Poverty, Abuse, and the Like (Awkward Writing 4)

Welcome back for the 4rd installment of my Awkward Writing series, where we will be discussing social issues in writing.

As a reminder, anyone who comments on the series posts (previous or future) will be entered into a giveaway. The giveaway will be announced on the last series post. If you make multiple comments, you receive multiple entries. Max 5 entries via comments. But...

1) If you shout out the series (FB, Twitter, Blog, etc.), you get 1 entry. Please only 1 mention for the entire series. Please also supply the shout out link in your comment.

2) If you create a post linking back to my page, or one of the posts in the series, you receive 2 entries. Please supply the post link in your comment.


That is a total of 7 entries total you can have put in the pot. Don't forget to supply those links to your blogs or social media shout outs. You must supply them to be granted the point(s).

What am I currently doing? Answer: blogging, beta edits, itching to finish my next chapter and enjoying my day off.

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I think at some point, most writers will debate including a graphic scene in their WiP that might make readers shy away. Have your characters just entered a poverty stricken village? Are they glancing over the destruction of war? Do they see a pair of children screaming for their mother? These are social issues, along with a myriad of others, that can be difficult to write. It takes will power and courage to be able to think of the scene blow-by-blow so your reader will cherish it.

As a disclaimer, I do not condone sexual or physical abuse in any form, no matter your position in life. That said, most social issues that I have seen in writing comes in the form of sexual or physical abuse. It's harrowing to think about, let alone put on paper for the general public to read, but you're not only telling a story. You're spreading a message. How often do you, the writer, learn something from the characters? Granted, they are your creations, but you may not have thought of a solution had it not been filtered through the actions of your character.

Abuse is never just a simple travesty. It has long standing effects on the world. War and poverty, hunger and famine, abuse and murder. All have their atrocious reasons for being committed, but it is through your writing that we can begin to understand it. If your character has just barged into a bedroom to prevent an innocent child from being raped, you've done well. You've decided that your character has heart and he does not revel in pain. You've created something that readers can look up to, and then say, "Would I do the same thing?"

The same circumstance applies for all the listed social issues above. Would any of us do the same thing? If you can learn through the actions of your characters, why not? It began with you as a dormant feeling, untapped and unexplored, but now that you've been able to force it out onto paper, the effect of it all takes on a new meaning.

As difficult as the task might be to write about social issues, you're not only using them to move the story and build character relations. Use them to send a message. Take the time to invest all you have creatively into that one scene so it becomes something worth reading. If you just glance over it and get it done with, you're just writing another part of the story. Good moments of saving someone from evil takes time. It takes heart and soul. It takes cunning.

Difficult yes, but never impossible. To write it properly and with strength would be to teach someone how to avoid it. It may sound far-fetched, but words have great power to inspire and change the heart of someone. Will you be one of those writers?

Question to the Cohorts: Have you experimented in writing social complications? How did you get through the challenge and did you feel accomplished in the end?

Peace and Writing Love!

JWP