[Trigger Warning] I'm co-writing a novel that covers some fairly intense physical/sexual abuse. I'd appreciate opinions on how to handle such topics well. AskWomen

My GF and I are writing a fantasy novel together that involves two princesses falling in love. One of the princesses grew up isolated in relative luxury. The other was kidnapped at a young age and forced to become a warrior/assassin.

We've hinted at the warrior having a rough past and intend to have at least one, and possibly several, flashback(s) to what sort of methods her kidnappers used to turn her into a ruthless killer. Her experiences include being tortured and raped, beginning when she was a child. Theyare a large part of her character and I want to handle them as such, but i also don't want it to seem to be handled flippantly. I personally dislike stories that either make a character revolve entirely around trauma or mention it once and hand wave it away later.

I want to get the point across that the kidnappers were efficiently brutal, more pragmatic villains than mustache twirlers, but I don't want to devolve into some sort of Saw-esque torture for torture's sake ramble.

I'm looking for discussion on what's too much, I guess. If you've read/watched media where graphic subject matter was handled well, or handled poorly, what made it so?

Tangentially related: we're making a point of subverting as many common tropes/themes (I'm not entirely sure of the correct word) as we can--no helpless blonde damsel in distress, no square-jawed white male protagonist, no dark-skinned evil people, no heteronormativity, no male default, no women in refrigerators, etc. I'd love some suggestions as to common fantasy themes that could be played with in a similar manner.

Submitted March 04, 2015 at 12:31PM by crazycoffin http://ift.tt/1AGDISr AskWomen