Writing about Sensitive Issues - Inter-gender, by Kathleen Jones
(Warning: this post contains explicit content which some people may find shocking.) Tackling sensitive issues in a novel is difficult - yet, if we're to write about the full spectrum of human life then we are going to have to take one on at some point in our writing careers. Personally, I don't believe that the novel is the right medium to conduct a crusade - political or social. Virginia Woolf said that we should never write fiction that encouraged one to 'write a cheque' or 'join a society', but that doesn't mean that we can't address political or social issues. Dickens revealed the horrors of the Victorian underworld, and Catherine Cookson wrote about 20th century prejudices against illegitimacy, class and colour - there are dozens more examples. I have never, in my life, ever set out to write 'about' an 'issue' in anything but a feature article or media documentary. But my latest novel, The Centauress, tackles the very d...