Controversial issues in a novel

It doesn't matter how you do it, the subject is a political hot-button and some people will be turned off by it.

Write it the way it has to happen, and just let people respond how they respond.

I think that if you're true to the characters and their words are consistent with their voices elsewhere in the novel, it won't feel preachy.

One thing that someone once pointed out to me about writing about controversial topics is to be very watchful of word choices in the narrative. The characters may well choose highly charged words in their dialogue, but if you don't want to seem preachy or tendentious, using neutral descriptive language in the narrative will go a long way with that.

Sounds to me like you're very mindful of the need to avoid using your story for a soapbox, so my bet is, you won't. You're going to write the story, not make a speech/diatribe about abortion.

Good for you.

I think that if your main character only speaks of her own feelings and desires and not the moral issues behing having an abortion then no one would feel offended. Maybe if she somehow states that it is a decision that that is personal to her and not her views on what anyone else should do in her situation.

But, what the heck do I know, I'm a newbie

Controversial issues in a novel never once stopped that book from being published ... if the book was well-enough written.

Worry first about plot, character, theme, setting, dialog, style, sentences, and sense. When you get those all lined up, the "issues" won't matter.

On the other hand, if you want to send a message, call Western Union.

I think since you are aware of the possibility of getting on a soapbox over such a topic that will push buttons regardless of how it's executed, you will, in turn, be more apt to avoid preaching. As long as you make mental notes to yourself and keep your characters true to themselves I don't think it will be much of an issue.

Just write it nad then worry about word choice and what have you.

The main thing to remember is that every individual has their own opinion about this topic, so the same will apply to your protagonist. Just write it true to her character, as she sees it has to happen, and all will come out okay.

Good luck!

If you're worried about stirring up controversy, ask yourself: is this topic really necessary?

There's no way to avoid seeming like you've got some agenda with an issue like that. So ask yourself how much it really means to you, and if you're willing to deal with the fallout

I think if you balance the arguments - don't give one side more air time than the other, then you'll avoid sounding like you're soap-boxing.

Alternatively, just duck the debate in realtime, and have your heroine reflect on the decision after the matter. If the rationale for the decision was based on an issue particular to your world (ie: the child is the new messiah/ heralds the arrival of the Evil One) then it sidesteps the issues that plague this subject in our world, imho.

When I think of books with controversial topics, what usually works for me is what others have suggested - stay close to your character.

I think most people tend to gravitate toward saying they have a "moral" reason for the opinions they hold. For example, with abortion, that it's right or wrong for whatever reason. But when it comes down to actually BEING in that situation, I think people rely more on very personal reasons for making the decision.

For example, let's say your character believes that abortion is morally okay. That's nice, in theory. But then let's also say, this woman has longed to have a child for her entire life. She wants this so badly, for personal reasons having nothing to do with the intellectual choice, that she is willing to risk her life to have the child.

As another example, the main female in one of my novels is ostensibly a Christian. In theory, she believes killing people is bad. (I think most people believe that, religious or not. ) However, when she meets an assassin, she doesn't freak out. And she turns out to be perfectly comfortable with the knowledge that he kills evil people. Why? Because her own parents were murdered. If this guy needs to kill bad people to stop good people from being harmed - well then, she isn't bothered by that.

I just realized that in both of my examples, these are characters doing something that they would not recommend to other people. I think that sort of internal conflict goes a long way toward diffusing any controversy... as humans, we're capable of holding a lot of contradictory beliefs. Making the decision complex and emotional steers it away from a straight "either or" argument.

I'd also like to point out that you have a different stance from most of the soapboxes. This is a woman saying "my body my choice" in order not to abort. The big rhetoric on the side of not aborting in our time is the whole "abortion is evil" one, and "my body my choice" more often comes up in terms of someone wanting to abort. Since you're flipping that (the social pressure is to abort, the character wants not to, hopefully not for Absolute Moral Reasons but for deeply personal ones) I think you're pretty much sidestepping the grenade already.

But yeah, second everyone's "watch your words" etc and especially Jo's notion of internal inconsistency.

thethinker42 said:

It's pretty necessary for the story line. If it stirs up controversy, fine, I just don't want the reader thinking I added it JUST for the sake of bringing it up. I definitely did NOT.

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There's always the option of having a reader/author Q&A on the website, where you could actually say no, I'm not proselytizing--it's just a part of the story.

Garpy said:

I think if you balance the arguments - don't give one side more air time than the other, then you'll avoid sounding like you're soap-boxing.

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I'd second that.

Have the arguements go on, but they are all logical rational etc so then it's up to the reader to make up their own mind about the morality. You've presented all sides of the arguement, so it shouldn't come across as soapboxing. Unless you use a hammer.

As long as everyone has sufficient motivation for their viewpoints, all sides are represented ( in the row) and the actual decison is made for a clear and personal reason ( and not 'because Ithink it's right / wrong)
I can't see a problem.

thethinker42 said:

It's pretty necessary for the story line. If it stirs up controversy, fine, I just don't want the reader thinking I added it JUST for the sake of bringing it up. I definitely did NOT.

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There is a late-term abortion in my novel, also necessary to the story line. I'm comfortable with the way it's presented because it stays true to the characters. They don't expound about their reasons and they don't fit into the pigeonholes on either side of the "issue."

I think that keeping it emotionally realistic - as many have already said, true to character - is the key to making it work.

Well...the way I see it is if a character is standing on a soap box talking to other characters, then it's okay.

But if it's the character standing on a soap box talking to the audience, then it's not as good.

Mostly because characters can and will shout back in a way that is meaningful to the character talking, and their reactions can show the other side of the coin and be a more even, balanced argument.

i can think of more than a few books with controversial topics as part of the main story and/or subplots. based on those, IMO, what distinguishes stories where the topic fits naturally into the narrative from those that read like a hammer coming down from a moral high ground is repetition. if characters repeat their views/rationales/emotions over and over again, it tends to feel like i'm seeing what the author believes, rather than the character.

Well, my novel isn't exactly pro-U.S. government or religion (of any sect). But all opinions/jabs at these are done through characters' thoughts and words. So I vote yes, write whatever you want to write about. Yes, it'll be helpful and wise to have the characters--not the narrator--raise/discuss/object to/face the big issues. But you know what? If your story finds any level of success, you will still have people for and against it, no matter how you write it.

There's no getting around that one. I don't think, anyway.

Lyx

Interesting dilemma. A very rare occasion it is on which you will hear a woman use the prized "my body, my choice" argument in order to carry a pregnancy to term.

If you stay true to the characters, and the scene itself really feels consistent with who they are, it may not turn out to be preachy.

I'll be honest, though, the first thing that came into my mind was this: is it really plausible that people in a medieval setting WOULD counsel a woman to terminate her pregnancy? Since this is fantasy, you are doing the world-building, and you will know what is and is not in keeping with your boundaries. But really, medieval medicine here in our world was not very concerned at all with terminating pregnancies. There were herbal things a woman could take in order to sterilise herself and I'm sure she could get her hands on something abortifacient, but nothing really in my study of medieval medicine has yielded a great deal of information on whether or not doctors knew enough about the intricacies of pregnancy in order to counsel a woman concerning the problems to come. Once a woman was pregnant, she was pegnant, and it was known that there was always a risk - often a very large one - that she would die in childbirth, or that her child would die very young. There wasn't much doctors did do in order to help that, because there weren't many options available to them.

Sorry, long ramble. But that's the first thing that came to my mind, before any concerns about social commentary.

Has this polarization of the abortion issue mainly happened since the 1973 US Supreme Court ruling legalizing it? I' was only a teen at the time, and it seems so, but I'm not quite old enough to really be sure.

I recall "Love Story" (1970 or so - I think I remember this part from the movie, not the book, but whatever...), the guy in the story goes to his father "needing money" but is reluctant to say why (I won't spoil it, but it's NOT for what the father assumes). The father says "You've got some girl in trouble, and you need to send her overseas to have 'an operation,' is that it?" The son, not wanting to tell the real story, reluctantly says yes, that's it, and the father writes a check. Okay, so there's not an actual abortion in the story, but the father is led to believe there is, and that's the only mention of it. It wasn't so much "controversial" back then as it was "a bad thing that the people involved thought needed to be done."

James D. Macdonald said:

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On the other hand, if you want to send a message, call Western Union.

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If you're an established author with lots of popular titles behind you and you can "afford" to damage your career, there's no problem. The example I'm thinking of is Michael Crichton's "State of Fear" in which he uses the story to blatantly argue against the existence of Global Warming.

I agree with the balance issue. If you want to keep things real, the keep things real. Someone close to me had an abortion once, and made all the statements you listed. She had the abortion, but there was an aftermath as well. She has had health issues over the years, she has had fits of doubt and remorse, etc. So I think as long as you tell the whole story, and not just work the "my body my choice" side of it, you'll be fine.

You need to go with how your characters live/believe: if they are religious Christian, than abortion is a no-no--unless it's the child of the local holier-than-thou and having a child would be an embarassment to the vows of chastity. Course the same person violates that vow and the poverty and humility ones all the time. If the mother-to-be is a rape victim and wants to a: keep the child to ID the father or b: get rid of the child as a product of a heinous crime, that's another option. If the mother-to-be is a beleiver in doing what she wants with her body--that is not a new concept. Abortifacents have been around for 1000's of years.