To Write A Character, I Need To Know The Character

Photo by Andre Hunter on Unsplash

My Journey Into The World Of Prostitution & Pimping

Characters are people. 

At least the good ones are, they are iconic, have depth and feel real.

As a writer I need to know my character to such a degree that I can convince the reader that they are real. This means that I use the right lingo, hit the appropriate emotions and offer a legitimate look into their life.

This process requires research into topics I haven’t personally experienced.

I still need to imagine and extrapolate my feelings, but I need a strong starting point to make sure that I am heading down the right path.

In my book Lucidity, one of the characters is a dream brothel worker, another is her pimp. So in order to give their stories justice, I have spent the day researching real world accounts of people’s experiences.

I feel sick.

This reddit post talks about how the ‘pro-prostitution movement’ is simply wrong when it suggests that sex work is empowering. The author suggests that sex work is,

“(an) Objectively terrible, soul draining, isolating industry that chews up young women and change their lives for the worse.”

This documentary interviews people on all sides of the industry, from those trapped in a desperate cycle of prostitution to fund a drug habit, to those who do the work because they enjoy the lifestyle it brings. It looks into domination as a kink as well as domination of the sex workers as a hazard of the job. It covers the marketing of brothels as well as how the partners of sex workers feel about the profession. 

It was unique in that it didn’t present any moral view point. It just let the people involved share their stories and leaves the judgement up to the viewer.

These two videos did not. They are hard to watch accounts of former pimps discussing the reality of their profession. They talk about how they would manipulate the women into their stables and then use a variety of tools to keep them there. They also discuss the moral epiphanies that led them to getting out of the game.

There are many more first hand accounts to read and watch should you be interested.

Suffice to say, I learnt a lot.

I now realise that I had a very stereotyped and cliché understanding of prostitution and pimping. What I thought would be ‘the’ reason someone would choose (or be forced into) sex work and pimping I now realise was terribly shallow.

Desperation, trauma, drugs, greed, manipulation, fear, control, lust and desire play a part in the choices made by both prostitutes and pimps alike. And of course, no two stories are the same.

There is a significant amount of depth to all choices, and a complex web of cause and effect. 

I now know that in order to understand the human condition enough to write about it, I require a far more nuanced understanding.

There is a lot more research that I need to do. For this topic, and now I realise, all others.

This experience has taught me that I really don’t know much about anything. 

I thought I did, but I was wrong. Not just a little bit, but by a significant degree. My research today has shown me that I have a propensity to make assumptions and fall back on stereotypes. 

This is wrong. Not only is it a disservice to the real world experiences of people, but it also would perpetuate falsities.

That, and it would be terrible writing.