do you have any advice for writing characters with trauma that you haven’t personally experienced? as someone who has been writing for awhile, i do try to research as much as possible but if you can, it’ll be great if you have anything!
(if you have any, remember, or want to ofc)
I would say research and listening to first hand accounts is really great! WAC in particular is based on a lot of personal things my wife has gone through/things he's said to me with his express permission to include them in the story. I've written the story in a way to give him a piece of media that reflects his experiences. However, it is also important to remember that experiences are not universal, and that's okay! Like stated above, I am writing this story from one person's experiences/emotional truth, which might not ring true for everyone.
With that contradiction, I think a level of earnestness needs to be brought. Both from an audience perspective, and also a personal one. The audience one I hope makes sense (being respectful about it, being as genuine as you can with your depiction, etc) but a personal one is also important, as least it has been to me lol. Genuine criticism and concerns are always appreciated/I'm willing to discuss, but I've received harrassment in the past because of the content of wac (the classic "how dare you write about these things with feral animals" schtick as well as contacting my wife to ask him personal details about his trauma) and all you can really do to beat that back is tell yourself that you know your motives for including it. You know you're not writing it maliciously, you know you're not writing it without having put thought into it, etc etc.
The very last thing I would say is that, honestly? if it's something you haven't experienced, I think you should 1) interrogate why you wanna write about it. Is this just to add more angst to someone's backstory/shock value, or is it tying into some greater theme in the work? Trauma does not need a reason sometimes as well, but it does influence how a character's actions/how they interact with the world, and it's something to think about.
and 2) I don't think you should make a big kerfuffle about it in your work. Obviously tag it and make sure people KNOW, but like what I mean by that is like...if I were to end every sentence having to do with The King/Lain like "and it's REALLY gross and REALLY disgusting and awful" as someone who didn't experience that...it would feel a little...tone deaf? i guesss? from the many csa victims I've talked to (again not everyone! Just the ones I've personally talked to), stuff like that makes them feel alienated, like what happened to them "stained" them, and something to only be talked about as a gross little secret. Just state stuff plainly.
