Question: acceptable plot point

[Writer61]

I am in the early stages of plotting a fantasy story.

The overall plot depends on a young woman seeking revenge for a wrong done to her family. One possibility is that, as a girl, she saw her father killed and her mother raped by a nobleman and a group of his soldiers.

As I understand it, the death is acceptable, but what about the rape? The latter is not sexualised; does it fall foul of Lit's rules?

 

[ChuckWolf]

I am in the early stages of plotting a fantasy story.

The overall plot depends on a young woman seeking revenge for a wrong done to her family. One possibility is that, as a girl, she saw her father killed and her mother raped by a nobleman and a group of his soldiers.

As I understand it, the death is acceptable, but what about the rape? The latter is not sexualised; does it fall foul of Lit's rules?

You could always leave it vague.

After the unspeakable cruelties that Count Ivanov had visited upon her parents, she knew she'd never rest until she had her revenge.

 

[IWroteThis]

I am in the early stages of plotting a fantasy story.

The overall plot depends on a young woman seeking revenge for a wrong done to her family. One possibility is that, as a girl, she saw her father killed and her mother raped by a nobleman and a group of his soldiers.

As I understand it, the death is acceptable, but what about the rape? The latter is not sexualised; does it fall foul of Lit's rules?

Tell, don't show, and you should be good.

I wrote a story where a major plot point was one of the characters having been raped in college by somebody posing as maintenance. I didn't include the rape itself in the story, just the fact it had happened. It was approved with no issues.

 

[MelissaBaby]

If the rape is not described graphically, you will be fine. It seems to me that you would primarily want to describe the daughters emotions while watching, rather than what she is seeing, and that would fit well within the Lit rules.

 

[TheLobster]

You could limit your description to her mother's screams and pleas for the men to stop, without necessarily making it explicit that she was raped. The girl would know that an atrocity was committed, and the readers would pretty easily puzzle out what it was.

Considering this is all quite horrible events, I think you might get away (for narrative purposes) with simply telling what happened, which would let you get away with it in regards to Lit publishing rules as well.

 

[EmilyMiller]

I am in the early stages of plotting a fantasy story.

The overall plot depends on a young woman seeking revenge for a wrong done to her family. One possibility is that, as a girl, she saw her father killed and her mother raped by a nobleman and a group of his soldiers.

As I understand it, the death is acceptable, but what about the rape? The latter is not sexualised; does it fall foul of Lit's rules?

Building on @MelissaBaby ’s response. I had a female protagonist, a Deputy Marshal and the daughter of a State Marshal, kidnapped and repeatedly raped on video to send a message to her father. I obviously only ever referred to events in later conversations between my FMC and her father, and in her experiencing traumatic (and not described) flashbacks. Things didn’t end so well for the rapists or the cartel leader who ordered the rapes.

It probably goes without saying that this was a neo noir police procedural (a modern take on elements of L.A. Confidential and Chinatown). Rape - like murder - is sadly a fact of life and has been a subject of literature for millennia. Literotica allows it.

Rape written for the titillation of others…? Well my views on that are well-known.

 

[FrancesScott]

I am in the early stages of plotting a fantasy story.

The overall plot depends on a young woman seeking revenge for a wrong done to her family. One possibility is that, as a girl, she saw her father killed and her mother raped by a nobleman and a group of his soldiers.

As I understand it, the death is acceptable, but what about the rape? The latter is not sexualised; does it fall foul of Lit's rules?

This is the second time I have shared part of the preamble of a recently published work in this very same context:

Please note that this story contains references to both the historical rape of a minor and previous parental sexual abuse. While obviously neither is depicted, people who might find such references upsetting should read with caution.

 

[Dodola]

Is this a kink?
Several months ago, you posted a thread asking opinions on depicting nude children in the yard of a nudist community.
More recently, you posted asking for opinions on depicting a child witnessing swinger parties/ or nude adults,
and now you're seeking advice on how to depict a child witnessing a gang rape.

I'm not accusing you of anything except making me feel like I need a shower.

 

[CalBishForNow]

I'm not accusing you of anything except making me feel like I need a shower.

On the one hand, Writer61 is an established presence with on the site and in the AH, not a troll or a crazy person who's clearly going to crash out.

On the other hand, that is a pattern when you put it like that.

So rather than accuse them of anything, I'm inclined to wonder if they're going through something...

 

[Britva415]

an established presence with on the site and in the AH, not a troll or a crazy person who's clearly going to crash out

Oh, I don't know. I'm not naming names and not predicting Writer61 is going to join the ranks, but, I've seen things around here, man.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Is this a kink?
Several months ago, you posted a thread asking opinions on depicting nude children in the yard of a nudist community.
More recently, you posted asking for opinions on depicting a child witnessing swinger parties/ or nude adults,
and now you're seeking advice on how to depict a child witnessing a gang rape.

I'm not accusing you of anything except making me feel like I need a shower.

Sounds a bit like someone progressively pushing the line, if you ask me. The first time someone asks this, I put the question down to genuinely not knowing; the second time, maybe a slow learner. The third time, a raised eyebrow and the hope there won't be a fourth.

 

[Katie_Mae]

There's no issue with plots involving retaliating against rapists up to and including murder. Most of my r/nc stories here has this plot point in it somewhere (yes, including that one where the rapist is chopped up into tiny little pieces and all the little bits of him are hidden in different places to hide the body... and prevent him coming back to life.)

There's no issue with murder/mutilation etc, provided it's not for titillation.

There's no issue with a child witnessing murder.

There's no issue with rape occurring--it sounds like you are not writing an erotic ravishment (rape) fantasy which is what the "victim must enjoy it" rule relates to. While both rape and rape fantasy may contain rape, the psychological aspects around them are each the complete opposite of each other.

There's no issue with that the rape happened to the character's mother when the character was a child. And there's no issue with that child, now an adult, knowing about it.

Where you may have an issue is that the child witnesses sexual activity, which rape technically is. While rape may not (in my opinion) be about sex, it certainly contains it. Kinda like how a "ravishment fantasy" isn't actually about rape, but it may contain it.

I've never included children in any form of sexual activity in my stories here in any way, so I can't comment personally on that, but I know you'll get differing opinions on that. If it were me, I would not write the child witnessing the rape directly, not even as an adult looking back. (edit to clarify, I'd write the adult knowing her mother was raped, but that as a child she did not witness any portion of the events and had no knowledge as a child, it being something she found out as an adult.)

You could consider them witness the beginning but not the rape itself, eg the child sees her parents being dragged away, is aware her father is murdered and her mother returns traumatised, but doesn't put the two and to together of what happened to her mother until she was an adult.

I read a true story which involved the author who, as a child witnessed her older sister's rape, and that's pretty much how that author did it. As a child she saw her sister taken away and come back not okay, but as a child she had no idea what had happened. Writing as an adult, she knew what happened, and recognised that her older sister asked the men to take her elsewhere so that she (the child) did not see it directly, and as an adult she could comprehend the impact it had on her older sister, but as a child she didn't have any idea about it.