I missed out on July’s WriYe Blog Circle posting, what with everything going on and having little sit-down time with my thoughts. It was Zombie July at WriYe, and the focus was on horror, and that brought our fearless leader to thinking about limits, and what our limits are…

What will you absolutely not write no matter what? Even if the story tends to lead toward it. And where do you put your foot down in your genre? Do you write fantasy but not darker than a medium shade of grey? Do you write erotica and rape is not acceptable to you? Let us know your reasons why!

I’ve said it repeatedly over the years – and only bent the vow a wee bit within my Galleys Between and New Bedlam universes – I will not write anything that involves the torture/abuse/murder of children. There are gray areas there, for me, though. In Galleys, Maya is a very twisted psychotic child who gets pleasure in manipulating, torturing and killing. Her targets are her other selves generally, so is it really someone else she’s after, or just a piece of herself? In the New Bedlam universe, Shay is the broken (and mending) result of deviant and twisted behavior at the hands of her guardians. I skirt the fringes with both worlds.

Okay, basically I won’t go all Saw or Hostel or Human Centipede on a child in a story. Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street… maybe. Ish. Thing is, if that’s where the reader’s mind takes them, who am I to throw rainbows and butterflies on their parade?

Outside of that, oftentimes my writing can get very, very messy. Sticky with the viscera, even. Most of that I just tuck away and don’t even read it again myself. I use it to get stuff out of me, and that opens things up for the real stories. Not that messy horror doesn’t have the ‘real story’ bits, it’s just I’m heading out of that area again, I guess. When I do write it, it’s nasty, and often comes out more like word vomit than a coherent story, so I just… focus elsewhere.

I used to write erotica, even won an award and a publishing contract once. And then I was pretty much done with it… I dragged it out for three episodes of a serial, but was digging deep into the creativity bucket to get that last bit. Eventually I just put the project aside and removed the published bits from the web. There were few holds barred in that, however, believe me! It’s not someplace I’m likely to go again. Why? Boredom. Person meets person, flirtation, foreplay, sex and blah blah blah… I just don’t feel it anymore.

Does that make any sense at all, along the lines of the questions, even? Ha! I have to wonder about my thought-trains some days.

’til next week, I’ll still be catching up!
<3 JL