Being a Better Writer: Politics and Writing · 10:28pm Jul 6th, 2020
Welcome back readers! No news this week, we’re just diving right in! I felt that with the United States celebrating Independence Day this last weekend, today’s post topic felt timely. Though it wasn’t inspired by current events. This topic has been on the list for several months, inspired by a combination of commentary on various book and writing locales online as well as some very public statements by a gaming company on the nature of politics and stories (statements I disagreed with, personally).
So then, with no further ado, let’s jump in and talk about politics and writing. This is going to be a rather involved post, and as well, I suspect, somewhat controversial, because as of late culturally the idea of talking about politics has become fairly divisive in and of itself. Or to put it bluntly: Many seem to only think politics should be spoken about as long as what’s being said supports their position (no matter what it is) with as little friction as possible.
Which is kind of a genesis of sorts for this post. See, today we’re not going to talk about how to write political intrigue in our stories, nor how to write a book that focuses on politics and governmental drama. Not at all (besides, you approach that like any other topic: lots of research). No today we’re discussing the idea of having “politics” be something in a story at all.
You may have heard this statement before from someone in person or online, or at least a statement akin to it: “I don’t like politics in my story. There’s no need for them. [Creator] can just make a story without politics in it.”
Yeah, this is a popular phrase being parroted around these days. If you haven’t heard it, count yourself lucky, because any following discussion devolves into madness, usually quite quickly. However, this commonality of this statement does raise a legitimate question: are they right?
Kudos.
Politics is part of worldbuilding.
Different groups work and fight with each other.
Huh. I halfway expected this to be about 'making your own politics'. Which can be a real fun aspect of fantasy worldbuilding. Still, what you talk about here is indeed a good lesson for newbie writers.
Oh, and that political soapboxing story you mentioned near the end? What would have made it vastly better would have been two protagonists on opposite sides of the political spectrum who both end up changing sides at the end for their own independent reasons. Could have been a fun experiment and challenge, for the writer and the reader.
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That almost was the topic of this post, actually, but I decided to tackle this first as a building block for that next step. But it's definitely coming! Far too many modern creators have committed the worldbuilding sin of "Democrats VS Republicans ... In Spaaaaaace" or "Democrats VS Republicans ... With draaagooons" despite how little sense it makes.
Of course, the audience that wants to be pandered to does love that, regardless of how little sense it makes.