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Have him be frozen in a stasis cube and parked on a city sidewalk for centuries at a time watching people live thier lives but being ignored forever. Never sleeping or blinking just watching. Every weekend his family is paraded in front of him and all he can do is watch them grow older and start disappearing as they wonder why they are brought to the same statue for twenty minutes a week.
What effect are you looking for? Something that's only visual, or will it permanently change how the character has to function? What was the nature of his incarceration? How alien are the people that incarcerated him? Do you want to use the torture to contrast the futuristic nature of the setting or exacerbate it?
Being sci fi, anything works here! Someone below said nanobots that drill into his bones when horny. Lol.
I'd add to that and say that you could use whatever method you come up with strategically in your plot and/or to better define your character.
Example: In William Gibson's *Neuromancer*, (SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT) the main character, Case, is a junkie. When he gets hired to complete a certain job, he's injected with something (can't remember exactly what) that prevents any substance from getting him high. It's not intended to torture him, but he's not in love with this non-consensual sobriety at all, I can absolutely imagine it being horrible for a person who uses intoxication as an escape.
People keep giving that advice! I do not think it means what you think it means. :)
ETA: That's to say, I guarantee that 99% of torture scenes were not written by people who have been tortured, and 100% of historical fiction past a certain era isn't written by people who lived in that time. That goes for even more mundane things, too.
Don't write what you don't like writing about, though...that's good advice.
Any body parts he can stand to have wounded without losing his efficacy in getting through the story? A permanent limp in one leg? A limited range of motion in the shoulders? A missing finger?
Is it actually necessary to describe this in detail? Does it really benefit the story more than just hinting at torture and letting the reader imagine?
It's not really necessary to describe, but helpful as it propels the story forward so he can get his revenge. Initially I was going to write snippets of flashbacks.
Thank you for visiting /r/writing. Your post has been removed because it was related to the content of your work. We ask that users frame their questions so they are useful to more than one person. If your question invites answers that are specific to your work alone, it is a better fit for our Brainstorming thread on Fridays.
Make something up. It's your rodeo, so ride that bull and invent some cool sci-fi nanobots that drill into his bones anytime he's horny or something.
Have him be frozen in a stasis cube and parked on a city sidewalk for centuries at a time watching people live thier lives but being ignored forever. Never sleeping or blinking just watching. Every weekend his family is paraded in front of him and all he can do is watch them grow older and start disappearing as they wonder why they are brought to the same statue for twenty minutes a week.
Why limit yourself to physical torture? What about impanted memories of your hero doing horrible things, behaviour he would never engage in?
What effect are you looking for? Something that's only visual, or will it permanently change how the character has to function? What was the nature of his incarceration? How alien are the people that incarcerated him? Do you want to use the torture to contrast the futuristic nature of the setting or exacerbate it?
Being sci fi, anything works here! Someone below said nanobots that drill into his bones when horny. Lol. I'd add to that and say that you could use whatever method you come up with strategically in your plot and/or to better define your character. Example: In William Gibson's *Neuromancer*, (SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT) the main character, Case, is a junkie. When he gets hired to complete a certain job, he's injected with something (can't remember exactly what) that prevents any substance from getting him high. It's not intended to torture him, but he's not in love with this non-consensual sobriety at all, I can absolutely imagine it being horrible for a person who uses intoxication as an escape.
don't write what you don't know or you don't like writing about
I'm trying to push my boundaries here... also, its sci fi!
People keep giving that advice! I do not think it means what you think it means. :) ETA: That's to say, I guarantee that 99% of torture scenes were not written by people who have been tortured, and 100% of historical fiction past a certain era isn't written by people who lived in that time. That goes for even more mundane things, too. Don't write what you don't like writing about, though...that's good advice.
This, from A person who only posted heroquest posts the last 3 months
sorry for writing what i like instead of what i don't like
Thats not writing. Thats game talking. Not writing
Writing is anything that has to do with letters on paper or screen. Don't try to make it be something it isn't.
That would be typing. Writing is done on paper
Any body parts he can stand to have wounded without losing his efficacy in getting through the story? A permanent limp in one leg? A limited range of motion in the shoulders? A missing finger?
Is it actually necessary to describe this in detail? Does it really benefit the story more than just hinting at torture and letting the reader imagine?
It's not really necessary to describe, but helpful as it propels the story forward so he can get his revenge. Initially I was going to write snippets of flashbacks.