Does a Novel Need to Have a Moral?

I don't think they need a moral in the sense of "so be kind to animals, kids" but what is it about your story that you would like me, the reader, to know? To remember? What different perspective on a particular issue, population, or situation would you like me to have?

That said, there is nothing wrong with a pure escapist romp, or what I think of as "bubble gum" reading that exists only while you're reading it then move on. But even then, what is new or unique about it? What compelled you to write this particular story at this time? It could be as simple as that.

I think what you're looking for is theme. And it doesn't have to be a "moral" in that you're trying to teach your readers a lesson. Theme is what you're trying to say, in a more general sense. Maybe it's that love is a beautiful thing, or adventure can be rewarding in itself, or that growing up ain't all it's cracked up to be. Maybe it's that people are more complex than we might think they are. Whatever it is, there is almost always going to be some kind of theme(s) going on.

There's so much work that goes into writing novel-length fiction that for me personally to make the effort, I have to know 'why this novel is different.' The answer might be in: Plot. Emotional arc. Thematic question. Central conflict. Story goal. (A few others.)

It sounds as though you enjoy writing for the beauty of it. I think you should celebrate that! They talk about 'voice' in writing and to me this is analogous to different types of song. Opera, jazz, pop, rock, chamber, choir, yodeling--If a pop singer asked a yodeler if their songs were any good, and the yodeler thought yodeling was the only good music, the conversation might go sideways very quickly.

ladyfickle said:

Arc of Character. Yes, I have been reading a lot and I have met the term...but I wish I knew what that is about?

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Here's a quote from The Emotional Craft of Fiction:

You may think you are telling your characters' stories, but actually you are telling us ours. Unearth the significance of any moment for a character and you will reveal its universal value.

Chapter 4 deals with character arc from an emotional viewpoint. Basically, have the character wrestle with their central question at four spots in the novel, to show that their view has grown through the story.

There are other resources too.

ladyfickle said:

I would love you to meet my characters... I think you could fall in love with any of them. Which is what they do the entire time...


One of my friends described it this way: "You have these deep fascinations that are only interesting to you but you still insist on subjecting your audience to them: the fluff stories filled with nothing but pleasantries.”


And here is absolutely the opposite opinion on the same draft:


“I haven’t read all of your draft, but I’ve loved every second of what I have read. There’s a rhythm to it I’m amazed by, and you keep doing stuff that I find incredible. This is going to sound almost rude so I want to emphasize that it is in fact a compliment. It’s like you keep making stuff that I think of as horrendous mistakes when I do it. Except it’s always what “fits” the rhythm you have. But yeah, like oddly placed unnecessary adverbs that turn out to be perfectly placed and necessary. It’s kind of infuriatingly charming. And well, it does have an entirely different sensual quality. Which is a treat. Because it’s oozing with appeal.”

That's about form. When we speak of essence - I think I am trying to implement a beautiful thought here and there...Like Mother Theresa said: "We can't do great things, but we can do small things with great love."

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Well, here you're more dealing with reader expectations than crafting a novel. This is not a perfect, mutually exclusive choice, but are you writing about a situation, or about people? Some people expect to read about situations, while others want to read about people.

Writing about a situation are things like "Who stole the artwork?" "How are they going to get off the island?" "How will they win the Olympic gold?"

Writing about people are things like "How do these people live?" "What do they value?" "How do they change and grow?"

As I said, these are not mutually exclusive. The quirks of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple add the people element to the situation-based books, just as the human element of a book such as The Boys In The Boat makes the 1936 Olympic achievement more impactful. On the other side, a character study book such as Wendell Berry's A Place on Earth would be insufferably dull without the background situation of the Second World War.

So, you need both in a ratio you get to decide, and know that it will not meet every reader's expectations.

Lakey said:

I agree with ChrisP — you don’t need to have a moral in the sense of Aesop’s Fables, but you almost certainly have one or more themes. Themes are what the story is about. Themes get at the aspects of the human condition that you are exploring in your stories.

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Exactly. Maybe you can think about your draft in a larger context and ask yourself, "what is it about?" Might be easier to look at novels in similar genres and ask the same.
I found the below podcast on this topic, messages and themes, very useful.

https://mythcreants.com/blog/188-messages-and-themes/

What Lakey and angeliz2k and Woollybear said.

I will add: theme, like voice, is an emergent property of storytelling. What you write will have it, whether or not you are consciously thinking about it or working to put it there. So don't stress about it. If you're not a person who enjoys consciously layering "theme" stuff into the text and working over the "theme" material as you write, that's okay. You don't have to. Theme always happens, even if you are not aware of it at the time. Don't think your writing is anything lesser because you're not deliberately laboring over expressing some point through it. Just write your story, however it wants to be written. Once it's done, there will be a theme in it. (Possibly several.) And readers who are into themes will be happy to find it and tell you what it is.

benbenberi said:

And readers who are into themes will be happy to find it and tell you what it is.

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yup

ladyfickle said:

According to a friend of mine - it all comes from loving your readers - that is taking them by the hand and showing them carefully what you want them to see. That's the author's journey.

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You've received some excellent answers on the moral of the story, so I don't have anything to add. But I saw this and wanted to comment.

Your friend almost makes it sound like the readers are children and the author their parent. Be careful with this mentality. I think a better way to phrase that might be the author shows the reader what they need to know. Often times, what the author wants to show them isn't as relevant as they think, and only bogs the reader down with what is, in all likelihood, the author's own vanity.

Plus, we have WAY different definitions of the author's journey.

For me it's more like recognizing that early writings are going to be awful, accepting that, learning from it, and getting better one step at a time, one draft at a time.

I agree with benbenberi. Moral and sociological questions are born out of conflict, and attempting to answer these questions is a part of our development as human beings. Given that good stories usually (I try to avoid saying 'always') contain conflict and character development, your stories will have themes and morals even if you made no conscious effort to express them.

I am assuming by "moral," you mean a sort of overarching and unambiguous lesson or message about goodness versus badness and their consequences and a story whose central purpose is to instruct the reader about right and wrong or some other moral lesson.

I'd argue that most novels written for adults don't do this, unless maybe it's for a genre or marketing demographic (like Christian inspirational) that is expected to have a clear moral lesson embedded in the story (with Christian inspirational it typically surrounds the importance of faith and adhering to an evangelical protestant interpretation of Christian morality in the face of temptation and adversity).

For genres not so restricted, I'd say a story moral is not only not necessary, but may not be advisable. I think it's possible for stories to incorporate some pretty weighty themes, and to explore issues related to good and evil and consequences of certain choices, without actually moralizing. They make the reader think but don't lead them by the nose, if that makes sense.

Plus, there are plenty of novels written for pure, unadulterated entertainment or escapism. Do the James Bond stories have a moral?

Some literary works are very morally ambiguous, or rather, they explore complex ideas and themes without a clear presentation of right and wrong at all. Albert Camus's The Stranger comes to mind, but there are plenty of others.

This doesn't mean an author's personal values, politics, beliefs won't affect the stories they want to tell, or that they won't affect the way they present certain characters and the consequences of a character's actions. It also doesn't mean a story shouldn't deliberately deal with serious topics and reflect certain values and consequences in their work. But I would argue this is different having the story centered around a central moral or having the story primarily about teaching a moral lesson to the reader.

Some stories are there simply to make one think. Others are there for fun. Many are a mixture of both.

I don't write to change peoples minds about anything - no morals.
BUT:
I write about character attributes, such as: perseverance, indomitable spirit, integrity, courtesy, self control.

Occasionally, I'll write about an issue I see in the news, but do my best to be objective. An example of this was my first book (Dark Side of Joy) - I started writing it after people started protesting children taken away from parents that had broken the law. In that story, I wrote a bit of my personal history as the son of drug dealers (1960's). When the police raided our house (and shot my dog) and took my parents away, I was placed in juvenile detention (kid jail). I just wrote the story without editorializing, those reading can form whatever opinion they want.

I’ve loved some novels that definitely were centered about a strong moral arc for a character.

I’ve loved some novels in which the worst bastards triumphed and no lessons were learned other than “life isn’t fair”.

I loved both for their strong characters, and sometimes the plot. Write what you want, OP.

I don't think it's necessary to consider morals or themes when writing a story. Readers are quite capable of extracting both from your work, and what they come up with is often a total surprise to the writer.