1) Make certain rape fits the plot line.
Writers sometimes choose to portray rape because it’s easy to get a reaction from the reader. With rape, it’s easy to get repugnance. It’s easy to create hatred. This laziness, though, results in shallow, unsustainable emotion.
Rape is devastating, and it will have significant affects on your story (or should). There should be other sources of plot development and emotion that sustain your characters’ development. If not, then it has been used as a device, a pathetic attempt at propelling a weak story.
Try this test: Could you take the rape out of the story line and still have the necessary emotions to advance the plot?
I knew Crossing the Line was successful in this area when I was asked by an agent to remove the rape. “It won’t take a lot of rewriting,” she rationalized. “Publishers don’t like rape.”
I refused.
Ultimately, I chose to reject a valuable offer from that agent because I insisted on remaining true to my story and my characters. The rape was not central to the story’s development, but it was important, nonetheless. It is critical that rape be portrayed in art; to censor it is to deny it’s existence and effects. To use rape as a device trivializes its significance.
2) Write about rape.
If you’ve decided that rape fits your plot line, then go ahead, write about rape.
All of it.
Write about the situations and mindsets and biases that cause it.
Write about the trauma of the event itself.
Write about the aftermath and the tumult that follows.
And write about the recovery, if there is one.
But whatever you do, don’t write about rape in isolation. It is not an event that occurs in a vacuum. It does not happen without cause, and it is not without consequence.
3) Form your character well.
Your character is a person. She has hopes, dreams, desires—the fact that she was raped is not the core of her essence. It’s not the substance of her spirit. It’s something that happened TO her, but it is not HER. Imagine how your character and her relationships would have developed had the rape not happened. Identify the areas where she is the same and where she is different. This will allow you to see the person behind the event.
4) Allow the victim a point of view.
This one is tough and will be expressed in different ways. I’m not saying you have to describe precisely in detail what happened and exactly what was felt; this cannot and should not always be accomplished depending on genre, style, and narrative point of view. The key is that the rape victim’s perspective should not be ignored.
Crossing the Line was written in third person close. One difficulty I found when writing was that I would shield myself from my characters' emotions by choosing a distant point-of-view character. I would choose the easier character rather than portraying the one that was dealing with the most emotion and turmoil. It required a lot of soul searching and pushing myself (and sleep deprivation) to connect to that primary character. There were many scenes that had to be rewritten from a variety of perspectives in order to achieve the strongest portrayal of the events.
The rape scene was obviously one of the most difficult scenes to write. It was written and then rewritten until I broke through the boundaries I had built and ensured that the emotional connection continued throughout the scene. It's too easy for the author to step back and show drama instead of recognizing the victim involved. Your character had her right to consent violated; don't take away her right to her perspective. It doesn't need to be in the form of the point-of-view character in first or third person close, but it should be recognized somewhere in the piece.
5) Avoid using rape as a crutch.
Rape doesn’t affect only the victim. Partners, friends, and family of rape victims can and should be shown having reactions to the rape as well. One caution though is that while they can grow through the experience, it should not be the primary force behind their development. If a boyfriend, husband, friend, lover, rides in as a rescuer who fixes all trouble, it places the rape in the sole position of existing for his development, his triumph. This cheapens her experience and renders it a mere catalyst for his growth. Others should react and grow, yes, but the driving force of their development should come from some plot point other than the rape.
6) It’s okay to have questions.
And it’s okay to leave things open ended and unanswered, to end with more unknowns than knowns.
What exactly is consent?
Must consent always be verbal?
If the victim feels pleasure during the rape, is it still rape?
Can a protagonist rape another character and still be the protagonist?
The beauty of art is that we don’t have to have all the answers. We don't have to be sure of ourselves and our ideas. Our job is to simply portray an aspect of life, convey the meaning we find, and allow the reader to conclude in her own fashion.
[Author's note: This article is written in reference to Crossing the Line which portrays a female rape victim and a male rapist. It is important to note that while most reported rapes involve female victims, many rape victims are male, and some rapists are female.]
