On the subject of controversial: Suicide in fiction

No advice - but I heard on the radio last night the the suicide hotlines have been deluged since the covid sequester.

Patty said:

Nonfiction: There is something called eco-anxiety these days, people making radical choices, including suicide, out of despair for the future and what's happening to Earth.

A few years ago a man self-immolated in Battery Park. It seems it had to do with climate change. Others who I know on Twitter speak of their depression. And so on.

Fiction: As I'm writing my sequel, I'm wondering how much of this to give voice to. The novel does not rely on eco-anxiety, and yet the global despair here and now is real. I feel that if I want to do justice to this story, and the times in which we live, I should not shy away from the reality of watching a world collapse.

So as things stand now, despair grows on my world as the climate is collapsing. I make references to people in the world, off page, who take their lives from despair. This choice is, in part, to recognize the reality of what happens here, today, on Earth. It is intended to bear witness to the real pain of my fellow Earthlings.

In ZOOM today a few people said to be careful on the topic, but that so far (one reference in Chapter 2) it was done well enough, the justification for the reference to suicide (that the very world was burning down) worked. I was surprised it even came up, only because the reference was so glancing (chapter 2).

Are there general guidelines for the inclusion or omission of themes like suicide? None of my characters are suicidal. One looks at the suicides that she sees (from afar) and how those deaths do not change anything on the world, and from that decides she wants her death to matter (cue Tasha Yar, ST:TNG). She makes a choice because of the suicides.

But ... there might be thoughts.

Thoughts?

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Hello! Writing suicide is certainly tough (not impossible though, and it's great you want to put thought into it), and I know that in the television industry, people suggest never showing the suicide scene. I remember 13 Reasons Why editing out ~that~ scene after much complaint. Although I don't know the full story. As you are concerned about proper depiction, I actually think the worst thing you can do is minimise it, or mock the suicide victim. I remember an extremely upsetting scene in Buffy, where the lead character called a teenage girl who killed herself 'weak, stupid and an idiot' after burying her in a ditch without telling her parents. Yeah, Buffy wasn't great about depicting suicide.

As for climate change suicides: (people thinking their existence is a burden on the planet, believing that they don't have a hopeful future, there is no point to living) you could conisder challenge the logic behind these thoughts. I can see you care about the planet, so maybe in your fiction, you can address ways to help Earth, but not take drastic measures like suciide. A juxtaposing character is a loose idea I have, or showing the fallout from each suicide.

I don't think you should be afraid of exploring suicide, btw. It's also okay to have a lead character who glamorizes, or admires, suicide. That doesn't mean the book does. I think the guidelines here aren't all necessary: https://theactionalliance.org/messaging/entertainment-messaging/national-recommendations , and again, consider your audience. It may be that they already know that help is out there, (children's literature is a different ballgame)

Good luck, and I hope you don't shy away from your subject matter. I too, am concerned about people who take their lives.

I just logged in after reading a scene with a failed/prevented suicide attempt (House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus). The scene and the buildup to it was the strongest part of the book so far. The character's descent into the tatters of life and robotic, disconnected actions were very, very real.

Suicide needs to be discussed honestly, and neither trivialized nor glamorized, otherwise we perpetuate deadly misunderstandings and stereotypes. As to your situation, I think the tough part is striking the balance between making the characters' despair real, and going too far and making the book about suicide or the character an avatar for all suicidal people. Do it well and it will be amazing.

Chris P said:

I just logged in after reading a scene with a failed/prevented suicide attempt (House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus). The scene and the buildup to it was the strongest part of the book so far. The character's descent into the tatters of life and robotic, disconnected actions were very, very real.

Suicide needs to be discussed honestly, and neither trivialized nor glamorized, otherwise we perpetuate deadly misunderstandings and stereotypes. As to your situation, I think the tough part is striking the balance between making the characters' despair real, and going too far and making the book about suicide or the character an avatar for all suicidal people. Do it well and it will be amazing.

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This is good advice.

Like with most things in writing (and life), it's best to approach suicide as a multi-layered, many-faceted thing. The thought process and circumstances that lead to suicide are bound to be complex (I say this as someone who has never had suicidal ideation myself).

Short [ETA: long] anecdote about my own way of handling a real-life suicide fictionally:

I haven't typically dealt with suicidal except in the most glancing of ways (in one WIP, a character is deeply affected by the suicide of a lover that happened before the ms begins, but it's not spoken about very openly because they were homosexual in a time when that was not acceptable). In my most recent WIP, however, one of my characters (who was a real person) commits suicide. I've read some different nonfiction about him and his family. The writer of one source felt the need top opine of the whys, and ran down the list of reasons and dismissed them all one by one. No, Peter wasn't affected by the early deaths of his parents or the early deaths of two of his brothers. Wasn't at all affected by being "the real Peter Pan". Certainly it wasn't the shell shock he suffered during the Great War. Or the fact that his wife was dying from Hungton's disease and his sons were at risk of having it to. Or that he was in poor health himself and was having money problems. And it certainly wasn't all those things combined. (Note my sarcasm here.)Anyway, I guess what I got out of reading that source and being highly irritated by it was that you can't decide what is what isn't "enough" to cause someone to be suicidal, and you can't necessarily ascribe it to one cause. More likely than not, it's going to be very complex.

And it isn't necessarily going to be who you would expect. Peter was a rather prim, 63-year-old English businessman. Not exactly some romantic image of suicide.

Through the narrative of telling his life story, I implicitly (try to) explain what led him to take such an action. I try to let that speak for itself, for the most part.

IMO writing such things requires a great deal of empathy.

Is your POV that of the person attempting or accomplishing the suicide? If so, you'll have to fill your head with dark stuff - hopelessness, despair, guilt, the weight of carrying terrible burdens - the worst things you can think of, and write from there. Hold on to it as you work.

If your POV is someone learning of the suicide, you'll need to go into that - survivor's guilt, wonder if they could have said or done something that would have prevented the death, pain of the loss of a friend / loved one.

It's a dark thing that needs to be handled compassionately.

One thing (and, Patty, I know you wouldn't do this!): a few years ago I bought a book with a main character who attempted suicide at the beginning. I wanted to see how the author wrote the situation - and she'd turned it into a comedy. The character stopped thinking about the suicide attempt after about chapter 1.5. I never finished that book, and the author is on a DNR list for me.

Thinking about how to deal with it properly is a good first step. It's the people who don't write with sensitivity who make a mess of it.

I've read novels where major characters have attempted suicide in the past and the books work just fine. Having a person commit suicide rather than be captured and tortured by enemies also can be okay. Additionally, a character knowing that he/she is dying for a heroic cause and that putting his/her life on the line will make a difference can work in a book. The big problem though with people currently suicidal is that they are typically very depressed. Wallowing in negative emotions to demonstrate how they are feeling can cost readership.

Here in Colorado - on our last election cycle we passed a law allowing people suffering from disease, chronic pain, etc. to go to a doctor and have them inject you such that you die. Assisted suicide.

Personally, I'm in favor of it, others not so much. It's still controversial. Writing a story around that might be interesting.

Sonya Heaney said:

One thing (and, Patty, I know you wouldn't do this!): a few years ago I bought a book with a main character who attempted suicide at the beginning. I wanted to see how the author wrote the situation - and she'd turned it into a comedy. The character stopped thinking about the suicide attempt after about chapter 1.5. I never finished that book, and the author is on a DNR list for me.

Thinking about how to deal with it properly is a good first step. It's the people who don't write with sensitivity who make a mess of it.

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I understand your reaction! On the other hand, dark comedy is a thing, and some are very successful. One dark comedy title in which the MC is on a suicide mission immediately comes to mind, and I didn't have a problem with it because it was clear from the marketing and the start that it was a dark comedy. Did the book you mention pull a bait and switch? That would be infuriating, especially with this subject matter.