WRITING with PURPOSE
So… what’s your story about?
Someone I’d just met at a writers’ meeting once asked me this question, and without much thought I enthusiastically started a detailed explanation of the plot with all its twists & turns. After a few minutes my listener excused herself, she really, really had to go somewhere but would catch with me later. She never came back to hear the end of it.
And why should she?
The world is full of stories. Nobody has time for yet another one. Unless you show its purpose, its raison d’être.
I learnt a valuable lesson that day. Next time someone asked me what my story was about, I told them instead about the theme, the essence of it: it’s about personal freedom vs commitment, I said. This usually produces further interest & questions, and the opportunity to explain the purpose of my novel, and why I want to write it.
In turn, knowing why I want to write it, keeps me on course, like the road signs on a journey. And if you know where you want to go, you will get there.
What’s the theme of your novel?
Has it got a raison d’être?
Do you write with purpose?
Some time ago I attended an online course about Jane Austen and one student said that JA never mentioned slavery in her writing, an unforgivable fault, she thought. That prompted a question:
Should JA have written about slavery instead of high society and romance?
This ties up with our topic of writing with purpose. The equivalent question for us today would be: Should we write about the big issues of our time, such as racism, poverty, inequality, climate change, conflict and war, corruption, etc.?
Some writers will choose these topics and others won’t. I don’t think less of JA for not writing about the biggest social issue of her time. She might not have had enough understanding of it, even if her family did indirectly benefit from it. She chose a topic that she knew and wrote brillaintly well about it: her period and society. She used wit and perceptiveness. The underlying theme of her novels is the right of women to make their own decisions about who they marry, and her novels are also a satire of class and society. Without knowing it, she was one of the very first feminists.
JA wrote with purpose. And I think that’s why her novels still endure, 200 years after she wrote them. There’s more to them than just a frivolous story.
I took that course in the hope of capturing the magic recipe for writing an enduring novel. And the recipe is simple: write with purpose. Does anyone agree?
But, as you say in claiming she wrote about something other than slavery… she wrote about slavery.
We should also keep in mind that slavery – as it is generally referred to, rather than the subtler forms – probably wasn’t as big social issue in her day as it is now. Modern mores call it a social issue, but the “social consciousness” of the time saw it otherwise – just as many moral standards of the present are seen as advanced, yet will be considered abhorent given another century or two.
I think that you’re absolutely right, Donna, that great writing that lasts usually serves a greater purpose than simply ‘telling a story’. For me, I think that the purpose often comes from the writer’s own beliefs and moral/ethical compass, and automatically finds its way into the themes and plots of the writer’s work as they’re developed and written. They organically underpin the story and the characters rather than being laid on top of them as a ‘message’. When the message is too obvious I think the danger is that rather than ‘writing with purpose’ (good) the author can become a bit didactic (bad) and the message becomes intrusive rather than serving the story. There’s nothing worse than being preached at, I find. And nothing better than being moved by, and educated about, lives and experiences other than our own. If writing does the latter, then it’s great writing and likely to stand the test of time.
Totally agree, the preaching issue is one that has to be avoided. At the same time, it is easy to lapse into that mode, especially when writing at full steam. That’s where good editing comes in.I’ve cut out large chunks that could be interpreted as such. It is also a question of improving writing technique to avoid stating the obvious. I constantly think of the advice of my Chinese doctor (sorry Jericho!), Thi Chi instructor, and “life mentor” and resolved many of my physical problems whilst applying acupuncture and simultaneously communicating values, modesty, humanity and ethics. I always leave his practice in a “happy mood”.
I think some writers and readers want to engage with big themes and some just want escapism and to avoid the horrors and stresses of the world for a short time.
You’re absolutely right that brilliant writers who deal with big themes will still be talked about by the literary world in years to come, but may not be read as widely by the general public as writing that’s easier to ‘digest’.
Is this perception, perhaps, the the result of bias-blindness in self-reporting?
By that, I mean that many people may say they read for the thrill, the escapism of plot. But, unbeknownst to them, how they rate what they have read correlates with the depth of theme.
I think it’s a mix, to behonest. When you look at some of the books on sale in supermarkets (so populist fiction) much is escapist and perhaps doesn’t require much thought it soul searching. Dan Brown perhaps falls into this category. There’s not a lot of soul searching or dealing with issues there. Not much character development either!
Myself, I like a mixture. I love David Mitchell’s books- well written, fantasy elements, often deal with environmental issues/race. Intelligent writing.
Though undoubtedly you’re right – many hugely popular crime novels (for example) deal with serious issues. Perhaps people absorb the books without intentionally reading an ‘issues’ book
Also, a theme doesn’t have to be about a “big issue.” It can be something simpler, say the reason we make choices. Now that has the potential to be a very deep subject if one is inclined to deep philosophical debate, but it can be treated in a less-convoluted way and still carry the day as theme.
In a sense, the intimacy of such a theme makes it more powerful that a big-issue theme like [insert topic of the hour]; it relates more closely to the how of people’s own lives. (I am not suggesting that big issues doen’t relate to people’s lives; only that for many, they feel too big, forces of nature beyond their control, not something that the way they live their lives are guided by, unless they are on the losing end of the issue, in which case they are reacting to it, and as such it is beyond their control.)
Very true. As I said on my other comment, most of my themes relate to family, how families can damage or help each other and how people can make their own families. Not exactly ‘big’ issues, but things that would affect most readers.
Universal, as you say
I am a great admirer of John Le Carré. Naturally, one tends to associate his writing with the George Smiley World. However, the Constant Gardener certainly had a purpose. Anybody who worked in the development environment could easily associate with the message. That is what I am trying to achieve, but of course, I am not up to Le Carré’s standard. I often wonder how much research he does. I admit that what I have been writing is anchored in my experiences. Still, I also undertook a massive amount of study ranging from Russian history under the Tzars, the Revolution,(trying to understand culture and mentality) the progress of the Oligarchs in Britain and elsewhere, books from the last century about the Livery Companies, the history of the British aristocracy, offshore banking, tax evasion, city maps, and many other topics. Much of this research was undertaken after I had written the 1600 pages. I felt a need to somehow underpin the essence of the purpose of what I am writing. Although I am writing fiction, I don’t want to be caught out on some trivial mistakes. I’d be interested to hear from others on how much background research they do. Maybe another topic??????
Definitely a topic broad enough and large enough to merit a post of its own, I suspect! 🙂
We still have a couple of months! Maybe ride this topic out and then approach research. From how you describe what you are writing, I can imagine that you have undertaken quite a bit of background work. (Can’t work out how to do Moji stuff!)
Some amusing stories. I was sitting in a Geneva cafe with a Russian gentleman who was interested in running courses for emerging Russian entrepreneurs. I said fine, but they needed to be financed. No problem, if you can help me sell these, he opened a catalogue of arms and nuclear submarines. I naturally declined. When I related the amusing story to a neighbour, he claimed that he knew a Sicilian who could be interested in buying thee submarine for tourism on Lake Leman. The Russian gentleman later was later granted British citizenship. On another occasion, I had naively agreed to become the CEO of a company for an interim period whilst the Russians applied for French citizenship. I could not understand why the French secret service kept visiting my house until, one day, the bank manager phoned me to explain how 5 million dollars had arrived on the account. At that point, I resigned and left France for my own safety!
Whoooo…. Enough material for a 100 novels… My most “exoctic” contact with serious crime was (perhaps…) having cooked & served dinner to Bin Laden and his entourage when he visited London to get the forward down payment for some “work” he was about to do. Won’t mention here who was the payer, as the MI5 might tap my phone and a certain prince might have me murdered and disposed of in the embassy. But I know nothing… I was only doing a gig as a dinner party cook. Honest to God! And by the way, the guest of honour did not eat anything, he only had a cup of black tea. (But it could have been a lookalike.)
On another occasion, I was in Moscow. As part of my book research, I asked a friend to take me to a restaurant frequented by the local hoods. He owned the car of a former ambassador but could not afford the upkeep, especially replacing the exhaust. As we approached the restaurant with the exhaust popping, ten people emerged brandishing Kalashnikov rifles. Fortunately, everything ended well. We drove past and went to a Georgian restaurant.
Interesting experiences but one of the reasons I stick to fiction!
I related these stories because it is linked to research. I wanted to understand how the Russian/Soviet culture had evolved over the years. What had been the dynamics behind this type of behaviour? Could it solely be attributed to the highly paid Western consultants who were advocating a “wild west” market economy that advocated wanton destruction of the system (good or bad) to impose the ideology of the ‘Cold War Victors’ or was there some deeper explanation?
Good stories, Roger. I wonder if a discussion around research, though, merits starting a new post, perhaps in the forums? It’s a wide enough topic, and one on which people will have a broad range of experience and insights, I suspect (perhaps not all as perilous as yours!). 😂
Opening up a new forum post would give it more visibility, and avoid the risk of diluting this thread’s focus on ‘writing with purpose’. Just a thought!
I never thought about theme, not for years. I always went for plot and characters. Now I think about it more deeply because I recognise that having some idea of theme feeds into the plot, adds layers and resonances that wouldn’t have existed had I not been aware of it. It adds richness.
I write supernatural fiction and fantasy but my themes are usually based around family and relationships.
This current WIP is really about families – how your upbringing can leave you damaged, the role of biological family compared to adopted family. How you can create your own family by finding people who care for you, perhaps more than your blood relatives.
My last book was at least in part centred around loneliness, mental health, isolation, the importance of friendship.
At the same time, both books were about ghosts and demons and psychotic Victorians!
I’ve learnt now to begin with a premise, my current WIP premise is – self-entitlement leads to self-destruction and a quote from Beowulf feeds into this – ‘Death is better than existence of disgrace.’ – these premises belong to my antagonist and having them drives my plot because I know his beginning (self-entitlement) and his end (self-destruction) and his why (death trumps disgrace). So far, this is working for me…
Interesting.
I’ve usually heard that it is best for a premise to be asked as an open question, rather than the final conclusion. The theory is that a predefined conclusion makes the work more likely to come across as preachy, whereas an open question allows all characters – protagonists, antagonists, other – to explore a wider array of permutations around the premise.
I’m not saying you will fall into that trap, only that it is a risk.
I’ve written other stuff but currently driving forward with my first novel – The Inheritance of Cruelty, because I want to explore why good, ordinary people do really bad things. Born that way? Early trauma? Political or religious dogma? Passion? Mental health? Money? I wanted, and still will steer clear of ideas about evil but I am struggling with that right now with what’s going on in the good old USA. Trying to strike down the Affordable Care Act and deny millions of Americans health care at a time of pandemic seems about as evil as evil is. You couldn’t make that stuff up – O.K. I accept I’m partisan. But for fiction writers it is tough right now because what’s going on out there could not be made up!
Hi RJ
We europeans fully agree…in US reality is stranger than fiction. We’ve had some stories in the media how people that got infected with Covid and were taken to hospital, are being sent huge bills: in one case a man who thought he was covered by his insurance received a huge detailed bill for all the stuff that the insurance didn’t cover, almost everything; another one who was hospitalized for 2 months and needed intensive care, was hit with a bill for nearly a million dollars. We find it unbelievable as here in Europe everyone is entiled to free treatment and since the outbreak of the pandemic most governments have declared that ilegal residents and people without documents would also be treated whithout questions. In a pandemic, it just makes sense. We can’t have sick people wandering around and infecting everyone else.
You have a very good theme. The answers are complex but causes & roots may lie in the spread of propaganda and fake news. A recent study in France found 60% of people believe the news threads on social media but not the old established news agencies. People tend to believe the news they most agree with and doubt the ones they don’t like. Selective self-brainwhashing I call it.
And then there are several international forces at play, taking advantage of ignorance and gullibility, using fake accounts on social media to dessiminate misinformation with the view to destabilize & break down societies.
The Inheritance of Cruelty is a very good theme. Go for it. Write with passion & purpose!
My theme(s): difference, what does it mean? Do we need to disguise it to belong? Are we loved because we fit in or because of/despite our differences?
What is an immigrant? An expat? Are these just meaningless words?
I do write with purpose, though this novel had a different purpose to what it has now…through necessity, apparently :-/