How to Deal With the Effects of Writing a Book that is Sick, Twisted, and Dark

     When writing a book, writer's can deal with a whole lot of situations, especially if you are writing about something that you never would have fathomed ever writing about before.  As a writer, I can tell you that ideas for books for me have come from all kinds of places, especially some of my dreams at night.  

     The other day I was watching a video from a fellow writer talking about writing dark fiction and how hard it was.  (see video below).

     Most writer's at some time or another will be faced with writing something that they could never contemplate ever writing, but as writer's we are generally driven from our inner core to write our stories.  Why this is I can't really say, but I think a fellow writer by the name of John Perrier stated it right in a quote when he said, "My stories come from someone inside me.  I'm just the typist".  I can relate so much to this when I am writing.  I especially can relate since I am a pantser and not a plotter type of writer.  Yes, I would rather write from the seat of my pants without really thinking ahead of what is to come in my story.  So because of this my mind generally runs what I like to call a mind movie in front of me.  As I watch the movie in my mind my fingers just start to type.  If I ever tried to be a plotter and outlined every part of my book, I can tell you this would never work for me.  I guess what I am trying to say here is that if you are a plotter writing something deep, dark, and twisted that just outlining your story is probably going to be tough.  Since I don't outline I can't answer truly what happens when a plotter is writing something off the beaten track.  I can only talk about how I write.  (Here is a video below talking about pantsers and plotters).

     I have heard writer's tell me that sometimes the story they are writing becomes too much to handle at times.  They say that it can take a toll on their health and drain them.  They talk about how their story can absorb their everyday life, to the point that they feel they are going insane.  When I was younger I was very much like these writer's, but the older I got the more aware I became on how to deal with the writing of certain things that might not have been what I would call the most enjoyable.

     How I deal with writing something that I wouldn't normally ever consider is by basically separating myself from it.  I know that most writers have to place themselves into their story, but I don't.  What I do is when I am writing something that is hard to write I just pretend that Hollywood has come calling and wants to do a movie about my book, and they ask me who would you like to star in it.  So what I do is cast my book with certain actors and actresses playing the parts.  This way when I am writing I just see a mind movie starring my celebrity lineup and it makes it easier.  Yes, sick, twisted movies do affect me, but I am not personally in them.  Not to mention, I never place any family, friends, or co-worker types in any of my books.  If I did that I wouldn't be able to write it.  I find it interesting when a writer says they can't really see their characters.  If I couldn't see my characters I definitely wouldn't be able to write.  I like making picture boards to go with my story.  I get a lot of photos off the Internet and place them on a picture board so that when I'm writing I can look at it and it inspires my story.  Also, music video's help me a lot with the writing of my books as well.

     But, I'd like to share an example of something I wrote which was a first for me and that was my erotica book: "The Ugly Side of Paradise".

     This was the very first time I decided to write in the erotica genre, and I have to tell you it was extremely challenging.  Since I usually write adult contemporary romance you would think that erotica wouldn't be that much harder, but it was.  In adult contemporary romance, the story is the stronger selling point in the book and not the sex.  Whereas, in erotica, the sex is the highest selling point in the story.  Also, in erotica, the language is usually pretty foul and somewhat disgusting, so this book did make me at times somewhat uncomfortable when writing it.  It made me think of E.L. James who wrote "Fifty Shades of Grey".  In an interview with Elizabeth Vargas, it was obvious that writing this book was extremely uncomfortable for her at times.  When watching this interview you almost could feel her embarrassment over it. (See video below to this interview).

     I think the one thing I could relate to in her interview was when she said that she never wants her two sons to ever read the "Fifty Shades of Grey" trilogy.  I can relate so much to this.  I would not want anyone in my family to read "The Ugly Side of Paradise" because they would probably get the wrong idea and start to wonder what I've been truly up to. They probably wouldn't be able to under that what I write is one thing, who I am is another. (Most writer's I'm sure can relate to that statement). The truth is when I wrote "The Ugly Side of Paradise", just like E.L. James I had to do a lot of research and some of it made me quite uncomfortable.  I bought and read a book called:  "How to Write Erotica".  This book helped a lot.  I do have to say that I take my hat off to writer's who write under the erotica genre all the time because this is one heavy subject.  Personally, I like writing adult contemporary romances with just sex as basically the backdrop and not the full story.

     So my best advice for writing a story is write something you truly feel comfortable writing, but if you get an idea that takes you to the dark side, (so to speak) you might want to try the Hollywood effect and try to cast it with actors and actresses playing the part and creating a picture board with them on it before you sit down to write.  Anyway, this has helped me, maybe it will help you too.

     In my next blog article, I am going to discuss why a lot of writers don't ever finish their book.

     So stay tuned!

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