Writing 101: Offensive and Adult Subject Matter

Have you ever been to a book burning? To this day, people still protest against some of the material in Mark Twain's books. Schools around the world ban Catcher in the Rye, written way back in 1951. When you're writing from the heart, and writing something that's going to resonate, creating a real world using nothing but your words, you might end up stepping on a few toes. Offensive and adult subject matter might creep in, and sometimes touchy subjects have to be included in a work to create the powerful effect the author wants. But when you start stepping on toes, you've got to be prepared to get kicked right in the pants.

Let's Write About Sex

Dare you to sit through just one hour of television without finding some reference to sex, either overt or well-hidden. It's in the beer commercials where the women run around braless, it's in the dating commercials where the two mildly attractive people lock eyes and stare suggestively at each other. It's even in the sitcoms, when sex becomes a joke (because everything's a joke). It's even in the car commercials. It's everywhere, because sex sells. And if you've ever walked through the book aisle of a grocery store, you know good and well it sells books, too. Even one of the Twilight books (and movies) had a sex scene, and those are primarily marketed to teenagers.

Sex is, quite frankly, part of living. Everyone who is alive would never have been so without sex. Whether you're writing a romance, love story, comedy or tragedy, sex might happen. It's definitely going to happen in some cases, and it's your job as a writer to figure out exactly how you need to handle it.

There's a thin line between writing erotica and writing romance novels. Both kinds of books have sex scenes, but one is much more explicit than the other (can you guess which?). Erotica novels are built around sex and sexual encounters; by contrast, romance novels focus on love (with sex sprinkled in). It's confusing, because you can write very sexy, very erotic scenes into a romance novel and still not be writing erotica. Romance writer Jennie Bryant summed it up succinctly in her blog, where she wrote that the sex in romance novels is built around feelings, with mild euphemisms used to describe the action (you'll find pleasant-sounding words for the male anatomy, like "member," and sweet words for the female's, like "mound"). In erotica, the sex is far more graphic and vivid -- and much more present throughout the book. The words and descriptions are more in-your-face, and the sex is present throughout. If you are writing a romance or an erotica novel, always stick to the basic rules.

Why? Because you don't want to alienate your readers. Many women are drawn to romance novels because they want all that gooey love junk, and explicit sex scenes more akin to erotica novels will feel, to them, like a bit of a betrayal.

Sex might happen even if you aren't writing within the safe confines of a sex-specific genre, however. If it can happen in Twilight, it can happen anywhere. Love and sex are often present in many books, from mysteries to teen fiction, because (once again) it's a basic part of life. But sex scenes in these off-genre novels shouldn't read anything at all like sex in romance novels. Forget all the stuff you learned about vivid imagery and descriptive writing. Be vague while still getting the point across. It's tempting, and sort of easy, to spice up any novel with a thrilling sex scene -- but a sex scene can still be good without giving readers a full blow-by-blow. If your readers don't expect it, they may not like it...and that's when you start moving into offensive territory. Once you've been branded with that label and started to piss off your readers, you might find yourself getting burned by the flames. Take a gentle hand when writing sex scenes into off-genre novels, and avoid alienating your readers.


Other Offensive Material

Religion. Politics. Racism. Even if you aren't writing about sex, there are plenty of land mines to navigate. Faith, political convictions and certain belief systems are part of the world, and they may become part of your story. Writing a passionately political character can be very exciting, and creating a villain with racist tendencies is a good way to illustrate some of the uglier aspects of human nature.

But it's dangerous. You could easily upset religious groups, parental groups, activists -- you could even piss PETA off if you've got a character who lives inside fur and leather goods. For realism's sake, and for the sake of the story you need to tell, you can't always skip the offensive parts of life. It's out there, and it may be a very necessary part of your story.

If you're going to include anything offensive or potentially incendiary, you've got to write carefully. Many writers find a way to introduce this subject matter and skirt the line of decency without actually crossing it. There are many literary tricks you can try to help balance out your work. If one character is an extremist, for example, you might create an additional character to serve as a counterpoint -- someone to introduce the opposite point of view. You've got to be sensitive to all sides when you're dancing around a potentially offensive subject; often, writers will have offensive characters come to ill ends in their books to include a moral lesson or commentary on their behavior. Be careful about how you use racial slurs and other offensive material in your writing. It can be effective, but at times it can be too effective for getting your readers fired up and passionate. If there's something in your work that gives you pause, test the story out on a beta reader or two before you release it to the public. A second opinion can provide valuable insight and help you more safely steer through the waters of offensive writing.

Writing 101: Why You Need to Know HTML

Being a wordsmith is just plain hard. Writers have to face daily challenges like the affect/effect conundrum, the dreaded compliment/complement crisis and the altogether horrifying further/farther battlefield. Tackle all that and you've still got to think about dangling prepositions, misplaced modifiers and whether or not a semicolon is viable punctuation (for the record, I'm a firm believer that it is). But if you think knowing words is hard, just try learning HTML. Because you're going to have to, you know -- it goes hand-in-hand with being an indie author.

It's Raining Internet Code

Internet language is everywhere, though we rarely see it. HTML is the invisible force that drives every Tweet, every blog, every singly little thing on Facebook. It's also behind every ebook, and that's why it's relevant to you. You can't simply take your manuscript, convert it into an ebook and call it a day. Why? Because of HTML. Don't know it? You're going to have to learn.

You may not realize it, but you've been writing with HTML the whole you've been writing your book. It's invisible, but this code drives every word processing document you've ever created, too. And when you convert that document into something an eReader can use, you're playing with fiery Internet code. Try not to get burned.

No matter what conversion software you use, you're going to have to open up your ebook's HTML file and have a look. And you're probably going to have to remove a bunch of junk code from it, and add new code to it, and generally check the whole bloody thing line-by-line. It's a hassle, sure, but remember that your readers are going to be looking at it line-by-line so it's really the least you can do. Depending on how much formatting you actually have in your book, you might have a lot of crap to clean up. Every time you put a word in italics, or bold, or change the font you're creating all sorts of different HTML code -- so you'd better figure out what all that junk means.

Blank lines not showing up? Page breaks not appearing? It's not necessarily something you've done incorrectly in your document -- it's a problem with the HTML code itself. That's why you've got to use conversion software that allows you to play with that code (personally, I use Mobipocket Creator). Get to know basic HTML codes used in ebooks to get the look you want. You'll probably have to add your own blank lines (<br>) and add your own page breaks (<mbp:pagebreak />), depending on the program you're using. Once you know what to look for, it's easy enough to see the story instead of focusing on how strange the HTML looks. Without HTML, you can't add a Table of Contents, images or any of those fancy little extras that help ebooks stand out.

And if you don't take the time to figure it out, you've got a great chance of ending up with funny-looking formatting once the ebook conversion process is complete. Readers want perfection, and they deserve perfection. Don't deliver it, and they'll have an excuse not to tell others about how much they liked your book. 

On the Other Hand...

 I do know a shortcut if you'd like to skip all that HTML editing. Writers have to find little ways to save time. If you publish your book through Smashwords, they'll cleanly convert your book through their processing -- but you've got to make sure the document you submit adheres to their strict style standards. If you can beat the Smashwords autovetting system, you'll probably end up with a great-looking ebook. Be sure to select the option that converts your book in Kindle-friendly and Nook-friendly file formats. Then, you can simply download these versions and upload them to the bookselling sites of your choice. Because many authors use Amazon KDP, this isn't an option for everybody -- but it is a pretty sweet shortcut if you want to bypass all that Internet code.

An Interview with Jade

Where did I come up with the idea for the Deck of Lies series? Who in my real life inspired an important character in Rain's life? And which one of my characters would I bring to life if I could? I answer all of these questions and more in my latest interview, conducted by Books Books & More Books.

But if you skip all my answers, you'll get to the really interesting part: I'm giving away books! Sign up to win a free copy of Justice, and try to find the truth in the Deck of Lies.

Writing 101: Affect and Effect

It happens to the best of us, and no matter how we try to avoid them they still have a way of sneaking up on us. They're called homonyms, and they are the scourge of the English language. But if you think you can get through an entire book without getting wrapped up in them, you're wrong. Today, we're going to discuss a dastardly pair that's sure to strike even the most brilliant grammarians: affect and effect. Yes, they are evil. But don't worry; I know how to defeat them.

Affect vs. Effect

If you use the word effect improperly, it's definitely going to affect your work. To be honest, there are plenty of readers who plain won't notice the difference...but there are those who will. In the interest of perfection (isn't that what we're all chasing?), it's important to know exactly why affect and effect are totally different words, even though only one vowel separates them.

I'm willing to come clean: I still have to look up the difference between these two words all the time. It's easy to forget why they're different, and to put the wrong one in place of the other. But I stop, and I go look them up anytime I feel even a little unsure of myself -- and sometimes even when I don't. Once you get on a writing roll, it's really hard to stop suddenly to pull out the dictionary. It can totally take you out of the zone and disrupt your flow.

The thing is, your readers are going to feel the same way if they suddenly stumble across the wrong word. So always take the time to stop, look it up, and double-check your words.

Affect describes something that is happening to something else. Her judgment was newly affected by his most recent betrayal. The affect is happening to her judgement.

Effect, on the other hand, describes a result. His most recent betrayal had a negative effect on her judgment. 

Affect may also be used in a slightly different way. Have you heard of someone affecting an accent? It's a fancy way of saying they're faking it. Someone may use an affectation to convey something about themselves, usually false. In this usage of the word, they're trying to affect others by giving them some sort of impression. 

It gets confusing, because the meaning of the words are similar. Try remembrance tricks to help you distinguish between the two of them. For example, I like to remember sound effects scare squirrels. It's a funny little phrase. Flip it around, and you get the other meaning of the words. Scared squirrels affect sound. The first phrase means, basically, loud noises are frightening to those nut-loving rodents. The second phrase means they make a noise when they're frightened.

Or if you something a little simpler, try substituting the two words for their meanings. When you see affect, replace it with happens to (or happened to, as the case may be) and see if the sentence still makes since. Replace effect with result or results. If you feel like you're reading gibberish, maybe you're using one for the other where you shouldn't be. 

Find your own way to remember the difference between affect and effect, or keep a grammar cheat sheet handy. Even great writers can get confused and hung up on words like this terrible, warring pair, so if you find yourself looking it up frequently don't think it's a reflection on your writing skills -- if anything, it's a reflection that you're a hard worker who cares about what you're writing. Looking up the meanings and figuring out the homonyms is never, ever a waste of time.