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-   -   How graphic is too graphic? (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=281734)

  • Nov 16, 2008, 07:38 PM
    sunshineangel
    How graphic is too graphic?
    I love writing. I have written for as long as I can remember. I hope someday to get my books published. People around me are very supportive. I tend in public to downplay my writing, but in truth I think I'm quite all right. I have no motivation however when it comes to editing, and I'm not going to be the kind of person who gives up their life for their writing and then ends up with nothing. I do not want to be a full time author. I want to own and manage my own hotel and restaurant, expansive dreams for such a down economy.

    Going back to my writing I question my eithics a lot. I write young adult novels for ages 15-25 I want to write adult novels as well however. Some of my themes for my young adult novels are quite risqué and have terrible language. They are what I would call what life is really like. I have written stories about beatings, rape, and abuse. I want to know where you all think the limit should be drawn on how graphic my novels are. I have read quite graphic novels myself but am never quite sure how much is too much.

    Another thing is I'm Catholic and I grew up in an very strict Catholic home if I'm writing what I feel life has been like myself why do I feel so guilty about what I'm writing?:confused:
  • Nov 17, 2008, 07:34 PM
    lrwilkins

    Hi Sunshineangel,

    Writing is a wonderful passion to have. I love writing and like you, I tend to down play my gift. So let me be the one to tell you to STOP it. If you truly love to write then do it. I write a lot of poetry and just began to write a horror/mystery novel. I have six chapters written already. I wrote 3 articles for Helium.com. When you get a chance, check it out.

    You should not feel guilty at all about what you are writing. If you have the urge to write racy novels, just change your target age group. As a writer you can do what you want when you feel like it. Other people have written stories just like those. So that goes to show that if you don't write it, someone else will. If you have read some of the novels Patricia Cornwell, Stephen King, James Patterson, John Grisham, and some of the very old Harlequin Romances, then you know that you are limited by your imagination. Even though you are just writing part-time and not making a career out of it, don't limit yourself. Not everyone can write. And not everyone will like what you write.

    Just go with your feelings because that is what guides you as a writer.

    Good Luck with your writing and I hope your hotel dream comes true!

    LaCresha
  • Nov 17, 2008, 08:27 PM
    sunshineangel

    Thanks, your post made me smile. Sometimes I think I'm seeing things the wrong way. That put things into prospective. You sound sort of like my editor except I never really liked the way he said it. You upped my spirits to keep on writing and to have faith in what I'm writing. That means a lot.

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