Tin Man: Pirates Metrics 55

Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

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Metrics
Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic

New words: 1582
Total words for part one of draft: 57099
Total words: 69578
What I hate about my writing: The end is nearly here but not the ending.
The Good: Got the full hour and got a kick-ass word count.
The Bad: GAH, I’ve been bad. I found Tin Man Meta in LiveJournal, and I’ve been on a reading frenzy. (I won’t join LiveJournal but I lurk there a lot.) Where does the bad come in? It has led to me believing that everything I have written has managed to piss off a whole bunch of fans and they won’t read it. That’s one of the drawbacks finding where the intelligent discussions are taking place because you agree with things they talk about and ask if those flaws are in what you’re doing. Or at least I do, but then I want to make my readers happy so they come back for more.

Case in point, this lovely rant on the use of rape and treating a rape victim with comfort sex by blade_girl. I agree with wholly with everything ranted about. I have used rape as a plot point and character detail in my Biker Mice From Mars fanfics, and I think both of those instances treat it realistically. Hell, Tala has just gotten to the point where Vinnie can kiss her without her having a panic attack.

So why do I have a sudden panic attack over this issue? Tin Man: Pirates of the Nonestic has three near rapes of DG. *Winces* I can’t believe this didn’t raise any flags when I brainstormed the story. My only defense is Disney-ignoring-it-aside, slavers and pirates were historically despicable people and I’m only accurately portraying them as such. The third is a flashback and brought on by alcohol (not an excuse, only the controlling asshat would have enough sense sober not to use his dick as a weapon). The first one linearly in the story actually counts as near rape for both DG and Cain, and when what the bad guys had planned doesn’t happen, DG and Cain end up having consensual sex at DG’s behest. Her reasoning is to only make Cain feel better, to do something nice to make up for the crap he just went through that she feels guilt for. She is so disconnected to her body and positive sexual experience (not because of abuse, just a string of lackluster boyfriends) that the only things separating the two events is Cain is just one man and a decent one who won’t hurt her. How Cain treats that experience turns her ideas upside down, and develop into a real relationship.

So given that, I’m afraid I’ve fallen into a newbie fanfic writer trick of treating rape unrealistically when I do know better and I’m going to lose readers. And I’ve been working so hard at keeping the emotional development evolving with the plot. I’m proud of it. But I don’t see how the character development will happen if I must lose that first nearly rape and its aftermath. *Headdesk.*

Crap, I’m going to have to find a beta reader.
Fave DG line: “I don’t want to turn into my mother.”
Fave Cain line: “And that makes you different from every other person born how?” (My goddess, how I love his rock-solid common sense.)
Fave Dani line: “If you ask me, she’s due to fly the coop.” Dani peered up at them through the bars of the birdcage. “She let the fox into the hen house, and you humans put her back in charge? No wonder you need help.” (If I could make Dani real, I would in a heartbeat. However I doubt she and Mustard (my cat) would get along in the same house.)
What I'm looking forward to: Making-up smut. I think I finally have DG on the right issue to be having an episode about.
What I'm not looking forward to: Tomorrow.