Should you use your writing to promote pet causes? Probably not. However, if you're writing posts on a blog, that is likely the whole point of your writing--to promote certain ideas or to teach something or spread the word about a viewpoint. Essays also might be written for the express purpose of showing why a specific idea is good and to provide supporting evidence for it.
When it comes to fiction and poetry, though, you probably will do well to not overtly promote a cause, although your worldview will probably spill into your writing somewhat. At least it wouldn't be lecturing or preaching that hits the reader over the head or bores the reader silly.
Your writing will have a theme or themes, and that might very well be considered something of a promotion of a cause. There will be some sort of conflict (Man vs. Himself, Man vs. Man, Man vs. Nature) and the way that is resolved may illustrate your views of one thing or another. Perhaps the best we writers can hope for is to be reasonably subtle and to tell a darn good story to illustrate our view.
The more I think about it, the more I think that in everything from theme to word choice, a writer likely gives away at least some of his opinions on things, but again, if it is subtle and there is a good story over all, it won't be a problem. Writing should capture the reader's attention and interest, not annoy the reader. Let any ideas or opinions or viewpoints flow naturally from the characters and the story, and you should be able to do it all.
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2 comments:
If you are just preaching in your writing, that is a turn off. However, people do love a good moral to a story or an interesting conflict between good and evil. I agree that you need strong characters for people to identify with to carry off any message.
I think people should be very conscious of messages in writing. I was reading in a book "Five Approaches of Literay Criticsm" a few months back an Essay discussing how a lot of modern authors use moral relativism and make it such that anything goes rather than showing that a person has fallen and what they may do to regain their former state.
I wonder if there are any stories that are strictly there to entertain without any real themes or messages.
It really hit me in recent years how much of what we conjure up about the world may be influenced to all we have read and viewed through the years.
Barb, I was trying to get at the preaching as not being good, but I sort of stumbled around in what I was saying! I agree with you that people love a good moral to the story, or an interesting conflict, etc. I think that the characters having some sort of standards or morals that they start from, then have a conflict about, is what makes the story interesting and the people care about the characters.
Thanks for all your good comments!!!
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