Comments on: Writing the Unthinkable

By: Sophie Nussle

Sophie Nussle — Sun, 08 Oct 2017 17:33:56 +0000

I once wrote a story about a war criminal. It’s hard, it’s uncomfortable, but it is impossible to avoid telling the stories, and the characters, that haunt us.
Well done!

By: Sheree

Sheree — Tue, 22 Aug 2017 13:59:27 +0000

Thank you so much for sharing this. I’m of the view that it’s absolutely critical for women to write ugly women – damaged women, angry women, flawed women, real women. I’m so tired and demoralised by women who are unquestionably forgivable. Women who are damaged only by their fertility, or lack thereof. Women who are healed by men. Women who are mere vessels for a weight of societal expectations. Thank you for writing a woman as unethical, unlikeable – it’s not fair that men get to solely rule that domain. I’ll be keeping an eye out for your work – I look forward to seeing more pieces of your soul 😉

By: Rhoda Baxter

Rhoda Baxter — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 07:55:22 +0000

Thanks for an interesting and thought provoking article. I recently abandoned a book because I couldn’t bear to write the things the character (male) ended up doing and, as you say, I worried about trivialising, or even showing sympathy for, something horrible. Writing something from the point of view of the victim is easier to countenance than writing it from the point of view of the aggressor.

This is the first time I’ve abandoned a book (albeit something different to my usual genre), which is scary in itself because if I can abandon one…