Thoughts on writing a short story inspired by a recent disaster?

LucySnowe24

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Hi guys!

I've just started writing a short story based on the Grenfell Tower fire. The tower in my story has a different name, but it's a council tower block in London that's destroyed by a fire in which many residents die, so the basis is obvious. To research it, I read news reports about the fire and interviews with survivors and drew on those while writing it, but I changed some details to make the plot work. The bulk of the story isn't about the fire itself - it's about my narrator, a 16-year-old girl, coping with the aftermath as she and her family try to find new housing, but there's a flashback to the fire.

From a personal viewpoint, I want to continue writing this story. I think it's good and the writing is flowing easily, which is something I haven't felt about my writing for a long time. However, I'm worried that it's not ethical to write about such a horrible real-world tragedy. I'm not sure when is considered 'too soon' to write about such things. Grenfell was nearly two years ago. Jonathan Safran Foer published Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close four years after 9/11. I recently read and loved Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, which combines magical realism with scenes obviously based on ongoing events such as the Syrian war and the refugee crisis. I certainly believe it's possible to write about any real-life tragedy if you do so with sensitivity and respect, which is what I'm aiming to do here. However, I can't help thinking that if I was a Grenfell Tower survivor or a relative of the victims and I read the story, I would be angry and offended, and I think that matters.

What are your opinions?
 

Auteur

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Hi guys!

I've just started writing a short story based on the Grenfell Tower fire. The tower in my story has a different name, but it's a council tower block in London that's destroyed by a fire in which many residents die, so the basis is obvious. To research it, I read news reports about the fire and interviews with survivors and drew on those while writing it, but I changed some details to make the plot work. The bulk of the story isn't about the fire itself - it's about my narrator, a 16-year-old girl, coping with the aftermath as she and her family try to find new housing, but there's a flashback to the fire.

From a personal viewpoint, I want to continue writing this story. I think it's good and the writing is flowing easily, which is something I haven't felt about my writing for a long time. However, I'm worried that it's not ethical to write about such a horrible real-world tragedy. I'm not sure when is considered 'too soon' to write about such things. Grenfell was nearly two years ago. Jonathan Safran Foer published Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close four years after 9/11. I recently read and loved Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, which combines magical realism with scenes obviously based on ongoing events such as the Syrian war and the refugee crisis. I certainly believe it's possible to write about any real-life tragedy if you do so with sensitivity and respect, which is what I'm aiming to do here. However, I can't help thinking that if I was a Grenfell Tower survivor or a relative of the victims and I read the story, I would be angry and offended, and I think that matters.

What are your opinions?

Great idea! The possibilities are endless.

Everybody deals with adversity in their own way; some find strength in it and become heroes while others give up or rely on others to help them through. And then there are the political aspects of it. Why weren't more safeguards in place?

And I don't think it's too soon to write about it. It might be too soon to make a movie about it, but not to write a book about it.
 

B.B. Auctor

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Hi guys!

I've just started writing a short story based on the Grenfell Tower fire. The tower in my story has a different name, but it's a council tower block in London that's destroyed by a fire in which many residents die, so the basis is obvious. To research it, I read news reports about the fire and interviews with survivors and drew on those while writing it, but I changed some details to make the plot work. The bulk of the story isn't about the fire itself - it's about my narrator, a 16-year-old girl, coping with the aftermath as she and her family try to find new housing, but there's a flashback to the fire.

From a personal viewpoint, I want to continue writing this story. I think it's good and the writing is flowing easily, which is something I haven't felt about my writing for a long time. However, I'm worried that it's not ethical to write about such a horrible real-world tragedy. I'm not sure when is considered 'too soon' to write about such things. Grenfell was nearly two years ago. Jonathan Safran Foer published Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close four years after 9/11. I recently read and loved Mohsin Hamid's Exit West, which combines magical realism with scenes obviously based on ongoing events such as the Syrian war and the refugee crisis. I certainly believe it's possible to write about any real-life tragedy if you do so with sensitivity and respect, which is what I'm aiming to do here. However, I can't help thinking that if I was a Grenfell Tower survivor or a relative of the victims and I read the story, I would be angry and offended, and I think that matters.

What are your opinions?

In my experience there is always going to be somebody somewhere who thinks it is "too soon" to talk about a tragedy. The question is, do you feel you can write about the event respectfully? In my opinion you should go for it if it is making you feel good about writing again. You could also look at it this way: by writing about the Grenfell Tower fire, you may be bringing more attention to it and informing people about it who would otherwise have no idea. So, in some way, you are allowing this event and its unfortunate victims to be potentially remembered by more people.

At the end of the day its your writing. If it truly flows as well as you say in your post, then I think it would be a shame to stop. Just my two cents.
 

ixorv

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I certainly believe it's possible to write about any real-life tragedy if you do so with sensitivity and respect, which is what I'm aiming to do here.

This.

However, I can't help thinking that if I was a Grenfell Tower survivor or a relative of the victims and I read the story, I would be angry and offended, and I think that matters.

Then maybe you aren't sincerely doing "so with sensitivity and respect" if you feel that way. If you don't feel good about it, maybe some changes to how you treat the fire are in order.
 

Paul Lamb

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I don't think it's too soon, and I think for something like this there might even be a worry that your story would be too late. Other disasters are going to capture the attention of the world, and any given one might be "old news" by the time you get your story published. Also consider the time it will take to write and rewrite. And then you have to shop it around. And if it is accepted somewhere, how long until the story actually appears?

I say don't delay.
 

Chase

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Not too soon. With world-wide instantaneous news, we're inundated with enough real-life tragedies to put distance between the last one and the next to come.

Do your best work of fiction. :greenie
 

Dan Rhys

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I had that fear writing a story that begins in the aftermath of a school shooting, but if you approach the topic in a way that is serious and sincere and you are not out to exploit it for cheap thrills, then I think you are okay. The judges of the contest I entered my work in had no problem with my treatment of the situation and even praised it.
 
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drdecadent

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Totally go for it. Even if other people say it's too soon (and no one is here) it doesn't mean the story will get published just yet. Given everything happening right now, I think lots of people will be writing about virus outbreaks/isolation.