: Re: What do you do when your message could be dangerous? I've long believed that for a novel (or any kind of fiction) to have a certain weight or power behind it, there must be a message. I've

@Phylliss352

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The "message" you refer to is probably what is known as the premise of the novel. It's like when you present an argument to reach a conclusion, except the novel itself is the "argument" put forward to demonstrate a conclusion.

However, this does not mean that the premise is true to real life: it's true to the life within your novel. In The Godfather, it's hard to think that Puzo wanted to show a universal truth of "family loyalty leads to a life of crime", or even present this message for people to take away and emulate.

Note, also, that the message itself is not glamorized. It's as true to the characters as possible and shows everything, warts and all: the toll the situation takes on everyone involved, and the consequences. Life is chaotic and messy and rarely black and white; and fiction helps to shine a spotlight on this.

It's great to have your premise or message, and it's perfectly fine if you believe in the message yourself, but it's worth remembering that it's your characters and their conflict that should do the speaking, not you the author. You may well think that government needs to be kept in check, and that becomes an inspiration to your story, but that's not actually the problem. The problem lies in writing a story where the message does not ring true for the characters, and you come across as preachy, trying to orchestrate events so that you end up with something that is not believable. Think "happily ever after", or the glorious revolution that leads to a utopia that reigns forever where everyone's happy, and there are cats and dogs living together in peace and harmony. This isn't fiction: it's propaganda. The revolution may succeed, but at what cost to the people and its characters?

As another example to draw from, Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed is one of the best works trying to demonstrate what a society founded on anarchism would look like, but it's not a utopia by any means. She tried to make it real, and messy, and hard, because we're human, and we're flawed.

I'd also like to just add that there are many books and films and songs that have been written where they have been used by people to justify all sorts of things. The Catcher in the Rye inspired Mark David Chapman who shot John Lennon. American Psycho has been suggested as the inspiration for other murders by people obsessed with the book. Kurt Cobain killed himself quoting a line from the song by Neil Young. Back in the 80's there was the hysteria around Heavy Metal music lyrics. I could compile a very long list of works that have been accused of inspiring all sorts of things. You, as an author, have really no control over how people receive your work, the best you can do is write true to yourself and, more importantly, your characters.

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