DARK REALM Forum Torture

I'm working on a story, told from first person point of view, and I find myself in a dilemma. The main character is at some point going to be tortured. As it is from first person point of view, I don't know just how much of said torture I should describe. All? None? Somewhere in between?

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

-Caradoc

I think it depends on how crucial that torture scene is to the progression of the plot. If it is a pivotal moment which brings about a big character development moment for the main character then you probably want to give it some focus.  Depending also on your audience you may want to focus more on the character's internal reactions than on the physical acts of torture themselves.  Good luck!

Hey thanks a lot for your reply.

That's some good advice and I'll definitely ask myself a few questions now about how important it is to the plot and the character. My initial thoughts on it were that it would be something the character would repress, shoving the experience down until it boiled over. It would change the character, making them take a darker view of the world, as well as tainted their thoughts and actions in a negative way.

Again thanks.

Have a good one.

-Caradoc

Hi, you have probably already written the torture scene by now so this may not be any help to you, but from my own experience of pain humans have a remarkable ability to detach themselves to cope through pain while it is happening and deal with it when we recover. Most of our pain is felt in recovery when we are relaxed enough to allow ourselves to feel it. In actual fact our memory of trauma has more to do with the build up rather than the impact.

The more, the better, especially in reference to a story pertaining to the act (read my short "The Ripper's Shack". Some graphic torture in that!) Horror, I realize, is not all about the blood, guts and gore. In fact, some of your greatest horror films and stories incorporate it very sparingly in the bodies of their collective works. Poe's Tale-Tell Heart, for instance, is a chilling story, but very little gore or violence is written into it. Sometimes, it is what's not seen that can be the most horrifying aspect of all.

Thanks for all the ideas and help. I was able to create something to my satisfaction that incorporated several of the ideas proposed. It is a chapter from a longer work. If any care to read it and the torture that takes place within it, I have provided a link below. Or you can look at the group's writing, as I have submitted it there.

I have written a torture scene in first person and here is an excerpt/ example of how I didit.  Even with my agonized screams I could hear the sizzling of the acid as it burned through my flesh. One finger couldn’t be hurting me this bad. I opened my eyes to see my flesh dripping off the fingers of my right hand. I was just screaming and crying. My eyes were fixed on the little bit of flesh that used to be my fingers.