[HPforGrownups] A writer's power of imagination (was: Abusive behavior)

[Peg Kerr]

No: HPFGUIDX 1592



Debba Robinson wrote:

"And I have to agree with your assessment of how JKR is able to write so vividly
about this problem."

> Debba Robinson
>

responding to Susan McGee, who wrote:

"It's all so realistic it's very disgusting to me. I assume that Rowlings
either was herself abused as a kid, or knows someone very well who was abused."
>>>

This is something I feel rather strongly about.  Please, please, please.  It may
very well be possible, but don't make that assumption.  You are denying a fiction
writer's power of imagination when you do that.

This is a common problem for fiction writers who write about painful subjects,
particularly, say, incest or child abuse.  How can you write about something if you
haven't experienced it, or if you haven't known/loved someone who has experienced
it?  You do it by doing your research carefully, and by using your imagination.
And then you have to correct everyone who says, "I assume you've gone through this
yourself." As Nicola Griffith said in the author's afterward of _Slow River_, who
wrote a gripping book about incest: "I'm a fiction writer; I made it up."

My last book was about AIDS.  I do not have AIDS, no one in my family has ever had
AIDS, I do not have any friends with AIDS or even any acquaintences, to my
knowledge.  And yet I run into this assumption all the time.  "You can't have
written about this so well if you hadn't experienced this personally."

I assure you, that a good writer can.

Peg