Directional Dilemmas
It’s been two weeks now since my last blog. Unfortunately last weekend was a bit of a ‘fail’ for me work-wise as I wasn’t feeling great, and ended up achieving pretty much nothing. On the plus side however, I did manage to get a small amount of writing done. This in turn led me to something of a dilemma.
So there I was pen in hand, trying desperately to get back into the swing of things with my novel writing, when all of a sudden the words started to flow. The problem was they weren’t really the words I was intending. For some reason I found my ‘PTB’ voice turning into something quite different — something that if I’m honest, I would never consider publishing in a book designed for teenagers.
This has in turn led me to something of a quandary — a ‘juncture’ if you will, in the progress of my novel.
Now The Darkest Hour is, and always has been, intended as the follow up to The Powers that be trilogy. It’s written in something of a similar voice, and is written with young people specifically in mind.
The thing is some of the subject matter I want to deal with is pushing the direct of the book away from what might traditionally be called suitable for ‘young people’ to something distinctly more adult.
Firstly for instance, there is my dealing with the ‘rape’ (or bodily possession) of one of my characters. Now in The Powers that be I deal with a similar situation with Varrus and Praetor Osmar, but in this new case, I am dealing specifically with a young girl. Obviously this is quite a taboo subject in modern times, but I find myself thinking well, isn’t the point of literature to explore these sorts of things?
For me, the message I’m trying to convey is all-important. The main theme I want to explore in this new book is the idea of Feminism, but from a specifically masculine perspective. The book is an exploration of parenthood, and what it means to be a father. I equally want to take this opportunity to explore some interesting concepts that I personally haven’t seen explored all too often in modern writing.
I find myself asking then, should I continue to target my book at teenagers, or perhaps ‘step up’ to the adult world. It’s a hard one.
This of course links with my second content dilemma, as I’ve just unconsciously created a feminine temptress character who tries to tempt our hero and test the strength of his marriage and his love for his wife. Interesting yes — especially considering the rest of my content — but in addressing this issue I found myself including some language that’s pretty close to the mark.
Just where the mark is between writing for teenagers and writing for ‘adults’ I don’t know, but I one thing I do know is that this latest project is certainly raising more questions than it’s answering at the moment.
Until next time…
M.J.Ryder
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