Author-ized L.J.#WritersCoffeeClub Jan. 21 – When writing about unpleasant feelings, how do you avoid alienating the reader entirely?
By making it bearable for me to write about while staying engaged. I did this with the short story draft I'm currently editing by using a third-person/communal perspective that pulls back from an abuse victim's immediate sensations and reactions for a broader vista in time and space. The story becomes not just a victim's sole story locked in her body, which I knew I couldn't emotionally stay with, but a story of the community she is part of and springs from. This contained the feelings in a bigger vessel, so to speak, and helped me hold them and examine them better rather than shy away. I hope it'll similarly help readers.
Another device I used was to play around with time so the narrative is not linear past → future from the time the character is happy with her girlfriend to the time she is preyed on by an abusive princess. Rather the story alternates between grim scenes and happy ones, also dipping into distant pasts and futures, to make room for hope. #amWriting #LjWrites
And it wasn't a fully polished entry, either, though also not as rough as I feared. I'm grateful the contest gave me the impetus to get a draft out and very glad I sent it in. 
