Have you ever pulled punches in a plot? In other words, when it came time to kill someone, you let them live. Or when it came time to find out someone was a villain, you chose someone else? Or if the plot seemed to veer in a dark direction, you pulled back?
I don’t believe I’ve ever pulled any punches in one of my plots, at least not consciously. Unless maybe you count some word choices. I have, at times, decided against using a particular word or phrase out of concern for how it might be perceived. This is a trap writers often face when drawing their characters. Things the people in our books say can be interpreted as our own beliefs when, in fact, they are not. Some of my characters kill people, but somehow readers don’t accuse me of murder. So why, then, should they think a particular odious statement in one of my books represents my own beliefs? Maybe a character utters a racial slur or calls his wife an ugly name. That doesn’t mean I endorse such ideas.
And since I write books set in the past, there’s the extra danger of using terms that were in use then but out of favor today. They don’t even have to be super derogatory to pose risks to my personal reputation. In TURN TO STONE, my editor objected to my narrator’s use of “Oriental” instead of “Asian” when describing a group of tourists in Florence in 1963. For a while, I stood my ground and insisted that, while the word is frowned upon today, it was perfectly acceptable in the early sixties when my book was set. But after thinking it over, I decided it was a battle I might win but still lose the war. Why risk offending people needlessly? In the end, I decided to describe the group as Japanese tourists, thus avoiding the problematic word altogether. My final choice didn’t detract from the sense of period, nor did it risk offending anyone. My editor was right.
I faced a similar issue in CAST THE FIRST STONE, which dealt with the theme of homophobia in 1962 Hollywood. Given the subject matter, I had to decide how to treat the language—what was acceptable usage as well as the slurs—of the era. This proved to be difficult. My editor and I finally landed on the idea of using quotation marks for the offensive words, indicating that those were not my narrator Ellie’s words, but the bigoted remarks of others. Still, it’s an apt example of rethinking some editorial choices and pulling back.
So even if I’ve never stayed my hand to spare the life of a character In my books, I certainly have debated and reversed myself where word choice is concerned. I believe that in writing words are just as important as story. Not more important, but not less either. That may not be a popular opinion in writing circles, but that’s what I believe. Our words are the raw materials we use to build stories. And I wouldn’t want to use anything but the best materials in my work.
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