Writing the Hard Stuff
How to Write Impactful Sensitive Scenes Without Being Explicit or Offensive
This post has been moved to my main author publication, “Author Jessica Redmerski”. You can find the full post there.
**Disclaimer: The following article contains sensitive topics such as r*pe and suicide. If you are sensitive to these subjects, please skip this article.
Before I dive into this topic, I want to acknowledge and honor those writers who choose not to include sensitive scenes in their work—God bless you! You’re doing something truly admirable. I love it when I come across a book, movie, or TV series that is both realistic and captivating, yet completely free of sensitive content.
That said, unless a story is entirely lighthearted in nature—like Anne of Green Gables—such works are often hard to find. That’s why I want to focus on helping writers who do include sensitive content in their stories, whether you’re a Christian author or writing for secular audiences. My goal is to guide them in doing so effectively—without going overboard, compromising the scene's integrity or the storyline, and, most importantly, keeping their work “Christian-friendly.”
Of course, many writers can pull off writing sensitive scenes without adding graphic detail, and I’m not implying otherwise. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a good example. It deals with heavy and sensitive themes, such as war, trauma, and loss, but handles them with restraint and elegance, avoiding graphic or gratuitous content.
If you can do this, always do this.
However, sometimes a story may require the writer to push the boundaries a little for the sake of the scene, to convey the emotion to the reader in a particular way, and for specific story growth that can only occur effectively within that scene.
This article covers that very aspect.
This post has been moved to my main author publication, “Author Jessica Redmerski”. You can find the full post there.