For the good of your readers

[cantdog]

It's generally not so explicit as a moral point, with me. I want to show how people are, how they act, how disparate they are and yet how lovable despite that strangeness. I am asking people to empathize with one another and to realize the healing power of love.

It comes in below the level of explicit lessons or points about moral choices. It's just an attitude that permeates it all.

A theme, I suppose.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

It's generally not so explicit as a moral point, with me. I want to show how people are, how they act, how disparate they are and yet how lovable despite that strangeness. I am asking people to empathize with one another and to realize the healing power of love.

It comes in below the level of explicit lessons or points about moral choices. It's just an attitude that permeates it all.

A theme, I suppose.

Snake,

Have you ever read any of Walter Mosley's stuff, especially the Easy Rawlings series? If not, and you don't mind a mystery, give one a try. Might start with Devil in a Blue Dress.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[cantdog]

I love those books. What rich stuff. I'm a fan.

 

[Rumple Foreskin]

I love those books. What rich stuff. I'm a fan.

I hear you. Mosley is one of the few modern writers I'll buy whatever they crank out w/o knowing anything about the book. Perdita's also a Mosley fan. Might need to start a thread to see if there are any others hanging around.

Rumple Foreskin

 

[wishfulthinking]

Well, I hope my readers learnt their lesson - if they ever decide to join a convent and be a novice/nun, there is just no escaping the lewd intentions of the priest

Please note: all characters are entirely fictional and the creation of the author, and any resemblance...

 

[elsol]

I abide by the 'Theme' rule of writing.

Every story should have a 'theme'... this is not necessarily a lesson though.

My most common 'theme' is:

Tragedy can be overcome... by lots of hot sex with the right woman.

ElSol

 

[nushu2]

The first 5 stories I wrote, elsewhere, were based on the means of corruption. The message was the primary motivation to write porn. It was a mistake that I'm ashamed of , but that's another story. They were all rejected on the first submission as being non-erotic so, eventually, I rewrote them, more subtley.

The feedback that I got indicated that nobody got the message or expected to find one. My time was wasted except to find that I enjoyed writing porn. I was the one corrupted and lost my gag reflex.

I still like to write with a message, to focus the story, but it's far down on my need-to-do list, below entertainment and improving my skills.

 

[sincerely_helene]

I merely aspired to demonstrate the versatility of the G-string to my fellow reeders.

I'm almost certain there's a bit of physics in there somewhere, too. Ahh, yes. Right there.

 

[minsue]

Hey! I'm trying to take poetry seriously for a while, anyways...gotta finish the friggin class

Do you do it with the intention of teaching your readers a lesson?

Nope, it's just my outlet.



Rumply, I love Mosely, but for some reason I don't care much for the Easy Rawlins series. I adored RL's Dream, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, and Fearless Jones, though.

 

[rgraham666]

To be serious this time, my last major piece, Ruby and Bill, did have some lessons in it.

One to teach about the effects of long term comas and another about having faith.

But they were important parts of the plot and they illuminated the struggle of the main character. I tried really hard not to be preachy about it and I think I succeeded.

 

[brightlyiburn]

I like to think that my stories teach people that they should be honest about their feelings. And that they should never, ever give up, no matter how bad things get. And that you shouldn't be a mean bitchy twat to people you don't even know, most especially if they've never done anything to you. And you should make sure your kids aren't mean bitchy twats to other people.

 

[cantdog]

Sounds like an humane programme.

Or a humane program, depending

 

[KarenAM]

Stories can be a lot of things. They can be entertaining and they can be preachy. I enjoy both, if well done.

I think the point of my last story, Finding Words, was that freedom comes as much from within you as from outside. Sometimes the strongest bondage is that which we impose on ourselves. This is a recurring theme in my work, I've found.

The story also has cool aliens, of course.

 

[herecomestherain]

The only thing that anyone is likely to learn from a story I've written is that women often have big appetites when it come to sex. As if you didn't already know.

 

[cheerful_deviant]

I learned that even if you have a 3 part story, totaling maybe 35,000 words that if you have just one sentance that is similar to a certain other author, he will troll you into oblivion.

 

[cantdog]

Herecomestherain: And halleluja!

I don't claim to be better for harping on a theme, and my short ones generally lack it, especially the Camel Toe one. But when I look them over after writing a little, I can see one in there, making itself at home. So I aim my rewrite, partly, toward developing it. I mean if you actually have a DHM, why obscure it?

 

[ABSTRUSE]

What did your readers learn from your last story? Shouldn't your stories educate as well as entertain?

My last story was an ode to trolls, but my second to last story, that was educational for me, because it was loosely about me and was something others who have gone through the trials of fighting their mental demons could relate to, I hope.

 

[Evil Alpaca]

What did your readers learn from your last story? Shouldn't your stories educate as well as entertain?

I dunno. I think entertainment for its own right is perfectly sensible.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Re: Re: For the good of your readers

I dunno. I think entertainment for its own right is perfectly sensible.

What? You're not going to teach them about the fine points of hoof care and the scourge of hoof and mouth?

*grumble*

I think it's time you were more active in supporting the goals of the quadrupedisexual community, Alpaca. Just as one friend to another.

Shanglan

 

[cantdog]

Why should comedy be entertainment anyway?

 

[BlackSnake]

Why should comedy be entertainment anyway?

I beginning to take writing more seriously, and educating is one of the most powerful things about fiction.

When I started writing incest stories, I thought it was a hoot to find out that there are actually people living real incestuous lifestyles. I plugged many of the situations, especially one that readers found "UN-FUCKIN'-BELIVEABLE"...LOL Other stories were what-ifs.

What I tried to show in all my stories was the one thing that all of the situations that I heard about had in common. Love. No matter how fucked up the situation was, they still loved each other. That's what I've been trying to educate the readers of my stories about.