Child sexual abuse

This is it. The biggie. The number one thing any writer should justifiably be afraid to write about.

What should I read? What should I avoid? How do writers most often screw up when handling this subject?

(For what it's worth, the character was raised by the abuser until about seven years of age, and is now an adult. He's got both trust issues and sexual hangups, but he's not a broken shell—to portray him as such seems like an insult to those who've survived and recovered from abuse.)

I personally wouldn't touch the issue directly in writing but that's just me. (I simply have no confidence that I could do it in a non-preachy, non-patronizing, non-insulting way with good execution.)

From what I've heard, victims of sexual child abuse sometimes start to think that the only form of love is sexual love... I suggest you try reading up on the subject, I don't really know anything about it.

My advice: go to your local library, psychology section, try to find a book on it. If you can't find one, go for garden variety child abuse or garden variety sexual abuse.

I think people's personalities are varied enough that some deviation from the expected response to trauma is alright, as long as it's not too much of a stretch.

@OP: three suggestions....

• 1: small doses. Do not make this the focus of your plot. No matter how well you write it, the subject alone will bother people.
• 2: Do your homework. Plenty of research to get the facts right; this might include actually talking to people (if you can find someone willing to discuss such an experience, which might be hard) about such things.
• 3: Accept backlash. Again, no matter how well its written, someone won't like it. If you intend to publish such a work, be ready to deal with a bunch of people breathing fire and hate your direction.

Well, I've done enough reading at the library to confirm that the personality I was considering for the character makes sense given his background. There are three things I've promised myself:

1. The victim is not completely innocent and perfect. In fact, he's a very selfish character in some ways. He's not a symbol or a role model, just a human being.

2. The victim is not defined solely by abuse. He hasn't quite recovered from what's been done to him, but he's begun to develop beyond it, finding his own personality.

3. The victim is not the only one hurting. There are two other characters in the story who've been raped, and one more who's been forced to kill. Even the relatively untouched character has his share of guilt.

I hope that's a good starting point.

Similar to what Haldo said, victims of childhood sexual abuse may end up being promiscuous in adulthood, think Glenn Quagmire from Family Guy and Charlie Harper from Two And A Half Men. Charlie was sexually abused by a junior high teacher and Glenn was molested by his parents themselves. However, you must provide as few details as possible. Often, the abuse itself is The Reveal that is alluded to many times throughout the story. Not saying you have to do that, but you don't want to state from the very get-go that you character was molested because it scares away readers.

okay I admit I was being flippant, but it's a good idea to read up on the crapper fan fiction and misery lit that deals with abuse to get good idea of what not to do.

People are fairly forgiving about simple inaccuracies with depictions of abuse survivors. They are not so forgiving about stereotypes.

edited 22nd Jul '11 7:45:43 PM by joeyjojo

Note that people react to abuse differently. I had a character once who, after counseling, was able to come to terms with her abuse. She still dresses really conservatively in public, but otherwise acts normally. However, she walks around the house in little more than underwear, and if she starts wearing less around you, you know that she's warming up to you.

I have barely considered this concept before for any of my stories. I don't know if I'll be much help, but I'll try.

First, if it's a part of a larger story, please make sure that it doesn't just materialize, like a Giant Space Flea from Nowhere. If it's the whole story, figure out your tone. Make the child sympathetic. If you want to make things more complicated, then make the abuser a little sympathetic, too. Of course, most would still consider him/her to be a Complete Monster, but you can still try.