Don't Make It Sunday

Despite what some literary snobs would have you believe, even us genre authors have something to say with our writings.  We also fall into the same pitfall; the sermon.

Terry Goodkind is the author that comes to mind when I think of preaching your beliefs in your novels.  Goodkind, quite often, went overboard with the use of his character, Richard, to tell the reader all about organized religion.  These sermons were intrusions into an otherwise engaging story.  Whether or not you agreed with his viewpoint, you were taken away from his world.  The character was no longer speaking, the author's voice came through loud and clear.

Annoying.  Goodkind actually made several good points while up on his soapbox, but it did absolutely nothing for the story.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zip.  He wasted my time and several trees to force his viewpoint down my throat.  I can tell you that, no matter how much I loved his world and story, he will never waste my time again.

And I did the same thing.

I have a lot to say about a lot of things, but this book uses slavery as a tool to show how we like to hold on to wrongs done to us in the past and use them as an excuse for the wrongs we do to others in the present.  It's an endless cycle.  Culture blue was wronged by culture red.  They escaped the oppression and punished culture yellow and culture red, because yellow likes red.  As time goes by, yellow overcomes and punishes blue and they're also angry with red because they did nothing when blue were punks.  And on and on and on.  Need an example?  Read a little about the centuries old riff between Christianity and Islam.  Don't forget to toss Judaism into the mix.

There I go again.  At least it's not the book.

I found a passage in Chapter Fourteen, while doing this round of pencil edits, where a character says and thinks things that were totally in my voice.  I am so glad that I caught it, but it just shows me that as much as I hate something, I can fall into the same trap.  It was an accident on my part, and I am sure that other well-meaning author's have had the same slip up and it made it into print. 

What we have to remember when we write, as genre authors, the reader is there to escape the world.  You can say what you need to say without taking them out of your world.  You have to remember that the story is first; you have an entire novel (or series) to sprinkle in a bit of your beliefs.  Don't do it in a paragraph, page, or chapter long sermon.

Don't make it Sunday.