A theory of good abuse fiction structure

 

A) a puritan fag

Or

B) interested in writing your first Abuse story (for ponies!)

 

Let's assume option B for now and process forward. You've decided that you want to write an abuse story, but you're not really sure how. This will attempt to give you a good guide on the basics for what abuse is in a story and how to write it for any pony you could possibly want.

 

Let's start.

 

!Basics of abuse and the common flaw!

 

The absolute first thing you've gotta get through your head is that ALL ABUSE. Not some, not even most. ALL. ABUSE. Is EMOTIONAL and PSYCHOLOGICAL.

 

This is the fundamental building block to abuse. The common error that's had by writers who are either new to abuse, or are fetish fags, is that abuse is a purely action based occurrence. They have this idea that abuse really comes down to what the characters are DOING.

 

This could not be further from the truth! If the story is solely focused on the actions occuring (how much pain is being inflicted) you have immediately left the abuse genre and are now writing torture.

 

This is a common fucking error in the fandom, ever since 2016 at minimum. It produces the most god awful, trite and BORING stories! Torture has it's merits in its own genre, it may even be used as a tool for abuse. But torture is not abuse in of itself. Torture is about inflicting pain for its own sake. It's sadism.

 

Let's give a brief definition of abuse here

 

ABUSE - Behaviour coming from an emotional and psychological need to exert control over a situation or individual(s)

 

That's it. It's that simple! And how marvelous that is, because this simple error creates the most profound stories.

 

Why? Abuse is always telling an emotional narrative. It's got more power to it.

 

!abuse is a fluid sad-genre!

 

Abuse is a fantastic genre. It's silly, it's dramatic, it's horrifying and it's sad.

 

This means you have a lot of room to make great stories! You can make it funny and play on its absurd nature..or you can play it straight And make it absolutely heart wrenching. Even when it's funny, it'll still have that taste of sadness.

 

If I were to characterize abuse as a genre, it's a constant stepping into a river and forever changing it.

 

All this is to say, you can and should get creative! Explore your themes, play with the genre. It's so fucking flexible. Unlike torture, you're not locked into causing only pain for its own sake. You don't need to rely on shock value.

 

You have a rich world you can play with in the palms of your hands.

 

!types of abuse!

 

You might look at this section a little confused at first. I'd just spent time telling you that all abuse is emotional/psychological.

 

This is true. But there are different ways abuse occurs! The motivation behind abuse is always these two factors. The way the abuse manifests can occur in a few particular ways....remember, the core of abuse is a need to exert control.

 

• physical

 

The abuser is trying to cause discomfort in the victim.

 

Covers all forms of bodily actions! This isnt just activities meant to cause harm (biting/slapping/hair pulling/punching/physical punishments, etc). The actual centre of physical abuse is an intention to bring discomfort to the other party. So this can include, naturally, less 'violent' methods such as...

 

Restraint/restriction of movement. Confinement. Deliberate attempts to make someone uncomfortable (removing blankets and opening a window, for example).

 

Physical abuse is always about causing DISCOMFORT. When you understand this, you can become much more creative with this category and avoid getting locked into torture. When using this form, you can cause permanent effects on the victim character...but remember to emphasize the emotional impact always!

 

• Emotional & psychological abuse

 

The abuser is trying to break the victims spirit.

Sounds dramatic, because it is! The abuser is using psychological and emotional tactics to try and *destroy* their victims spirit. This is fun because it's an invisible form of abuse! It can take so many different forms. Gaslighting, humiliation, isolation, shifting blame, isolation.... This can be incredibly subtle! It can range from the worst codependency imaginable to the abuser emotionally distancing themself from the victim to destroy them.

 

• sexual abuse

The abuser is using physical intimacy to harm and humiliate their victim!

 

The common error here would be to think this only refers to intercourse and direct sexual contact (blowjobs, anal, fondling, fetishism, etc). But this refers to the wider spectrum of physical intimacy as well...

 

Kissing, massages, hugs, cuddling, sexual harassment (jokes, comments, etc). If you could feasibly use it in a sexual harassment lawsuit, you could use it excellently for an abuse story.

 

• Financial abuse

 

This is a pretty simple one to understand. The abuser is using financial means to harm the victim. They could be threatening homelessness, controlling their wallet, stealing their money...anything you could imagine relating to finance could feasibly go here.

 

• digital abuse

 

This doesn't (strictly) refer to computers. Really it refers to the use of any technology that's employed to harass, coerce and harm the victim.... Books, letters, pictures, so on and so forth.

 

This covers the very basics of abuse methods, but don't rely only on this article! Research! Figure out how the abuse you wanna write about functions.

 

!writing an abuser!

 

• motivation

 

Abusers are not infallible and to some extent, they know this. If they didn't, they wouldn't have this crucial, impossible, thought error that they could control something by abusing it!

 

Writers who don't understand this genre will tend towards making Le Epic Badass Meanie Pants. The guy who thinks he's always right no matter what, doesn't care about your feefees and wants to hurt you, yadda yadda yadda.

 

This is fundamentally wrong. It's not impossible for an abuser to be this way, but it's not the core of the issue.

 

The reality is the abuser cares deeply about right and wrong. The core issue is that they're operating from an extremely fucked up value system! Their judgement of what's right and wrong is so skewed that they're making disastrously harmful actions. The abuser always has some understanding that what they're doing is necessary in some respect. They are convinced that even if their actions caused hurt, it wasn't that bad. They will shift blame to the thing they wanted to control (I'm sorry I hit you - but you should've cooked dinner like I asked!) they are incredibly self absorbed and can conflate doing well with meaning well.

 

They are dramatic. They tend towards extremes (remember - skewed value system!) and make mountains out of molehills and molehills out of mountains.

 

• dialog

 

Don't write your abuser to talk like a fucking cartoon character unless you have a good reason for it!

 

Abusers are operating from their Fucked Up Value System. So they tend towards speaking in absolutes and extremes. Everything else is the problem. If they wind up admitting they're at fault without changing, then they invert that and turn it into another thing they can place blame on (eg: I'm fucked up! I wish I wasn't such an asshole...guess I'm just like this ) hell even a take that's supposed to be nuanced can be taken to an extreme.

 

Keep these things in mind when you're writing their dialogue. Above all else the abusers language should ultimately come to be self serving. You can be subtle with this or blatant.

 

!writing a victim!

 

 

• motivation

Writing a victim is alot easier than writing an abuser. But keep in mind, why is the victim here? What's the deal? Why are they in this situation at all?

 

Victims, either willingly or not, are ultimately acting as a vessel to fulfill the abusers needs. They're operating under the Fucked Up Value System, as an extension of the abusers world.

 

Consider this in relation to why the victim is here.

 

Remember, also, that many victims wind up becoming enablers! Leaving an abusive situation is not as easy as it would seem. This is a rich area to explore.

 

• Impact

 

Remember, trauma warps your view of reality! Different people respond to trauma and it's reality warping in different ways. Consider how your character is going to respond to the type of abuse they are experiencing.

 

Further, consider the material impacts of the abuse as well. How much is their social and material life tied into the abuse? Is their abuser a person or the society itself? A victim can be implicated into court battles, imprisonment, if they even get away they may have to rebuild their entire life from scratch. Be forced to take medications, therapies, undergo surgeries, etc. etc etc.

 

Consider the impact your abuse has on them emotionally, psychologically and materially. Especially in relation to whether the abuse is past or present!