14 Year wrote a Very graphic horror story

[Whynotchoose]

My 14 year old Son has got into trouble from his school for writing a VERY graphic Horror story, personally I found it very well written (I'm even considering publishing it with Amazon/Kindle).

He is the youngest of three, His brothers are 25 and 18. His Mum and I have always let are Kids have a fairly free reign (within reason).

My Question is, is it wrong for a 14 year old to be writing this kind of story or as I think a good piece of creative writing (Think Stephen King at his best).

[puds11isNAUGHTYnotNAICE]

You would have to expand on the content.

At 13 I wrote a very graphic horror centred around domestic violence. I was praised for ingenuity, not penalised for graphic content!

[PerspicaciaTick]

Graphic as in gruesome or graphic as in psychologically or sexually disturbing?

I don't think he should be in trouble for writing a genuinely well-written example of the genre. But I hope he warned the teacher about the content and was careful about distributing it among classmates - at 45yo I'm too much of a wuss to want VERY graphic horror images unexpectedly in my head.

[Rivercam]

What sort of story was he asked to write? Why was he in trouble?

[MrsNextDoor]

There's nothing wrong with this at 14 imo. I was reading Stephen King and James Herbert from 11...my older brother had a large collection of horror and I loved them and was a very advanced reader.

My cousin (gifted) once wrote a story about depression when she was 16 and the stupid teacher red circled anything she thought was "rude"....one of them included a description of a dog shitting...it was relevant and well written....I would complain.

[Whynotchoose]

Thanks for your replies, basically the story is about a young boy who's bullied at school. The boy in the story decides to extract his revenge by killing and tormenting his Bullies this involves nailing of ears to the floor, disembowelling etc.
The book was something he'd decided to write himself basically he showed to his Head of English because because he was proud of what he wrote and he wanted it checked for spelling, grammar etc.

Thing is I personally have no problem with it and are hugely proud of him, I've always enjoyed Horror and have a large collection of horror books at home, which on occasion he has read,
TBH I'm not to bothered what the school think, he's due to move to a new and more specialised school in September (He wants to be an Engineer).
Really the School has the problem I've had two other Kids go through the same if they don't fit in there "LITTLE BOX" they get scared.

[MrsNextDoor]

Is he bullied himself? And what sort of trouble did he get into? What did they do?

[ragged]

How does it compare to a Darren Shan book?

[Floggingmolly]

You're thinking of publishing it???

[AndNowItsSeven]

That's not horror that's seriously disturbing. I would be grateful the school haven't rang childrens services.

[fourchetteoff]

Um.
Time and a place.

I am a writer and I actually have written some fairly intense horror and sex scenes too (ooh, misses). But I wouldn't read the sex scenes out at certain venues or the horror ones out at my nicey writers group.

I think horror stories like that can be creative and well written and sometimes the darker the horror, the more it shows creativity. Just because you write it, doesn't mean you want to do it! But in this case I would question your DSs judgement for thinking this was fine for school. He'd be better off directed to online horror writing groups for feedback. It's not a case of quashing creativity, it's knowing there is an appropriate place for things.

[MrsNextDoor]

Seven to be fair you can't say it's not Horror without reading it. Op only mentioned some aspects.

[AndNowItsSeven]

Fair enough it's inappropriate seriously disturbing horror. I would have concerns about a child who wrote such a story.

[fourchetteoff]

I wouldn't be.

Again, there is an amazing line between writing about doing something and actually doing it. I have always had completely twisted plot lines jostling about in my head, but am a kind person, morally fairly well balanced, who bakes for the school fair. It's a very simplistic thing to say that this is worrying.

[Cassie258]

You are the parent. If you don't have a problem, then it is not the schools place to.

I agree about the time and place to a degree and obviously depending on the severity of it but it's not the fault of you or your child that the teacher is a sensitive Sally.

[SewingBox]

What do you mean "got into trouble"?

Seems odd to punish him for a piece of writing, but if you mean they've raised some concerns, then I think they would be lax not to.

If there's no cause for concern, that's fine, but it does sound like some of what he's written could be indications of a troubled soul, or a vivid imagination. Anyway, they'd be wrong not to check it out IMO.

[Mrscog]

Sounds good, but very much along the lines of a Ben Elton book I read, might be worth cross referencing it before publishing in case there's too much overlap for copyright purposes!

[fourchetteoff]

Just a BTW - I recently participated in a university creative writing class.

No horror or graphic sex scenes were allowed as it could be triggering to other classmates who would have to assess these stories too.

My friend, who instructs the class, told me that the main reason she didn't allow it though is that so many, many, many of the stories written previously by the 18-21 year old lads had some kind of serial killer/graphic death tales. She got incredibly bored by reading the same thing, mostly badly written, over and over again.

Could your son instead write something else and submit it to show that he has good scope?

[Happyyellowcar]

As long as he's not going to be acting it out then I don't think he should get into trouble for writing it. Freedom of expression and all that...

[TopCivilServant]

First thing that came into my mind is that it sounds like something you'd find in the bedroom of one of those disturbed kids who take a gun to school and shoot their teacher and class mates in America.
I think it'd make me a bit twitchy as a teacher

[Haggisfish]

I agree-it would be a safeguarding red flag and I would refer to our child protection officer to investigate.

[ItsAllGoingToBeFine]

Seriously? It doesn't sound worse than a Stephen King novel or something, and I'm sure plenty of us were reading those at 14?

[TopCivilServant]

I don't think it sounds that bad, setting it in a school is the bit that feels inappropriate to me I think

[Whynotchoose]

Agreed School probably wasn't the best place for this kind of story, but belive me this is a product of a vivid imagination.
He is a clever lad and is bullied to a degree, we have spoke to him about this and at the end of the day it's only a story. Like I said in my first post he is the youngest of three his two older brothers are normal(ish), and they all know right from wrong.