RS, Author, Novelist, Prosaist<blockquote><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WritersCoffeeClub" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WritersCoffeeClub</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/WCC" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>WCC</span></a> 2025.08.04 —How violent is your work?</p></blockquote><p>None of my stories have ever physically harmed or hurt anyone, but I can't be responsible if someone threw the book!</p><p>Seriously: Violence is never the object of my stories and it is never gratuitous. The POV characters make efforts to resolve issues peacefully, usually with words (albeit, sometimes angry ones). Violence does happen, especially since the stories are not about everyday run-of-the-mill people. When the story involves gangsters and the mob, violence goes without saying. Ditto for a story about a prizefighter. (Same MC.) That said, I provide only the details necessary for the fight, but magnify the grit and stupidity and limit or imply the gore. What the characters think about when being violent or enduring violence is what matters. I try not to glorify combatants. Most decisions they're forced to make grind away at their souls. PTSD is a thing.</p><p>On a scale of 1 to 10, the stories are in the 3 to 6 range.</p><p>I considered adding an excerpt, then thought maybe I would add the excerpt as a threaded reply, but decided not to. Violence might be necessary to the selected story, to demonstrate how senseless, useless, or mad it actually can be—but minus the context of the story and the MC's internal dialogue about what she's seeing—having been taken into a war zone by her teacher, the excerpt is far too sad and needless, which is her teacher's point.</p><p>I did get a chance to neaten up the prose, though!</p><p>[Author retains copyright (c)2025 R.S.]</p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/BoostingIsSharing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>BoostingIsSharing</span></a></p><p><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/fiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>fiction</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writer" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writer</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/author" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>author</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sf" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sf</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sff" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sff</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/sciencefiction" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>sciencefiction</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writing" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writing</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writingcommunity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writingcommunity</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writersOfMastodon" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writersOfMastodon</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/writers" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>writers</span></a><br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSdiscussion" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSdiscussion</span></a> <br><a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSstory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSstory</span></a> <a href="https://eldritch.cafe/tags/RSReluctanceStory" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>RSReluctanceStory</span></a></p>