Writer dilemma-what should I do?

[MillyFan]

I'm posting a Trigun fanfic at fanfiction.net, and have posted 4 chapters out of the 12 I've written.

I rated it PG-13 with the ratings system there because of some implications, some themes, and violence.

Here's my problem.

The first 4 chapters (those that I've uploaded so far) have been fairly light in and of themselves (aside from the theme of one of the characters being an unwed mother, and a recounting of episode 15 from the perspective of one of the former captive girls watching Legato's massacre), however, chapter 5 is when I took a huge turnaround and the plotline gets much darker dealing with themes such as the abuse of an unwanted child and mental illness.

However, one of the more devoted fans of my fanfic is someone who is barely 13. She's not a Christian as far as I know, nor does she know what I personally believe (I haven't made it or anything else but my gender clear there in my profile because I want my writing to be judged on its own merits, not on the basis of who is doing the writing)


Anyway, I'm wondering what I should do now.

My options don't seem that good: I wish I could ask her to leave now, but she wouldn't because she likes my writing. I can't block her from reading my work unless I give it an R rating, which I do not feel that it deserves.

I could stop uploading my fic, but I do not want to do that because the fourth chapter was no ending in and of itself. I could rework the whole thing from chapter 5 onward for her and any others and make it all happy fluff, but that's also the last thing I want to do. I like sweet fluff well enough and I might write some in the future, but not now. . .

So what does everyone here think I should do? My boyfriend says just to go ahead with it, that others aren't my responsibility, but I still feel as if they are.

[inkhana]

Personally, MillyFan, I think what you ought to do is leave some of the scenes in (that way you don't damage your plot) but change the way they're executed. I haven't actually read your fic, but maybe can you get away with implying more of the dark aspects of the story rather than showing them? Just an idea...

[MillyFan]

I am implying much of it. . .and I've reworked it as much as I can.

I seriously don't know what to do. All I know is that whatever I do, someone will be disappointed: if I go one way, I will disappoint myself and my other readers. If I go the other, I run a risk that I really don't want to run.

^sigh^ I just wish "MIKO gurl" would find another fanfic to read than mine.

I'm a little more tired now, still have no idea what to do except work on my personal website, try to forget about this for a little while, and hope that I can think of it tomorrow. Which I probably won't be able to-this is the kind of decision that calls for an intellect like Solomon's, not an intellect like mine.

*offers herself the first annual Pudding Cup Award for Mindlessness Above And Beyond The Call Of Duty

*declines the award as yet

[Technomancer]

My gut feeling is to leave the material as is. I've never been a fan of balderizing texts, believing its better to uphold the integrity of the artist's work. I haven't read your fic, nor(obviously) the pertinent chapters, so anything I say should be taken with that in mind.

What you're wanting to write about is all too real in our own world. I'm sure many of us here have at least encountered it, if not experienced it up close. I don't think we do ourselves (or others!) any favours as Christians, or as plain, simple human beings by closing our eyes to this. It is something that needs to be treated with honesty and compassion, not whispers behind closed doors.

Again, I've not read your material so I find it difficult to offer anything concrete. With respect to the girl, it's altogether likely that, on some level at least, she is aware of the sort of thing you plan to write about. God knows I'd known enough about it at that age.

[inkhana]

Vrrrrrry true. She may be perfectly capable of handling the subject matter. And to be honest, if she's reading fanfics, it's likely she's already seen far worse than what you're talking about.

[Technomancer]

And also, as MillyFan said, it is not "R" material in any event. I would feel differently if that were the case.

[Ashley]

While I agree that you shouldn't put a dishonest rating, this is a very, very hard line to draw, isn't it?

Has anyone mentioned pray yet? I know God doesn't always come right out and say yes or no directly, but it can't hurt.

I know this is very cliche, but I think this fits the situation...how would Jesus respond to it? If you do it in a tasteful, mature way (which I'm sure you will), I think it will be okay; but if it would make Jesus squirm...it goes without saying what you should do with it.

I'd also ask myself why I was putting it in there. Is it because of an idea? Or is there something deeper to it...not that there is, or anything like that, but just check yourself, and do it often.

To a certain extent you and your boyfriend are both right; while we can't wear the weight of the world on our shoulders (only one person could, wink) that doesn't mean we should stop caring about others. Make sense?

[uc pseudonym]

Nope, nobody mentioned prayer. I was going to, but then Ashley beat me to it.

Like everyone else, I am in favor of not changing material. Has this person filled out her account? Can you e-mail her?

Even assuming that she's a sheltered girl who has never seen anyone write about blood before in her life, it isn't necessarily your job to shelter her. Though I can understand your feelings, the good you might possibly do by lessening content is going to be erased if she keeps reading other material on fanfiction.net. So I guess what I'm realy saying is that in a broader view, it won't make too much difference.

[MillyFan]

The more I think about it, the more I see no perfect way to deal with it. Blah.

I've decided that I'm going to go ahead with it, just issue warnings and hope that "MIKO gurl" isn't going to be adversely affected.

From her profile I saw that she was an Eva and Hellsing fan (:rant: finding out which made me want to rant about her obviously irresponsible parents for a while ^sigh^) so I'm thinking that I don't have to worry about "shielding" or "protecting" her because even my very worst isn't like Hellsing for objectionable content.

[uc pseudonym]

Well, that certainly isn't a "happy ending," but I suppose it does bring closure to the problem. Glad to be a community of believers for you.

[WhiteÃ…ngel]

I have a similar problem with the sci fi story i wrote... I will have to revamp it because I am convicted of some of it's content. I wrote it long before i was a Christian.

If you are ashamed or convicted on some of your content... then change it. Like Ashley said... If Jesus wouldn't want to read it, then is it really worth reading?

I like to see stories that give a moral or parallel a proverb without actually quoting scripture, but be careful what you add to lure the secular people in if you compromise your integrity.

[Technomancer]

While I would not want to guess at the literary tastes of Christ, I don't think that the contents of Milly's story, however dark, are likely to be worse than what He no doubt sees on a daily basis. I mean if He came down to redeem us of our sins, one would hardly suppose that he did so without knowing what they actually were. I don't wish to ridicule or to sound like a pompous git (which I probably do), but if we should restrict our reading (or writing) to the merely banal or to the "happy shiny", we doom
ourselves to utter irrelevance in this world (and to many of those whom we would minister).

For myself, I will take it at face value that MillyFan's goal in writing
about these things goes beyond trying to draw readers through base titillation. I don't know if she's trying to merely tell a good story, or to go somewhere deeper, but if she has something important to say, then by all means it should be said however uncomfortable. If Christ could see all of this world, with its hatreds, its loves, its sins and squalor, and still forgive it, still die for it, how can we flinch from the merely unpleasent?

That, at any rate is how I see it. I apologize for rambling, and for probably sounding like a fool too. If there is anywhere on this Earth where I may never have my deepest beliefs challenged, where I may never experience doubt or questions, than tell me where it is so that I may avoid it with all haste.

[Ashley]

I mean if He came down to redeem us of our sins, one would hardly suppose that he did so without knowing what they actually were. I don't wish to ridicule or to sound like a pompous git (which I probably do), but if we should restrict our reading (or writing) to the merely banal or to the "happy shiny", we doom
ourselves to utter irrelevance in this world (and to many of those whom we would minister).

I couldn't agree more. You're right; Christ did not sit by himself in a corner of Nazareth with all the best people he could find and shun the world. In fact, if anything, shying away from the bloody, nasty, dark, and otherwise unpleasant things of this world would be to start following a Pharisee...and we all know how our Lord dealt with THEM. And truth is, yes, this world is fallen. We can't afford to live in a happy Christian bubble, because to be blunt, Christ left us here for a reason: to reach OUT, not IN.

I also think the darker elements in things can teach us how to be a better witness. To paraphrase from Paul's 1 Corinthian letter, it takes a thief to fully understand a thief. How could we begin to understand the pain that comes from this fallen world if we never try to study it? When you understand the pain of another's situation, you can comfort them ten billion times more effectively.

But my point was there has to be SOME sort of guiding spirit behind your work, literary or otherwise. Personal convictions and what Christ tells you in your quiet hours alone play a big role here; I'm sure everyone understands the balance between brushing past bad things and avoiding them all together.

[kaibrightwing]

i guess i should stop writing all together see writing is important and the problem is if someone like your work than they read more making fans is good, making enemies of the parents is not so cool truths me i know.
Why do parent have to be so mean to their kids about thing themselve are afeared to face?

[Ashley]

Often times parents don't know how to deal with something they're afraid of, and since they don't know how to, they don't want their kids to either. It's a weird sense of protection I think.

I don't think you should give up writing all-together...whether this was in reference to you, Kai, or to you, Milly, I'm not sure. Either way, God gave you an ability and an interest for a reason. It would be a waste to not use it for fear of writing about not so wonderful things. Truth be told, it's unavoidable; a good writer doesn't shy away from these things, but learns how to deal with them maturely.

[inkhana]

MillyFan, I think you're going just fine so far--it's not the kind of story where "fluffy happiness" is going to cut it. Don't worry about it, unless you feel the Spirit telling you to change.

[MillyFan]

Thank you, Ink. -^.^-

[inkhana]

Ooooh! Shyguy on stilts! *gets out her copy machine, sticks in shyguy, lights flash, copy finished! Replaces original* LOL

[MillyFan]

By the way, thanks for the banners for my anti-yaoi website Ink. I'm attaching one in this post so I can put it in my sig. . .since I still don't know how to set it up as a link LOL.

[inkhana]

You betcha!

[WhiteÃ…ngel]

I really like the new sig milly ....

excuse my ignorance.. I guess I'm just old and out of the loop, but what is fan service exactly?

[andyroo]

This post explains it all.

http://www.christiananime.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=347

Look for St. Peter's post. He explains it there.

[Ashley]

Pointless, often vulgar and or questionable scenes *cough nudity cough* put in for no purpose. They don't advance the plot any, they don't explain anything...nothing. The series would have been better without them, etc. Just thrown in scenes to please the perverted fans that get a sick thrill out of that sort of thing.
Why?
Because unfortunately, in the anime world, nudity and sexually driven shows sell better. And of course, it's all about the money. :rolls_eye

[WhiteÃ…ngel]

oh!

guess that's why I don't know it so much.. I keep pretty close eye on the content before watching it.

[andyroo]

uh. yeah I guess that would save him the extra click. Hey you didn't "*hack*". guess your cough is getting better. whatever.

[MillyFan]

Originally posted by WhiteÃ…ngel
I really like the new sig milly ....

excuse my ignorance.. I guess I'm just old and out of the loop, but what is fan service exactly?

Why, thank you. -^.^-

[WhiteÃ…ngel]

I am confused with the message of your sig though... which is yuri and which is yaoi and aren't they both silly? :rolls_eye

[inkhana]

yaoi is male + male relationships

yuri is female + female

Yes. They're both silly.

[MillyFan]

And fanservice is totally different from yaoi or yuri, unless yaoi/yuri is being used as a form of fanservice (i.e. Gren in Cowboy Bebop for much of the "Jupiter Jazz" two-part episode was an example of yaoi-related fanservice)

[uc pseudonym]

While we're off topic, I might as well comment on that offtopic. I like your sig, MillyFan. There's practically an epidemic of girls on the internet writing yaoi after yaoi. Glad there's some people speaking up to the contrary.