Saturday, May 05, 2012
The
Art of Writing No. 30
Returning to the subject of ‘themes’ in novel
writing: a couple of blogs ago I outlined the thesis that you can elevate the
quality of your work by having your characters wrestle with issues that are
current, perennial, local or universal. In Azimuth one of my central
protagonists spends his life searching for enlightenment but, in the mean time,
being deflected from his course by adventures. A bit like Odysseus, unable to
get home as the gods seek to thwart his plans. So, at the heart of the 66 Tales
within the three volumes, this man returns again and again to this theme,
exploring it through the eyes of the people he meets and via introspection on
what befalls him. I hope there is no heavy sermonizing at any time. I am an
agnostic but wanted to write in an open way so that the reader could follow his
or her paths to personal understanding. The reviews suggest that many people
were buoyed up and stimulated by this theme. Others just loved the mystery and
unpredictability of the adventures themselves, as well as those of the
historian who tells the tales.
All good novels smuggle in far more than
their genre might require. A novel is a Trojan horse which you take inside the
walls of your mind, willingly, and once there begins to stir up your thinking.
If, as an author, you want to proselytize because you are, say, a Christian or
a Jew or a Muslim – whatever – the effect could be somewhat censorious. The
only people who will enjoy your work are those committed to your belief. Your
books become self-fulfilling prophecies. But if you write in such a way that
the ambiguities of belief, the case for and against, is represented naturally
through the thoughts and actions of your characters, then you will draw in many
more readers. You do not wish to convert them but merely get them thinking.
Your dialogue becomes Socratic.
Representing good vanquishing all evil in a cut and dried narrative
leaves critical readers thinking ‘but that is not like life’ and doubting the
integrity of your tale. For me, raising critical consciousness is central to
fictional writing. A critically aware population is far less likely to accept
any form of totalitarianism.
You may think this is a bit high falutin’
when all you want to do is write something which is a good read. So be it. I
believe that fiction has more purchase over the way people develop a skeptical
approach to what is presented to them by all media than any number of
sermonizing tracts.. Novelists have responsibilities, whether they are writing
to a formula or are attempting something grander in scope. The classic ingredients in
storytelling; good vs evil, the so-called battle of the sexes, the moral
dilemma of killing, utopian ideals vs messy human reality, innocence and
experience and many more, if ignored in your work, may make it appear
superficial. Touching on themes such as these, allowing some characters to play out their dramas around them, can lift your work on to a different level.
Azimuth by Jack Sanger www.azimuthtrilogy.com
The three Azimuth books also in Kindle
Amazon
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