: Re: Can you write about a taboo topic without creating a poor image of yourself as a writer? I am thinking of writing a character that possesses the psychological phenomenon of erotophonophilia (or

@Kevin153

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I've certainly read books that feel like excuses for the author to luxuriate in his or her own private perversities. I'd ask the following questions: Do you linger on the taboo? Is it gratuitous? Are the consequences and negative aspects dealt with honestly and directly, or is this a fantasy version of it? Is there a compelling reason to include it? Is the book as a whole good enough to justify wading in these murky waters, or does the rest of it just feel like an pretext? Is it presented with an element of the pornographic? Would this book be sexually gratifying to someone who actually had this disorder?
It's always difficult for readers to separate the writer from the characters, especially with a first-person narrator. But the above questions are the ones that would tilt my own opinion about you, the writer, one direction or the other.

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