Gratuitous Sex/Violence Rant
August 31st 2008 07:59
I did say I'd get into this one eventually. And we all know how much I love gratuitous sex and violence... in fanfiction. This is purely personal opinion, as are all of my upcoming rants. Take my advice with a grain of salt. I'm not the best writer out there, I'm not a genius, I'm not very accomplished in the writing world as of yet. But here goes nothing...
What Qualifies As Gratuitous? If you're writing it because you want to, not because it advances the plot, it's gratuitous. It does not need to be in the story (and sometimes whole stories can be written without sex and without violence-or with minimal violence) it is just there because you wanted to write it, not because it adds anything. Some people would argue that everything a person writes is because they want to write.
It's true, to some extent. We do choose our stories to an extent; but we also know what furthers a character's development, or the plot, or what have you. Writers instinctively know where every scene and action takes your character.
If it does not change anything or reveal anything, it is not necessary. It is gratuitous.
Where does Gratuitous belong? In fanfiction; personal writing exercises; not in published material. In my opinion there CAN be an element of the gratuitous in any story. Perhaps you didn't need to go into quite so much detail in the fight scene or sex scene (in fact, fade to black is perfectly good in just about any sex scene, and minimal detail in almost any fight), but you did, and you did it well so it didn't bog the story down.
This is fine. I don't mind knowing exactly how the characters felt, how every kiss moved them, as long as it's well written. In such a way that it enchants you-like in Anne Rice books. Looking at them objectively, they don't need to be so long. There doesn't have to be that luxurious detail of every touch between two characters, or of the Mayfair house. Or of Lestat, or Gabrielle, or Armand... but it defines her books and it belongs. It doesn't stand out as gratuitous-even though some of it probably is.
How does one make the gratuitous fit? I would say that if you're going to have gratuitous sex or violence, you have to make it flow. You can't spend twenty pages describing the bloody battle and then one describing the healer's tent. If you're going to have more detail than strictly necessary, you have to make that consistent. Your character has to be observant-it has to fit with the voice, the pace, the story.
Some scenes you know are meant to be written in more or less detail in order to serve their purpose. If you're giving a scene more detail than it absolutely needs, you need to do that with more than one scene, so that the reader doesn't automatically go 'oh, this person really likes describing gore but hates writing about love'. You need to make sure that the readers aren't thinking about you, the writer, but about the character.
The flow and voice still remain important, as does characterization and other fun things. You cannot sacrifice them in the name of Porn Without Plot. That is a fatal flaw in any writer.
Keeping it sparse. If you don't have gratuitous, that's great. How do you avoid it? It takes constant questioning of yourself, of your characters, and of your story. You have to know what belongs, what is necessary to develop your characters, your world. To change that world and those characters; to direct the story on its chosen path.
This takes work. It may mean cutting out some of your favourite scenes and passages, it may mean destroying entire chapters of beautifully written prose. But if you don't want it to be consistently detailed to a large extent, then all gratuity must be cut out. This can be a painful process-so can most of editing, even writing the first draft can be painful at times. It can also be necessary.
If you want to see gratuitous done in such a way that it doesn't seem gratuitous, I recommend Anne Rice and also Lady Of The Hay. (If you can ever find the latter; it isn't a very well known book, but it's one of my Gods in the book world)
I'm going to stop writing this now. Next time, a beginnings rant, I think. What do you want, out of these three:
~Beginnings Rant
~Love Triangle Rant
~Class System Rant
Whichever has the most people wanting me to write it, I'll write it tonight or tomorrow. And sorry if this turns out to be a bunch of jumbled crap that doesn't do anyone any good-I'm new to this.
What Qualifies As Gratuitous? If you're writing it because you want to, not because it advances the plot, it's gratuitous. It does not need to be in the story (and sometimes whole stories can be written without sex and without violence-or with minimal violence) it is just there because you wanted to write it, not because it adds anything. Some people would argue that everything a person writes is because they want to write.
It's true, to some extent. We do choose our stories to an extent; but we also know what furthers a character's development, or the plot, or what have you. Writers instinctively know where every scene and action takes your character.
If it does not change anything or reveal anything, it is not necessary. It is gratuitous.
Where does Gratuitous belong? In fanfiction; personal writing exercises; not in published material. In my opinion there CAN be an element of the gratuitous in any story. Perhaps you didn't need to go into quite so much detail in the fight scene or sex scene (in fact, fade to black is perfectly good in just about any sex scene, and minimal detail in almost any fight), but you did, and you did it well so it didn't bog the story down.
This is fine. I don't mind knowing exactly how the characters felt, how every kiss moved them, as long as it's well written. In such a way that it enchants you-like in Anne Rice books. Looking at them objectively, they don't need to be so long. There doesn't have to be that luxurious detail of every touch between two characters, or of the Mayfair house. Or of Lestat, or Gabrielle, or Armand... but it defines her books and it belongs. It doesn't stand out as gratuitous-even though some of it probably is.
How does one make the gratuitous fit? I would say that if you're going to have gratuitous sex or violence, you have to make it flow. You can't spend twenty pages describing the bloody battle and then one describing the healer's tent. If you're going to have more detail than strictly necessary, you have to make that consistent. Your character has to be observant-it has to fit with the voice, the pace, the story.
Some scenes you know are meant to be written in more or less detail in order to serve their purpose. If you're giving a scene more detail than it absolutely needs, you need to do that with more than one scene, so that the reader doesn't automatically go 'oh, this person really likes describing gore but hates writing about love'. You need to make sure that the readers aren't thinking about you, the writer, but about the character.
The flow and voice still remain important, as does characterization and other fun things. You cannot sacrifice them in the name of Porn Without Plot. That is a fatal flaw in any writer.
Keeping it sparse. If you don't have gratuitous, that's great. How do you avoid it? It takes constant questioning of yourself, of your characters, and of your story. You have to know what belongs, what is necessary to develop your characters, your world. To change that world and those characters; to direct the story on its chosen path.
This takes work. It may mean cutting out some of your favourite scenes and passages, it may mean destroying entire chapters of beautifully written prose. But if you don't want it to be consistently detailed to a large extent, then all gratuity must be cut out. This can be a painful process-so can most of editing, even writing the first draft can be painful at times. It can also be necessary.
If you want to see gratuitous done in such a way that it doesn't seem gratuitous, I recommend Anne Rice and also Lady Of The Hay. (If you can ever find the latter; it isn't a very well known book, but it's one of my Gods in the book world)
I'm going to stop writing this now. Next time, a beginnings rant, I think. What do you want, out of these three:
~Beginnings Rant
~Love Triangle Rant
~Class System Rant
Whichever has the most people wanting me to write it, I'll write it tonight or tomorrow. And sorry if this turns out to be a bunch of jumbled crap that doesn't do anyone any good-I'm new to this.
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