Boarders Writing A Novel: Volume 14 A Memory of Civility

[First of My Name]

4 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

I'm okay with any torture scenes which:

1. Don't feel like the author is making it awesome.

2. Don't get valuable intel.

3. Are just a showing of what a barbaric pointless practice of sadists it is.

I think mine meets 1 and 3, it definitely fails the second demand. I wanted important information but to be revealed because otherwise the plot doesn't move ahead.

[C.T. Phipps]

59 minutes ago, First of My Name said:

I think mine meets 1 and 3, it definitely fails the second demand. I wanted important information but to be revealed because otherwise the plot doesn't move ahead.

The problem with that is the "television" depiction of torture which breaks my suspension of disbelief as a general rule. Basically, because it assumes information gathered under torture will be more likely to be accurate when it turns out that people who hate their interrogators are more likely to lie. Torture is good for breaking people but I always wondered why people assumed it was a great method of getting the truth out of someone.

But do what you feel is best for your book.

It's only my opinion.

[The Marquis de Leech]

I remember reading an article about a British guy in charge of interrogating captured Nazis during WWII. He was very adamant that *classic* physical torture was counter-productive, and that you rather needed to trick people out of information (bearing in mind, what he considered tricking includes stuff like sleep deprivation and psychologically disorientating people). His favoured tactic was to offer the German a cigarette, and try to get him to talk casually in a relaxed situation - people are more likely to let slip to someone they're comfortable with.

On the other hand, if you simply want someone to confess to something (real or imagined), classic torture works just fine - the point being that you don't care how accurate the information is. 

[C.T. Phipps]

1 hour ago, Let's Get Kraken said:

Yeah the reliability of torture is very situational. Ask, for example, if the information can be verified while you still have the prisoner on hand, "where is the enemy camp?" "what is the passcode to this safe?", that sort of thing.

I read a book which basically said torture can work but it only works if you have two (or more) people kept completely separate so they can't get their stories straight.

Also, that they both know the information.

[C.T. Phipps]

I suppose it's inherently less dramatic than the interrogations which work best is you get one of the guys to fold due to making a deal or convincing him he's not in the right or (if it's a dictatorship) threats to loved ones. Well, the latter is pretty dramatic.

[Myrddin]

On 8/27/2016 at 4:57 PM, First of My Name said:

Question:
I've written a chapter in which three characters, part of a larger group, are captured by soldiers and tortured for information on the whereabouts of the others. These four are an adult women, a 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old boy. I'm wondering how much I should show, particularly with the last character. Right now it looks like this:
-Torture of the boy: he says nothing, ends with minor but painful injuries
-The torturer's report about this to her CO in italics
-Torture of the woman: she says nothing, ends with her left hand being cut off with an axe, but only the downward arc of the axe and her scream are described
-The torturer's report about this to her CO in italics, she's planning to take the other hand if the woman doesn't confess soon
-The girl sees the woman with the missing hand when is escorted to the torturer, ends with the torturer beginning her interrogation
-The torturer's report about this to her CO in italics, revealing what happened: she threatened to take the girl's eye, and the terrified girl confessed everything she knows. Then the torturer took the eye anyway and threatened to do it again to the other eye to make sure truly doesn't know anything else.
-Last scene; The girl lies on the floor of her cell, mental state is described and then she weeps out of only one eye.

Is this too graphic? Not graphic enough? Are those poor or perfect moments to end scenes with? I'm asking because torture in itself is controversial enough, and one of the subjects is an underage girl (before you ask; yes, it's necessary to her storyline).
Any advice on this would be great.

Who is/are the point of view characters in the story? Whose eyes are we seeing the torture? Victim, witness, or torturer? What's the result that will impact the character for the rest of the story? Physical and/or psychological? 

I'd use that as your guide for how much to show and how.

 

[First of My Name]

22 hours ago, C.T. Phipps said:

The problem with that is the "television" depiction of torture which breaks my suspension of disbelief as a general rule. Basically, because it assumes information gathered under torture will be more likely to be accurate when it turns out that people who hate their interrogators are more likely to lie. Torture is good for breaking people but I always wondered why people assumed it was a great method of getting the truth out of someone.

But do what you feel is best for your book.

It's only my opinion.

And I'm glad to have it, various points of view are only going to make the book better. I'm taking all the advice here into consideration.

37 minutes ago, Myrddin said:

Who is/are the point of view characters in the story? Whose eyes are we seeing the torture? Victim, witness, or torturer? What's the result that will impact the character for the rest of the story? Physical and/or psychological? 

I'd use that as your guide for how much to show and how.

Good idea, thanks.

[drawkcabi]

Well...

I just found out an "author" has plagiarized my work and is selling it on Amazon. Not Kindle books, but actual physical books that are MY stories. So they are probably selling them elsewhere too.

Action is required. I've already notified Amazon. Any recommendations about what else I should do?

Appreciate any replies.

[C.T. Phipps]

1 hour ago, drawkcabi said:

Well...

I just found out an "author" has plagiarized my work and is selling it on Amazon. Not Kindle books, but actual physical books that are MY stories. So they are probably selling them elsewhere too.

Action is required. I've already notified Amazon. Any recommendations about what else I should do?

Appreciate any replies.

Damn. Screw that guy.

I'm sorry and I think the best thing to do in that situation is gather as much evidence as you can of your ownership.

[Spockydog]

This seems to be a thing these days. Wankers.

Didn't something similar happen to Lord Grimdark? Or was that someone else...

[The Marquis de Leech]

6 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

 

[The Marquis de Leech]

6 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

Well...

I just found out an "author" has plagiarized my work and is selling it on Amazon. Not Kindle books, but actual physical books that are MY stories. So they are probably selling them elsewhere too.

Action is required. I've already notified Amazon. Any recommendations about what else I should do?

Appreciate any replies.

Get legal advice from a practitioner in your jurisdiction.

[drawkcabi]

13 minutes ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

Get legal advice from a practitioner in your jurisdiction.

I'm pursuing this, thanks.

Also publisher is Lulu.com. Just a quick look, they seem like a shady site.

[SpaceChampion]

SFWA might be able to help, assuming your work is SF/F.

[polishgenius]

1 hour ago, drawkcabi said:

I'm pursuing this, thanks.

Also publisher is Lulu.com. Just a quick look, they seem like a shady site.

Lulu is just a self-publishing platform. Might wanna wait pending your legal advice, but I'd imagine you'd want to contact them coz they won't want plaigarists using them to operate any more than Amazon.

[C.T. Phipps]

7 hours ago, drawkcabi said:

I'm pursuing this, thanks.

Also publisher is Lulu.com. Just a quick look, they seem like a shady site.

Lulu just makes whatever books you pay them too. Very famous and established.

You might actually contact them about this to get them to stop.

[drawkcabi]

I see. Thanks for the info on lulu. I'll ask my legal counsel before I do anything other contacting.

[Magnar of Skagos]

I keep going back and forth in the lore for my world. Do I want many independent kingdoms within the "continent" or do I want it united? I can never decide which I prefer.

[The Marquis de Leech]

19 minutes ago, Maelys I Blackfyre said:

I keep going back and forth in the lore for my world. Do I want many independent kingdoms within the "continent" or do I want it united? I can never decide which I prefer.

What is the geography and technology like?

[Magnar of Skagos]

13 minutes ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

What is the geography and technology like?

The area of the Continent I am speaking of it a relatively small area in the northern reaches. It is boxed in through several different means; long mountain ranges bordering it from the south and east, an ocean to the west, and inhospitable tundra to the north. There are currently three regions/kingdoms within these borders, and an island nation in the western sea. This area is perhaps a bit smaller than Central Europe.

Technology is early Medieval, with bronze age tribes carving out small niches along the edges of its borders.

I am just unsure whether I want to make these three lands duchies within one single realm, or as fully-fledged independent kingdoms in their own right. The political situation is either that the king of the united northern kingdom was assassinated by members of the southern "Holy Roman Empire-esque" land, fracturing the North into several different kingdoms in their attempt to conquer and annex it, or that they were independent to begin with. Either way, the story will most likely end with the North becoming united, if that makes a difference.