Episode 69: Writing About Trauma
K
Hello, my beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you’d like to be welcome to the Writers Triangle podcast about publishing and all things books. And today I’m going to be talking about writing violence and trauma well, and I think a great place to start is by defining violence and defining trauma. So I’m going to start with violence and violence can be physical or emotional. And physical violence is anything any physical action done with the intent to harm and mental and emotional violence is any action done with the intent to harm anything said, or anything that the characters may experience? And you’re writing, that the setting or what have you was designed for causing harm? That’s violence. And trauma, interestingly enough, is kind of a little twisted in that trauma isn’t always traumatic to the character. But sometimes things that don’t traumatize characters can traumatize readers. And that’s how I characterize trauma. Anything that has ever hurt anybody in the whole world is traumatic. And with those two definitions, it’s like Jeepers, creepers, Every store has every story has violence and trauma in it. And technically speaking, it does. But I want to shrink down those definitions a little bit to make them more manageable. And I feel like you don’t have to write every story super carefully with content notes, and trigger warnings and all of that. So for me, violence are physical actions that are taken in an aggressive state. If a character is doing something physically aggressive to another character, then that is technically violence. For me, it’s if it causes injury or death, that that’s sort of the violence that we’re talking about, unless we’re talking about age group. Age group makes it a little bit different. And so I think, going into age group, helps us frame what trauma and violence is and how to write them carefully. I really liked that there has been this sort of revolution going on and picture books now, where they are tackling more difficult topics. And they are treating children like their people and thinking and understanding that everything our children come in contact with that they’re being imprinted. And for me with picture books, I have a general rule that it shouldn’t be graphic. I don’t because it’s there in picture form. I don’t think the text should be graphic when it comes to violence and trauma. And that’s where we have to use the broad umbrella when we’re defining violence and trauma and that violence is any physical act, done with the intention to harm and trauma is any action that could harm a reader. And we do need to be that strict because we are talking about little people, right? We’re talking about children that are being read to as early as infancy and these books are imprinting on them. So we need to be really careful and respectful of who our target audience is. And are we serving that audience? Well, are we being good keepers of that audience? And are we being responsible and caring? And does the violence and trauma in a picture book, have a purpose? Is it teaching a lesson and I do believe at that age, there has to be a lesson to come out of it, whether it’s anger management or handling bullies, or dealing with family trauma, or any kind of trauma that that a little person may experience of loss or hurt. And there has to be hope and the telling of it. Because I think we need to be really careful that we are building hope and positivity and children. And the same goes for when you’re looking at middle grade with violence and trauma. I don’t like graphic depictions of violence and graphic depictions of trauma in middle grade books. I find them to be very inappropriate, because you have to look at what can and I I’m a trauma survivor. Just as an FYI, I was traumatized from a very early age. I entered the foster care system before I was a year old. So for me, I speak from my own place of being even if you are a trauma survivor, I just feel like graphic books wouldn’t have been appropriate for me or for any child. And that’s my bias. There may be people out there that have something different words, just one press. And I’m just one opinion. But I really do think that when you’re writing for middle grade, and especially in picture books, that there has to be hope, heartbeat in there. Because I look back at what would I have needed at that age, where if I were reading about some of the trauma that I experienced, and I think even having experienced some of that trauma, it would have been incredibly inappropriate for me to be reading about that type of trauma without a survivor story in it, and without it being really watered down.
K
Because when you’re that age, and you’re experiencing trauma, you don’t actually understand the depth and gravity of it until you’re older, and you don’t understand the depth and gravity of how it will impact you for the rest of your life until you’ve lived some life. So I don’t think that saying, hey, they need to hear their story told is good reasoning for that at all. And if you’re writing for middle grade children, you should never ever be writing from the perspective of the perpetrator. Ever, as a rule, because that anyone who is harming children, You’re garbage, I’m sorry, I’m not gonna be tactful about that, or politically correct. And I just don’t think those garbage perspectives belong in the middle grade space, I think the middle grade space and the picture book space needs to be really protective, because we need to be protective of our children. And I feel like fight me if you don’t agree with me on this. And I’m, I’m not, you know, changing my position ever. And other people may think otherwise. The reason I have this is because children are reading books that adults don’t know they’re reading, when children go into school or out of the home, wherever it is, they go very rarely are children just alone. At home, rather and supervised, they spend a lot of time alone, rather, is what I was trying to say. And in that alone space, you have to ask yourself, what you feel okay with a child of whatever age you’re writing for reading this book and forming their own thoughts about it without ever speaking to anyone about it, and just having their own internal life and internal mindspace occupied by what you’re writing. And that’s why I think the when we’re writing middle grade, the vantage point of the perpetrator is not necessary. And so even if you look at at some of the lighter trauma, like a series of unfortunate events, doesn’t really write from the perspective of the perpetrator has like little sneaks and peeks into their motivation, but doesn’t go deeply into what they’re experiencing when they’re doing violence, or trauma. And I think that that’s a really important thing to maintain when writing for middle grade. And I’m, I’m very strict about it. And we do have our our middle grade books don’t have any hardcore trauma in them. They do have some implied violence. And there is some horror and some negative things that go on.
K
But there isn’t deep down psychological and emotional trauma because I find that writing that for middle gear, middle grade is harder than most people can can manage for my standards. And from my perspective, would we welcome those kinds of books? Absolutely, I would give them a read and consider them. But if it’s not done well, and if the message isn’t one of hope, that gives hope, then I’ve for me, I it would be a pass. And to to give an idea, I have my level of sensitivity. I just really it would be really, really hard, it would have to be done so well. And so tastefully, and the taste level comes in with the descriptions, and how graphic or the descriptions and so much can be implied to where you can take them just up to the edge of danger without going in and describing any of the trauma. And the children who have survived it. The approach is enough. They know what the outcome of that approach is. And children that haven’t been exposed to that aren’t in jeopardy of being traumatized by something they read. And that is down to graphicness. And perspective. I think that’s also true for young adults. I think for young adults, it can be broaden a bit and a little bit more detail can be brought in. But I don’t think that the details should be graphic in nature, any descriptions of violence or any depictions of trauma, I don’t think that they should be spelled out. And I use one of the most traumatic books, I remember reading as a middle grader going into why in that list, the Diary of Anne Frank was so much was implied in reading the diary. But it was written from a young mind that when you get older, you realize the totality and completeness of how traumatic that event was, but you don’t have it in the middle grade mindset and space or the why a mindset and space until you learn about World War Two in history and think that happens in high school. And I want to say, I think and Frank is kind of in that interesting space, and that some people are reading it at the middle grade level, and some people are reading it at the White a level, depending on what your school curriculum is for, you know, elementary school, junior high in high school. So using that as sort of a guideline, I think, really is helpful to me in terms of understanding what my own boundaries are, there is a lot of trauma inherent in that. But as an adult, we get the full context of it. And it becomes all that much more horrific and traumatic. And I think that’s what good. Why a n middle grade trauma and violence does is that when we look back, we’re like, wow, I see all of these levels. And it’s much deeper and way more intricate than I understood it at eight years old, or 12 years old, or 13. And I have a deeper appreciation for the book. And when you’re writing it, I think you do need to have that implied and inferred a great deal and middle grade. And I think when you get to why, depending on which section of why you’re at if you’re in that, why a new adult cusp, I think you can write it almost to a level of adult if you’re on the younger side of why I do think it has to be closer to what you’re doing in the middle grade space. That’s what makes ya really interesting to me is because I do believe we need to make new adult happen. I think it shouldn’t be a category. Like think some books are just too mature really, for that 1314 year old. And looking at, at how we we dice up the ages. Why eight isn’t, isn’t fully 16 to 22. And I feel like new adult would be like 17 to 23 or 17. Yeah, I want to stick with 23 I know new 23 may not feel like new adult. But there are some people on the younger side of 23. And I think they fit firmly and new adult because you’re having those still having those college experiences and such and I think post college is post the college years, I still around 25 with brain maturation, though and the way the brain forms our brains fully formed around age 24. So and so I’m basing it on that.
K
Sorry, I’m basing it on that. And I think that that that age range for me I really wish there was that new adult category for that. Because I feel like with ya, if you look at why a if you’re on if you’re under 16 in NY a then you do need to still be doing some implied some inferred where you’re going up to the approach. And you’re sort of having like superhero level violence where it is extremely violent, but there’s no gore and violence without gore. I think that any superhero movie kind of captures that like you shoot people but there may be a couple of drops of blood there’s not big pools of blood everywhere. And that is kind of how I think of of writing. For ya and middle grade for new adult I think there can be more graphic descriptions of it. And you can start getting into some of the more traumatic things that people experience in life. And you can get into a little bit more you can get the approach and the aftermath. But I don’t think that the episodes should be written. So if there’s like a violent shooting, there’s no slow motion description of the bullet going in and what it feels like We can all have that. And if there’s other sorts of trauma, like fighting, there’s not like the knocking out of teeth and broken noses, and the crunching of bones, and all of that. And if you’re dealing with, with intimate partner violence, or gender violence, or bullying and school, sorry, the more I talk, the thicker my throat feels. Sorry about that. And so for me, I look at we have some very graphic mature, why is that, I think, do a really great job of explaining and detailing trauma, without brutal graphic descriptions.
K
And you don’t have to be brutal and graphic to get the point across and capture all of the trauma and by butyl, and graphic, I mean, stroke for stroke with the violent stroke for stroke with the trauma, is it necessary, you can save this thing happened? And have it be enough? And have it be understood, if that makes sense? So that’s my role for for violence and trauma at the picturebook, middle grade. And why as an adult, when it comes to writing graphic trauma, and we do have books, I have graphic trauma that are in the adult space squarely in the adult space. For me, the importance of that is, if you are going to write from the perpetrators perspective, understanding why, why am I choosing to go into the space of perpetrator and if it’s for the glorification of the perpetrator is going to be a hard pass for us as a press and hard pass. For me as a reader. There are books out there that do it well, they’re just not my cup of tea. And I’m one person’s perspective. And there are you know, exceptions to every rule, because I’m a huge fan of some serial killer personas. And some books written from a serial killers perspective. And for me, that’s sort of what falls outside of the rules if they’re a serial killer. Getting into the mind of a serial killer can be very interest can be a very interesting read. If that space is complex, if all they are is just violence, and no reason no rhyme just full on horror show all of the time. I don’t find that to be an interesting read. And I find that to be a one dimensional character. And if that character is one dimensional, why am I reading this, I’m going to be bored. And it’s what they do is not going to be traumatizing. And it’s not, it’s going to be gratuitous violence. So if you’re writing splatter punk, from the perspective of the perpetrator, make sure you’re having that character be fully realized. Because if you think about like, I think splatter punk like the Saw movies, saw one was really interesting. The latest Saw movie was just gore. That’s all it was. Are you writing the last saw movie or the first Saw movie? And asking yourself? Is this just supposed to be dribble? Or is it going to be engaging? And to me, violence and trauma is best written when it’s engaging and not dribble? And that’s down to how dimensional are your characters What’s it still has to have a story arc, it still has to have peaks and valleys. It has to have pacing. There has to be motivations and intentions and an understanding of where these motivations and intentions coming from.
K
If you’re writing from a perpetrators perspective, that’s going to be so important. Make them a character make me at least interested. And don’t try and make them revolting. Make them authentic, make them real. If this person had a work a day life, what are they doing an act, the actual space that they live in? Or the universe that you’ve created? What is their truth? What are their interests? What are their hobbies? Even if you don’t include them in the book, understanding who your characters are at that level? Like what’s their favorite color? What’s their if your interest ology what’s their sign? All of those kinds of things. Having that kind of backstory knowledge of your characters will make them ring authentic. So when you’re writing all of these dark and gruesome things, then you’re doing it with a sort of understanding of the nuance that comes with being fully human and fully realized as a character. The same can be said for survivors, when you’re writing survivors, if their entire story is the trauma they endure, and nothing else are they your main character has a main character has to have something other than that. They either have a life before the trauma, or a life after the trauma, or both. If you are one of those bold writers who’s going to kill off your MC at the end of the story, by all means, please, please, please do that. But absolutely give me something that a toehold to hold on to something for me to feel interested and engaged in at the beginning of the story. So that when I feel their loss, I am deeply hurt, I shouldn’t be mourning the loss of them. And that’s going to require that they be fully realized, right? And that they have a life before the trauma happens. So I can know what what if they lost, if you drop me in in the middle of the story, and it’s just trauma, then. And that’s their whole story. It kind of feels like what’s the point? Like? Why did you do that, that doesn’t make any sense to me. And again, I’m just one person, I’m just one reader. But I really strongly feel that like, and there have been stories that when you start the story, it’s where the trauma starts happening, you meet the main character in the trauma space. And that’s completely workable, you can absolutely do that as an author. But if you’re going to do that there has to be those moments of humanity and moments of relief. moments of joy know, the human brain cannot handle just misery, the human brain will find sparks of joy in even the most desolate. And that’s why when you see people writing about people who are imprisoned, and they make a friend with an insect, or you’re finding people that have been kidnapped, and they, you know, become friends with the crack in the wall, or there’s always something that sparks joy in the character or something they do to maintain themselves. And something they do to have hope that that this isn’t going to be there forever. And there does need to be hope in the trauma, there has to be hope for the characters who are being traumatized, or hope for the perpetrator. are they hoping that they get to keep on killing? are they hoping that they keep continuing to be violent? What’s driving all of the characters, they have to be fully realized.
K
So when writing trauma, I think we do have to talk about content notes, understand what your content notes should be, and your trigger warnings, if you want to do content notes, or trigger warnings, we do content notes, and we don’t do content notes for every book that has violence. And some people are very upset with us that that we didn’t do it for every bit of violence and every single book that we publish. And the reason that we didn’t do it is because if it’s expected with in the type of story that it is, based on the back cover, we tend to not put it in unless it’s really graphic. And for us, that’s down to us whether or not we think it’s graphic, and it’s down to you as an author, I hope that whoever publishes your book, if you’re a self published author, it’s going to be you. This is where beta readers come in handy. And our rule of thumb is five BETA readers. And there are tons and tons of ways to get beta readers. You can get them either through social media, or you can there’s like Upwork and Fiverr, and a bunch of different sites like that, where you can have beta readers read it and ask them, would you do you think this book means a content note or trigger warning, and you can have them read just for that. And if they’re reading just for that you don’t have to take on everything that your beta readers say, we absolutely don’t apply everything our beta readers tell us. But we do take them into consideration. And there have been times where we didn’t follow what the beta reader advise, and we get hit by that by the reviewers. And that’s one of the things I love about having BETA readers is it prepares us for what reviewers are going to say. And we have a form that we ask all of our beta readers to fill out and I think this was a great thing to do, especially if you’re right ending violence and trauma is create a beta reader questionnaire. And you can google beta reader questionnaires. There’s tons of templates on the internet for you to see. To give you a guide of what you should be asking BETA readers, especially if you’re in the violence and trauma space as a writer. And one of the things that we have on it is we ask, does the trauma feel true to the world and contexts story and characters? And does the trauma feel gratuitous? There is a level where you’re writing trauma that it feels gratuitous.
K
And if that’s your goal, if you’re writing that type of book where there is gratuitous trauma, you absolutely have the right to write those kinds of books. Be aware that that’s what you’re writing. And that’s why we asked the question, because we want to know, is this going to be viewed as gratuitous? For some books? We’re like, yes, absolutely. There’s gratuitous violence in this book. It’s a violent book. And, you know, it is what it is, and some of that we feel is is intricate to the story. We don’t have gratuitous trauma. So we do do Cotuit us violence. But we don’t want to leave the people in the story scarred afterwards, just for the purpose of leaving them scarred afterwards. We do want it to tie into the story and to make sense in the world, in the world world, in the world and universe that the characters create. So that’s my 50 cents on writing, violence and trauma. I hope you got something out of this. And if you’re listening to this, wherever your podcast is carried, please go on over and visit our YouTube page and give us a like and comment and subscribe and turn on the notification bells. It really helps the channel out and it really helps the podcast out and be sure to leave a review wherever you’re listening to this. And we completely appreciate you thank you so much. I want to thank all of our beautiful cinnabar moths or any kind of moth you’d like to be, or you can even be a butterfly but I’m not Mariah Carey and I’m not trying to bite her rhyme bye