: Re: How to write painful torture scenes without being over-the-top I'm trying to write torture scenes but I'm not really all that confident about it since I've never written anything like it before

@Barnes643

Vote Up Vote Down

To me the most powerful and effective torture scenes were the ones where the author did not describe the torture process, only the aftermath.

One example, that still haunts me years later, is the torture of the Blue Bard in the A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire) book by George R. R. Martin. By describing the Blue Bard after the torture (quoting from memory here) such as "his always blue boots were soaked red with his own blood" and "he raised his remaining eye and spoke as blood bubbled from his broken teeth" he created an extremely powerful sight.

I think the reason why this kind of writing works is because it is mostly up to the individual how much they want to imagine of the process of the torture. People who are less tolerant to such things can quickly read on and not get disheartened. But by showing the painful results you still convey to the reader how much pain the character must have went through.

(0)

Login to post a comment!