: Re: How to write a story that argues an idea I apologize for the wording of my question; it's probably not very clear. I've got this idea for a book that explores a sort of philosophical theory.

@Sarah872

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Write your story from a moral standpoint, not to a moral standpoint. If you have a strong and clearly articulated set of beliefs, that will naturally come across in your work. But if you try to push people to that place, it will come across as preachy and disingenuous.

One of my favorite books is The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein, who was a libertarian, a philosophy I don't particularly personally ascribe to. Some of his other books have been accused of being preachy on the subject. But in this book, the libertarian paradise at its heart is revealed to be critically unsustainable, and in the end, is destroyed by the heroes, even though they love it.

Because he let his society have its own life, and follow where the plot led, rather than what the messaging demanded, he created a far more three-dimensional and compelling portrait of libertarianism, than if he had presented it as a unrealistically perfect Randian utopia. In many ways, you the reader value the place that much more because you share the characters' pain at losing it.

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