#authors tips

i know i know… you’ve seen this a million times. but i personally haven’t a version along the lines of this, and in my (very very humble and not aggressive) opinion, that other post did not mention a key point in trauma, especially when approaching traumatic characters in literature.

so here goes.

the only rule for writing trauma:

no one goes through the exact same trauma quite the same way.

i know, this should be obvious to everyone. but still:

not everyone has no idea what their trauma is.

not everyone hasn’t recovered from trauma.

not everyone feels the same towards it.

that’s because we’re all different.

i notice that in media most of the time there’s a very… one track (?) version of traumatized characters portrayed. and i’m not going to sit here and say no one goes through trauma that way— they do— but it also sends out a wrong message that either you respond to your trauma that way or you simply don’t have it.

take me for example (hello :)!). i, like many, have gone through a lot. i can sit here and say for the most part what i’ve been through— however no, i’m not recovered. i’m honestly quite embarrassed of it. i don’t think about it constantly but when i do i quite simply try distance myself from it mentally because that’s easier. i don’t have any stress relievers (especially not physically) because most of the time i try to avoid thinking about it (unless that counts as a stress reliever? i think of it more as a coping mechanism).

sometimes i feel one very specific way about it, but other times, i’m like well… that happened.

and that is okay!!!!!!!

the level of a characters reaction to traumatic events does not dictate the level of trauma the event was in itself. yes, with the more severe the trauma, generally the reaction may be more severe…. but that is not always the case.

and to be honest, there is no one way to write a traumatized character. the best way to do so is to research (sites like reddit, where actual, real traumatized people can tell you about it) or learn from yourself even (i find a lot of my characters have trauma responses like me… coincidence….?).

so here are some quick tips:

when writing, (hear me out) let yourself focus more on subtle telling than shallow showing. don’t show me visually that a character is anxious because they bite their nails, tell me the how they falter in their step when they see someone who looks like someone they remember.

subsequently: try not to make it obvious tells when you’re showing. a character biting their nails and looking side to side when someone mentions a triggering subject is as good as telling us exactly what’s going on

focus on internal more than external. go deep into your characters inner fears and beliefs— don’t tell me why they have those beliefs, show me small previews of the things they dislike and how certain things may trigger a memory

a character may not speak happily about it, but that doesn’t mean they won’t speak about it at all (this also doesn’t mean that them speaking about it is like free therapy— talking about it doesn’t make it better a lot of the time)

also: the character may not show signs of it, but that doesn’t mean the character doesn’t know what their trauma is/dont know that they have trauma at all

it’s okay to write characters who have recovered from trauma, in fact i’d say it’s just as important as writing characters who have not

treat trauma like the subject it is. just because you’re not constantly having a character think about it doesn’t mean it’s any less serious. don’t make a joke of it please (i know in this day and age it’s satirized (which honestly makes me sad) but it is not funny, not pleasant, and not something to be jested about. it’s also not cool and doesn’t make anyone ‘cool’) research where you need to. don’t hand out trauma to characters like free coupons/just because you can— it comes off disingenuous and really demeaning

You do not have to suffer to make Art!

If your art or your artistic process is leaving you feeling bummed out, anxious, depressed, or generally unhappy then you do not have to force yourself to keep working in order to prove yourself a 'true' artist. First and foremost art is for pleasure, that means your pleasure too. Forcing yourself to make art when you're not in the right place will only take something you love and turn it into another chore. Try branching out, take time away from the page or screen to try a new hobby, spend some time outdoors, or with loved ones.

A healthy writer is a productive writer.

Make sure to eat, stay hydrated and stretch; get some sun sometimes!

Don't put unnecessary pressure on yourself to 'perform'; Inspiration can be fickle and suffer stage fright so the more you try to force yourself to make something amazing the harder it will be to motivate yourself. Plus, if you let your writing become a chore you will avoid it just as passionately as you avoid all of your other chores! Even if you don't realise that's what you're doing.

- A general rule of life is

If something makes you uncomfortable or unhappy, don't feel you are obligated to do it.

This is true of writing too.

“great dialogue should sound realistic/not awkward”— is kind of incorrect

before you throw tomatoes, i’ll explain.

let’s say there’s a character who grew up around scientists; everyone in their family is a scientist, so this character grew up hearing terminology that can be considered advanced, or complicated.

throwing out random scientific words during conversations (of course in proper context) would not be out of the usual for this character.

now, i hear lots of people give tips on dialogue and say “people don’t talk like that, they talk like xyz,” however, that’s incorrect.

what makes great dialogue great, is that it suits the character. there’s a difference between dialogue coming across as tacky because the writer wrote it that way, and dialogue coming off as tacky because it’s the characters personality that made it so.

not everyone sounds the same, and dialogue never sounds only one way or another.

yes— it may come off cringey if a character randomly says a really unusual word in the middle of their sentence, but it’s far from unnatural and it still is great dialogue regardless of how it sounds. that can also come to be a character quirk if you wish.

great dialogue never meant “appeal to what the reader finds cool.” it always has, and should mean, dialogue that suits the story and even more so the characters, and shows your characters/story has continuity.

character continuity is very important. you want your characters to come off realistic in relation to who they are; traits, quirks, all of it.

so unless your plot is doing it on purpose, it wouldn’t make sense for a character who is constantly around scientists who utilize advanced words to be failing a scientific vocabulary test (for example). your character needs to be true to themselves regardless of how odd or unusual their character is.

so, to sum this up:

great dialogue ≠ phrases your reader hears every day that are natural to them

There is no need for you to be shitty when critiquing someone else’s work.

Critique is not meant to bring people down

or EPICLY DESTROY THEM by stomping on their sense of self-esteem.

As writers we are not in competition, that is a terrifying concept. Do you have any idea of how many writers there are? I don’t. There are too many and I can’t count that high.

Luckily for me, I am not competing with them.

Why?

Because I am too busy wishing them well and encouraging them.

We are all in this together. That doesn’t mean lie, it means give your feedback honestly but constructively. 

Don’t say

This is bad because

I don’t like this because

People won’t like this because

Nobody will want to read this kind of book so you should

Why would you tell this story? Why don’t you

Or any other phrase like this. 

This advice is useless and it is not critique, it is just worthless criticism intended to perpetuate your opinions and beliefs onto other writers. 

The first part of critiquing another writers work is to understand what goal they seek to achieve through their writing, only then can you help them in finding how best to achieve their goal. 

We writers are in this together. We all share the same goal: To tell a story we are passionate about and bring our vision to the world. As writers our responsibility is to encourage, support, and inspire each other. 

Remember:

The life of a professional writer is fraught with disappointment. In all likelihood your career will be constructed from more rejections than acceptance letters. This is just a part of the job and developing a thick skin and the ability to shake off disappointment and keep moving will serve you well.

A rejection letter is not a rejection of you, it’s one of three things:

A sign that that publisher/agent is not right for you.

A sign that your book needs a little bit longer to develop.

A sign that you need a little bit longer to develop as a writer.

None of these things make you a failure as a writer. 

It’s easy to think of yourself as an ‘Artist’, to look at contempt with people who talk about money, and advertising, and publishing laws when we discuss fiction, but by doing that you cut yourself off from the ability to really get your work seen.

There is no shame in writing for money, and it doesn’t make you any less of an ‘Artist’ to engage with the business side of publishing. Even if you don’t care how much money you make from your books you still want people to read them right? And for people to do that they have to actually know about your book: that requires advertising knowledge, a website, and internet algorithms, or traditional publishing. Yes: business skills.

It’s easy to think that people who meet you will instantly sense your ‘Artistic genius’, and that publishers will read the first page of your novel and realise you’re a prodigy but...let’s be honest... you’re not. And neither am I. In fact, the likelihood of anyone reading this blog being the world’s-greatest-writer-who-has-ever-lived is extremely low. That’s not an insult, just the truth, and learning to recognise yourself as someone who is pursuing a career (no more special or predestined than any other) and who is in a constant process of growth, will protect you from becoming buried by your own ego.