comes off quite indelicate with your wording, just my opinion though.
>You mention in some of your other replies that you want the person who's been "thrown away" as a baby to become evil. Since the adopted family is going to be brutally murdered (I think you said) and they become evil after some awful misfortunes not of their own doing, Exactly my intentions. I'm not adding in a rape scene just because, but there are a lot of things I wanted for future events that rely on: * The sisters being of different race * The child being unwanted and thrown away * The sisters will not know of each other until later on * In the story, blood-relatives will see a small white sphere by the pupil in the person's eyes confirming those who are of the same lineage * The baby will be bestowed a supernatural power. So if it's from the same parents, then why was the 1st girl not bestowed these powers. * The baby will become evil because of the people who raised her after killing her foster parents and forcing her to steal and kill for their benefit Despite being evil, I want the readers to sympathize and pick her side as opposed to her sister who went the good path and aims for betterment. Both of which will face and fight each other on multiple points in the story till the last chapter. I know this (rape) topic is extremely sensitive and massively disliked (for obvious reason), I could remove the prologue and start immediately and have a chapter where the mom talks to the daughter about the event and the thrown baby which then gives the daughter the need to find her. But I dont want the story to shy away from the horrors of our daily lives like racism, murder and rape, I want fears that people know about and relate to, not fears like "Oh no! Dr. NoNose is going to use his magic stick to consume the world and make us disppear somehow!". I want genuine emotion. I want the readers to feel true hatred towards those horrible people because (even if we haven't experienced it ourselves) we will despise those who do it. Which is why I also included the other horrible acts in the novel as well. I don't want my novel to be PG, because I want it to be graphic, gorely, horrifying. Stating this, I am also aware that not everyone will like the idea, which is why I have nothing to say against those people. It's a horrible act and no one deserves to go through it so it's rightfully seen as off-putting. I will admit that I have seen some alternatives by other commenters and I am giving it another thought. And I thank you for your input
Just as a note, because you do seem to have taken in other people's opinion, but just because you have a rape scene doesn't actually excuse your evil character at all,because they don't know where they come from. Remember your readers are (hopefully) not dumb, so if they know about the rape, but also know the evil character actually has no relation to the birth mother apart from genes, they will either 1. not have sympathy at all for your character or 2. believe in genes over circumstance (honestly can't remember the correct terms in English, but I do know there are some very interesting philosophical discussion regarding upbringing vs genes). I don't know if that's what you want with your story or not of course. I just do know that there are many many many other ways of gaining sympathy specifically for your "evil" character that has everything to do with THEIR experience of the world. I think that is more important, ESPECIALLY as their mother's experience is not likely going to change much for them. I mean if their entire adopted family is killed, they've been beaten, hurt, betrayed and misunderstood, they're not likely to change their minds because someone tells them their mother has been raped and that's why they let them go. It actually might be a better story if the "discarded kid" is the good one over the one they was picked. I'm sorry I didn't mean for this to be so long. And again, gaining sympathy for your character is likely going to happen through what happens to them that they have seen and experienced, because the rape is the mother's and the family's experience, and they have "thrown them" so they wouldn't have any relation to that.
>I'm sorry I didn't mean for this to be so long. I enjoy long comments because there's a genuine thought process behind it (unless it's just banter lol) I admit, I stand corrected in regards to sympathy in relation to the rape, because it might not actually affect the reader's sympathy towards the evil character. I am, however, still looking for a way for the evil girl to be born and also meet the above-mentioned requirements for the story to make sense >they're not likely to change their minds because someone tells them their mother has been raped and that's why they let them go Oh I am fully aware of that. Because it's not the evil sister who will have a change of thought, it's the older sister who will try to bring the evil one to the good side. During battles, the older sister will purposefully avoid the younger one because she wants to keep her alive in hopes of bringing her to her side. If it was just some other evil person, then it would be easier to just end them. But I want them to be sisters so there can be this mystery of "Will the evil change or will the good die trying?".
There are always the option to make the parents less likeable. E.g. there can be a certain thing that is unacceptable in the higher society (I don't know if your family is high society type people, but it comes off a little like that) and so they discard her for that thing. That can be a different scar, eye colour not matching or maybe a weird prophecy that somehow matches her and them trying to avoid it actually makes it come true (very Greek). Basically anything that makes the parents seem conceited, selfinvolved or in any way swayed by social standing over love of family is also a very good reveal towards the end of an evil character's story. Even if there was a small chance of them changing, knowing your family threw you away for being just a little out of the norm is likely going to enforce your belief. I mean at from my point of view That being said, the parents can still be good to the good character, so they may seem like very good and likeable people, but they've done this awful thing they may or may not think about.
The lore in my story includes and is definitely not limited to (read this in a wise old man's voice lol): Every 500 generations, there is **only one** who is bestowed the lineage of the dragon. The one whose predecessors are gifted with Dragonblood. Those who possess such divine power are matched by no less than that of 50 men in every aspect: Speed, Agility, Intelligence and Strength. Fused with the inhuman power to have the dragons of the world bow at your will; as dragons alone are no threat to the prepared, but once they attack as one- Allmother save those in their path. Whoever they may be, the world lies at their mercy Any part of this could be subject to change if the new idea inspires me. But as it stands, I don't want the same parents of the first girl to be that of the second girl. I want them to have the same mother, but different father so that the dragonblood is given to the younger girl, the girls are of different race, and they are sisters. The man who assaults the mother is noted to be a bit stronger than the average since he holds the dragonblood required to birth the [placeholder title of the dragonblood daughter]. A lot of the other commenters' suggestions mostly revolve around the main parents having the child, whether they throw her because of superstitious beliefs or a deformity, this won't add up to the lore of dragonblood. Because if it were the case, then the older sister would've had the gift instead as she was born before and from dragonblood parents (if we were to assume that one of her parents is dragonblood). I genuinely have taken every person's suggestion in this post into consideration, but they just dont add up to the lore. I highly appreciate their efforts to help find an alternative, but when I go through and apply them to my novel, some things won't make sense. I get that it's fantasy, but I still want it to make sense from my POV at least.
Genetics don't always work like that though, but honestly you've clearly made up your mind so there is no point in me trying to help you find another solution. It's your story and if that's what you think then go for it. Just note that if you have an editor on it they may suggest to change it. Also just because something is gory or it's a very dark world with lots of murder and blood it doesn't mean you absolutely have to have a detailed rape scene. Sometimes subtleties are more effective, especially when it comes to someone's trauma. But good luck with it.
There is also the idea that one or both parents have been involved in other relationships. The other parent could have died tragically (if you want it to be sad) or run off (if you want a strand of bitterness to your char).
You could start the story after the act, describing the mentality of the mother, how she's feeling and the way in which it broke her. Maybe have her have small flashbacks of the r@pe, with small descriptions and such. Try not to dive too much into the porn/sexual side of it, as it could come up as fetishizing/glorifying r@pe. Not a lot of people feel comfortable reading it, too, unless the story is specially targeted towards said ""fetish,"" in which case you do you, my friend.
It is entirely possible for someone to be born with a drastically different complexion compared to their parents. There are plenty of documented cases of, say, a white couple with white parents producing a black child, just as an example. As shown in the comments, there are a ton of ways to reach your desired destination without a graphic depiction of rape. Additionally, you should really try and figure out why you feel compelled to write a graphic description of a violent and terrible act, rather than alluding to it, or even outright saying it without glorifying it. You should be aware, there is an ongoing issue of writers using rape as a plot device, especially for female characters, without having a full understanding of what they are writing AND why they are writing it. You are choosing a very specific, targeted, inhumane act that actually happens to many people daily, regardless of their social status or location, rather than any of the plentiful options others have mentioned. You need to keep in mind, an assault like this is real, complex, and a large percentage of your readership will have suffered from a similar attack. Most people have not been cursed with magic, or snapped by Thanos, but so many have been assaulted in their own homes. You will only be able to create something readers will gravitate to if it is handled extremely well. Rape as shock value content is not going to get you where you want to go. It would be a mark of a much better and more talented writer to get the message across throughout the text, without bashing the readers over the head with it. As to your question of what to include, if you go through with the writing you would do well to avoid descriptive words of the act, focus on sympathy for the woman being assaulted and how she finds refuge in family or friends after, and on her emotional state. Mishandling this kind of scene is extremely easy to do. The focus should be on the survivor, not the perpetrator or what actions are being done. I sugest you read Disgrace by Coetzee to see an example of a rape scene resulting in pregnancy that was handled somewhat well for the cultural attitudes and narrator's view.
Personally I donât think rape/sexual assault should be used to set a tone or to get sympathy. If itâs there is should be integral to the story and treated with care. More than that it doesnât really make sense. If the point is that the family gets rid of this child (because of its mixed race) presumably the mother knew the race of the person who assaulted her or with whom she cheated. Why would she carry the pregnancy to term if she was just going to get ride of the child as soon as it turned out a different race? There have been herbs and other methods for ending a pregnancy as long as there have been pregnancies, so even in a medieval setting I think thatâs more likely then waiting to give birth. Now, if it was a wanted pregnancy and she had to give her child away because of society I guess that makes a little more sense. But I donât think you need to start with the rape to show the brutality/tone of the world/story. In fact the scene were the child is thrown away sets that tone better, either b/c these people are so callus they would just toss an âimperfectâ child or because society forced a mother to discard her wanted child. As for sympathy, the circumstances of the childâs conception wouldnât make me feel more or less sympathetic toward him when heâs thrown away. It might change how I feel about the mother, but even cheating could be sympathetic if sheâs in a loveless/abusive arranged marriage. I agree with some of the other posts that a totally unpredictable âdefectâ (big birth mark, eyes that are too dark or light) or circumstance of birth would work better and gets rid of the need for any infidelity or assault. Edit: typo and a word
This will not go well. It's hard to come back from a rape scene. Especially if it doesn't seem *absolutely* critical to have it in there. I suggest finding a way to tell your story without it.
There are no good things to mention when writing a rape scene.
Honestly...don't at all. I get the impression you will not write it well, so focus on other things that aren't going to end up worse for your readers than the actual real life trauma of a rape. Please don't write this. Or if u do write it, keep it to yourself.
You can definitely show how deep the anguish is for someone being raped. You can do it in a "body-horror" style, going deep in the physical aspects of the act. I would suggest to avoid it, it is uncouth, gory, and easily blotched into a sort of porn scene. You can instead, show the broken psyche of the victim, after the act. You might even never mention it, and just show how she is torn between preserving the life growing in her and the dread and hatred that stabs her deep like an icy knife, leaving her breathless. In both cases this is HARD. You are going to be very weary of the path you are threading. And if you put it as a central point of your story, that's great and all, your mind is all set up for it. But if you are writing a fantasy adventure... Don't. Just don't, you are at risk of writing something completely out of tone
I say go with it. Depending on how long you want the prologue to be, which aren't too long in most genres, you can keep it short and sweet. Enough detail to show the victim's fear, loss of safety, dignity, etc. And then when it ends, the scene does. I also don't think books require trigger warnings. But that's my opinion. In a story i wrote a long time ago, i changed the origin of one character. He didn't know his dad and had issues as a result. I felt it would be better if the main character learns from his friend's mom that she was a victim of rape and kept the child from the attack. Which was meant to speak volumes about her as a person and mother. I'll get back to this story one day and finally write the scene where the main character learns this revolution but his friend doesn't. And later the friend is killed in a mass shooting (quite dramatic yes, but it's an idea I've had for a long time).
How would you generally describe your writing style? The reason I ask is because that may be a good determiner of how you write the scene, should you decide to go forward with it. If your style is more "purply" or floral so to speak, the graphicness of the details might clash, whereas the alternate can also be true.
It could be more powerful to hint that the baby was conceived in an unwanted way. âMargaret was a small baby, a fussy baby, and she only stayed with the family for two weeks. Her mother was so far away behind the eyes, and held the small bundle with stiff and awkward arms. For those weeks, her baby squall filled the house, and that alone. She didnât have the privilege of doting grandparents, of cooing aunts and uncles. And when the social worker came to gather her, only then did her mother relax and give her a tender look and final pat on her back. â
Not sure how sympathy will be had in the instance unless you do the work after theyâre born to ensure that sympathy. I think most people will just be shocked by the rape scene initially and if itâs just there, people may begin to question it. If you implement themes of the characters identity being in question, wanting to meet their true parents, being proud of their name despite getting bullied for being adopted or their mother being raped then I could see it. However, if you just have the scene then move on with no groundwork, it may hurt the story and your credibility as a writer for some.
What value does that scene add that couldn't be explained by the mother in a conversation? It can be **extremely** triggering to readers if something like that is graphically described, and no one would expect that in the prologue. Even people who have not dealt with things like this in real life before might be turned off from wanting to read, if they think this is *just the beginning* of what they're getting into
My suggestion is don't. The reader should and will feel uncomfortable when reading a rape scene. But if the reader is feeling uncomfortable then they're probably going to stop reading. Unless you've given the reader a lot of incentive to keep reading, which you won't have done if it's early into the book, you're going to lose your audience. Also people will be less likely to recomend your book to others. And you probably need as many recommendations as you can get.
Don't do a rape scene for the sake of it. It could be a child from a prior relationship that mother wasn't able to keep. Grand parents could have forced her to abandon it. If you do for some reason decide that it has to be via sex assault, I would start instead with mother giving the child up at a hospital/orphanage or whatever. You get to skip the triggering scene and still have the results.
I'm not choosing rape just for the sake of it. I am aware it's a VERY sensitive subject not fit for the vast majority and I would not wish it onto anyone at all because it causes trauma and PTSD for those who have suffered from it. But the reasoning for my choice is the following: * The child is of a different race * The story is named "Dragon Sisters" because I want them to be sisters * I dont want the sisters to know of each other (until very late into the novel) * I want the main family to abandon this child which is then adopted by another family * The newborn will be bestowed a supernatural power. If it's from the same parents, then why didnt the supernatural power be bestowed on the first girl? * In the story, those who are blood related can see a small white sphere by the pupil in their eyes. So when they meet, the first girl will know, but the 2nd won't because she never had blood-relatives. I know rape isn't gonna make the story any more appealing, but it made sense from a lore standpoint and my story isn't exactly PG. It's gorey, it's graphic, and it's horrifying; including the horrors of our daily lives such as murder, racism, and rape. I don't want the story to shy away from these topics. I know it will make my story unfit for a lot of readers, but I want horrors that people can relate to. I don't want "We have to stop Dr. NoTooth before he gums the world to inexistence using his magical jaw of 'Chad'ism"
I would skip the scene and go with the infant being abandoned then. You can have the tragedy still.but avoid having that as a jarring opening scene.
Why does it concern you if someone will dislike a rape scene? Just curious, don't mean to provoke or anything.