Why are difficult subjects so furkin' difficult?

For me, some scenes are difficult due to subject matter, others because they're so dratted complicated, and others because they're IMPORTANT to the story and intimidate me. When I hit one of those scenes, I write around it. I relax the restriction that I have to write from the beginning of the scene straight through to the end, and instead circle around the scene by writing whatever takes my fancy. A bit of conversation here, a slice of description there, and eventually I have enough patches so I can stitch the quilt of the scene together.

If I get really stumped, I'll write down notes about what I see for the outcome of the scene, then skip forward to the next scene. Sometimes by writing past the scene, I come up with the keys which unlock the problem.

See, I could do that scene easy.

But a scene where the MC's bare thier souls? Tricky, very tricky for me. A sex scene, no mater how mild ? *blush actually no. they are all either Mills and Boon or porn.* Nothing fit for public consumption

It's a strength you have to practise. Everyone has strengths, everyone has weaknesses. My weaknes is a sense of place. ( well one of them anyway). Yoursisi this.

You just have to write it. Then edit it. And edit again till it's right.

IdiotsRUs, I'll do your sex scenes for a hefty cut of the action.

In my current WIP, the hardest sections have been the sequels, you know, those sections between exciting scenes where the Scooby Gang sits around the school library and talks to Giles about what happened and what they should DO about it, and Willow gets on the computer, and Xander cracks wise to keep things interesting. So many of the plot intricacies get worked out in these sections.

For me, big visceral scenes like the one you're struggling with aren't so much difficult to get down as they are to get just right. I'll polish big scenes over and over, trying to get them as vivid and intense as possible.

So my advice would be to get it down in first draft any way you can. Then go over it again and again until you're happy with it.

I don't deal well with subjects that were messy for me in my real life. It doesn't take much for me to slip between realities... writing about the shit I bogged through is sometimes difficult. It's just so easy to dip into that pool though, since I know it. What I do -- push on through and don't stop until I can turn the page and not see it any more.

TheIT and I have a similar approach. Write a bit, move ahead, go back, whack and hack. But my barely begun sequel has a painful plot pivot involving evil leaking through Time. My nice-guy Ice Age heroes are going to bleed when they have to see some bad parts of our more recent past. It's going to be very challenging for all of us.

One of my novels, in progress, begins with a torture scene. I didn't realize how difficult it was going to be to write, but it was, except it isn't all there yet. I sort of glossed over it and will have to go back at some point and delve into it. Not something I'm looking forward to doing. It sticks in my mind, though. For now, it's just get the rest of the story down.

If you can toss in some place holders and move on you'll at least get through the rest of it before having to deal with that difficult part.

The bad guy in my current WIP did something very, very cruel to one of the important female characters in the past. It's a subject that's come up in my writing before but it's always touchy for me personally for some reason, and seeing as I try to keep this particular series PG-13, I didn't want to come out and simply say what he'd done. Add to that the fact that this character is explaining the incident to the 15-year-old female MC, and that just made it even more difficult.

I finally ended up kind of tiptoeing around it by merely hinting at what happened--the character in question simply tells the MC that the antagonist "took something" that mattered very much to her, then points out some of her descendants and says they were the "one good thing which came of this"--and the MC ends up understanding. Later in the story, another character aware of the incident (one who's not so inclined to tread lightly) up and comes out with:

"The elder Animiki claim that long ago, the Pearl Feather threatened the Sky Mother, and when she refused him he attacked. The Michinimakinong (the aforementioned descendants) came about as a result of this."

In case the female character's explanation wasn't clear enough earlier on, I hope that one is! Because I honestly don't want to go into any more detail. I save that for my more adult writing.

Mixed with the uncomfortable feeling of writing about such material is the worry that perhaps I was too vague, at least in the earlier explanation given by the character in question, but I have no way of telling. *shrug*

I have a rewrite of a couple of chapters because the subject matter is junk. I can write the blood, the hate, all the bad stuff...but stop cold when it comes to mundane stuff. I have to have it in because it is part of the story but I find I keep telling instead of showing. Sigh. Just can't get my mind into it. It turns into an info dump.

I'm a voyeur by nature. No matter how awful something might be, I'll rubberneck to get a good, long, nasty look. I pay for it in my nightmares.

For example, I love to watch the A&E show Intervention. I scares the bejeepers outta me but I can't help being riveted by it. In case you don't know, it's a "documentary" style show about the most horrific addictions, and it pulls no punches with its subjects.

In a way, this side of me makes it easier to write about uncomfortable subjects. Look on it as a fascinated observer, a bit detached. Maybe that'll help you.

Heron - I have to thank you. While reading this thread the solution to MY difficult scene worked itself out. I'm not there yet but it's approaching and I've been writing less because I've dreaded tackling it.

My MC has to go to a brothel but I do NOT do sex scenes. I've never planned for him to have sex but I still had to figure out how the whole thing will play out. Reading the answers here just sparked the answer. Thank you!

I skip a difficult scene and go and write the easy scenes. On the other hand, I think a lot about the difficult scene. At least when the situation presents itself, I generally have not wasted any time. I really don't see what you wrote as a "scene" though, it sounds like about 100 pages. Like an Act, rather than a scene. Maybe the problem is that you are trying to crunch too much information in to one scene? I could write a whole book with what you presented in the op.

Write it down raw, as pure, uncut, and gruesome as you can. Get it out of you. Think of it as lancing a boil. Then later, when you can stand it, go back and transform it into something magnificent.

*Tehuti88 wrote:

*I finally ended up kind of tiptoeing around it by merely hinting at what happened--the character in question simply tells the MC that the antagonist "took something" that *mattered very much to her, then points out some of her descendants and says they were the "one good thing which came of this"--and the MC ends up understanding.*


I totally got what you were hinting at, the first time. So, I'd say, no worries. And even if my interpretation of your hint is wrong, still it works because I [reader] think my version, if it is a version, is THE version.

Em

I'll put it off, but when it all comes out, it *all* comes out. Then i end up having to edit heavily. But it's usually worth it, and it often breaks a logjam I didn't even realize I'd been building.

I can't for the life of me write good fight scenes.
I can write, "bang there was a noise outside the room and then everybody was laying around knocked out now run away before they wake up"- type scenes, but I can't seem to get the "fist connects with face and there's blood everywhere, and oh, btw, they're all about to die" sort of scenes.
hmmm
...
i've gotten pretty good at writing sexual tension, though... i think.
but i'm a teenager, so that should come easily. :/