Author's Message: what's yours? how do you approach it?

Mine is maybe that everyone liking you/being popular isn't as important as having the few people you really care about think well of you. <there's a clunky moral but a good one for YA fiction

The MC's attempts at fame end pretty disasterously. And the uber popular guy she had a crush on has some issues. Major issues.

Don't worry about your book having a lesson. Just tell the best story you can and let the lesson attend to itself.

First: Entertain the reader. Any theme or "message" in the story should be integrated into the entertainment and should not trump or obscure the telling of the story.

well.. I wouldn't say its a lesson. But it is certainly meant to make someone think about the nature of the people we hold in high regard, and the legends they've created.

But its a theme throughout the book that doesn't completely gel until the epilogue... So its not very in your face.

In fact my entire novel is structured such that the entirety of the novel begs to be revisited once its finished. ( I hope )

'Buy the next book'


What? Oh, all right then. This:

First: Entertain the reader. Any theme or "message" in the story should be integrated into the entertainment and should not trump or obscure the telling of the story.

Click to expand...

ETA: While I often have a theme, I try not to have a 'message'. If i did I'd not try and actually write it. I see how the theme affects the characters and how they react to it ( ie in my second book it's jealousy, so various characetrs are jealous of various other characters for wildly different reasons. Professional, personal, romantic etc.) It's an exploration, not a lesson. I'm not here to teach. I am here to entertain, if it makes you ponder things in your own way, that's a cool added bonus.

Birol said:

First: Entertain the reader. Any theme or "message" in the story should be integrated into the entertainment and should not trump or obscure the telling of the story.

Click to expand...

This.

People can smell a "message" a mile away. This is usually followed by the slamming of the book.

A message - or moral lesson - is you trying to intrude on the reader, to make sure your interpretation of the story is the only valid one. It will, in most cases, piss of the reader (it usually pisses off me at least!) since the author understimates my inteligence.

If you've had a book full of superficial celebrities that drop the MC as soon as they've got what they want, and then stop to inform the reader that you can't rely on superficial celebrities... You get the point.

Generally I want to show that the MC gets rewarded with love because of their openmindedness in not letting the local prejudices blind them to the appeal of someone who looks weird or is otherwise an outcast. I (as a reader) like stories which have some sort of moral, I think the 'heavy handedness' or 'trying too hard' is the actual problem some pieces have.

I stand by the (new variation on the) old maxim: If you want to send a message, use email. Because nobody uses Western Union these days.

I would post my messages but I would probably be ridiculed and harassed. I'll wait until they are published for that to happen.

I really dislike it when books have obvious messages. However, I love it when books are written in such a way that the reader can take a powerful message of their own away, without having it force-fed to them by the author. Gregory Maguire's books are good for this type of thing.

I don't put any message into my writing at all, except to express my personal emotions about a subject (the end of a relationship, for example.)

I don't have a message, but I have themes. 'Explore' is absolutely the word I'd use. The plot is for fun, but what happens will get readers thinking about certain subjects -- the plot came out of those subjects. I give no answers, though [except to the plot, of course].

If you are writing about a corrupt cop, readers may or may not think about corruption, depending on how you play it. A corrupt police force = more of a chance. That sort of thing. You don't have to hit readers over the head with explaining what you are showing.

No message, but one theme might be that life unfolds in unexpected ways. 'Course that could probably apply to most novels. lol

backslashbaby said:

I don't have a message, but I have themes. 'Explore' is absolutely the word I'd use. The plot is for fun, but what happens will get readers thinking about certain subjects -- the plot came out of those subjects. I give no answers, though [except to the plot, of course].

If you are writing about a corrupt cop, readers may or may not think about corruption, depending on how you play it. A corrupt police force = more of a chance. That sort of thing. You don't have to hit readers over the head with explaining what you are showing.

Click to expand...

I agree here. I always consider thematic threads when I'm writing, and everything unfolds around these threads. Whoever your characters are - good, bad, or in between - they have to be authentic and natural. Of course, you decide who your characters will be based on your overall theme(s) and your objective for the story.

Make the story itself carry the message. Do not, at any point, tell your readers how they should interpret it. If they figure it out on their own, it will be much more powerful to them. Even if they don't figure it out consciously, they'll probably absorb it by osmosis.

Every story has a message of some sort, even if the author hasn't consciously included it. Your worldview will colour everything you write. What you think is important, or right, or wrong, or meaningless, is going to show through somewhere, no matter what you do. The shallowest story about shoes and shopping is delivering the message that these things matter, because it's asked you to spend several hours of your life living in that world.

If you think environmentalists are heroes, if you write a book about them, chances are they are going to come off pretty well, despite any flaws they might have. If you think they are dangerous delusionals, that's going to show also, even if that idea is never made explicit in the dialogue or the narrative. If you have a more nuanced opinion of them, that also will show, in the characterization, in the outcome, in the language, in the methods. You will never have to tell the reader what you think of environmentalists, not even by proxy in the mouth of another character.

So don't make the message explicit and it will go over much better.

I suspect every good story has both message and theme. I also suspect neither is put in intentionally by most writers. But, obviously, some writers do choose to have message front and center, and still sell very, very well. Ayn Rand made no bones about the messeges in her novels. Some readers love the books, some hate them, but they sure as heck sold extremely well, and still do.

Judg said:

Make the story itself carry the message. Do not, at any point, tell your readers how they should interpret it. If they figure it out on their own, it will be much more powerful to them. Even if they don't figure it out consciously, they'll probably absorb it by osmosis.

Every story has a message of some sort, even if the author hasn't consciously included it. Your worldview will colour everything you write. What you think is important, or right, or wrong, or meaningless, is going to show through somewhere, no matter what you do. The shallowest story about shoes and shopping is delivering the message that these things matter, because it's asked you to spend several hours of your life living in that world.

If you think environmentalists are heroes, if you write a book about them, chances are they are going to come off pretty well, despite any flaws they might have. If you think they are dangerous delusionals, that's going to show also, even if that idea is never made explicit in the dialogue or the narrative. If you have a more nuanced opinion of them, that also will show, in the characterization, in the outcome, in the language, in the methods. You will never have to tell the reader what you think of environmentalists, not even by proxy in the mouth of another character.

So don't make the message explicit and it will go over much better.

Click to expand...

There are underlying themes in my book about the nature of terrorism, and that evil is a matter of perspective, but I would NEVER presuppose to beat my reader of the head with it.

I let the reader decide what the nature of terrorism is and apply it where they see fit.

I do however enforce the idea that the unlikely'est of people can become heroes, and that the justification for that which made them be heroic may or may not be what we would have all assumed.

There is no message in my stories other then sit back and have some fun.

Judg said:

Every story has a message of some sort, even if the author hasn't consciously included it. Your worldview will colour everything you write. What you think is important, or right, or wrong, or meaningless, is going to show through somewhere, no matter what you do. [...]

If you think environmentalists are heroes, if you write a book about them, chances are they are going to come off pretty well, despite any flaws they might have. If you think they are dangerous delusionals, that's going to show also, even if that idea is never made explicit in the dialogue or the narrative. If you have a more nuanced opinion of them, that also will show, in the characterization, in the outcome, in the language, in the methods. You will never have to tell the reader what you think of environmentalists, not even by proxy in the mouth of another character.

Click to expand...

(Bolding mine).

I just wanted to say how there's also a problem that readers can assume that this is what you think of the subjects in your work, when it isn't the case at all. I read an interview by SF writer Karen Traviss where she spoke about readers who assumed she was a vegan because some of her characters were. (She wasn't).

I disagree that a writer's views will show through no matter what: I think that will only be the case if either the writer doesn't mind that their views show, or if they do mind but don't work enough on what they write to make the characters distinct from themselves. With my writing, I work to make sure my characters are not me in any way. My aim is that any of my true worldview that does come through is so general and vague as to be applicable to anyone.

Re the OP: I do write with a theme in mind at some point; it's definitely there in the edits, if it's not consciously there in the first draft of a story. I don't want to hammer a message into the reader's brain, but use it instead as a way of drawing together slightly everything that happens in the story. It's more a way of helping me write than something intended for the reader, although if they pick up on it, that would be a nice feeling.

backslashbaby said:

I don't have a message, but I have themes. 'Explore' is absolutely the word I'd use. The plot is for fun, but what happens will get readers thinking about certain subjects -- the plot came out of those subjects. I give no answers, though [except to the plot, of course].

Click to expand...

This is kind of how I roll.

My first novel deff didn't have a message. If my last novel had a message, it was, "Even though letting people into your life is scary and messy and will bring out the neurosis in you, you need to do it if you want to be happy."

Does, "Kickass chicks are AWESOME!" count?

I don't actively look to beat the reader over the head, but reading 10 natural pages of my work is usually enough to get it...

People can be enormously naive in how they interpret things. They especially like to see the author in the characters. But I am still willing to bet that Karen Traviss respects vegans, or at the very least has no problems with them. If she thought they were crackpots, that would show. If it was important to her, I'm willing to bet there'd be little ambiguity.

I try to make my characters different from me too. But lo and behold, my protagonist - a tall, lean, dark, laconic young man - shares my preoccupation with truth and integrity. I just couldn't keep that out of the story. It was not conscious, until I checked out the enneagram personality types and realized we shared a type.

It is possible that some people will think that I am in favour of things that I definitely am not, just because I showed characters as multi-dimensional, and not 100% bad guys because they had some values I emphatically don't agree with. But then again, that's an important part of the "message" of my book, is that being messed up in some ways doesn't make you messed up in all ways, or prevent you from being a human being. I don't believe in demonizing people. Even my psychopath shows moments of vulnerability. Again, I didn't say to myself, "how can I teach people that even their enemies have reasons for what they do, and are still capable of loving their children and cracking jokes". It wasn't even on my radar screen when I started. I just couldn't do otherwise. I couldn't write caricatures because I don't believe in them. This is what I mean by your views showing through. You're right that there's room for misinterpretation, but rarely on central issues.

Bukarella said:

Does your book have a lesson?

Click to expand...

Sweet Shabranigdo, I hope not.

I agree with what most of the others have said. I have themes, but not lessons. Whether any self-respecting English student would be able to pick them out might be another matter. But they were intended!