Is it wise for a fiction writer to inject personal political beliefs into his or her stories? Or is the question moot; is all fiction in some sense political? Let us roam with elephants and donkeys.
Arguably, both politics and good fiction are about ideas. The ideas explored by politics surround questions like: How shall people be governed? What is the role of government? What is the nature of power? Can we arrange governing systems for maximum benefit to all?
Fiction also deals with ideas, though these are not limited to political ideas. Often they boil down to basic questions of philosophy: What is beauty? What is truth? What is justice? What happens after death?
But my real question is whether writers should make their political leanings obvious in their stories. Some authors certainly do. L. Neil Smith is very libertarian. Robert Heinlein, too, leaned libertarian. Isaac Asimov leaned to the liberal side, though not blatantly so. Ayn Rand was passionate about her political philosophy, which she felt was new and different enough to have its own name—Objectivism.
In my view, there are dangers in making your political views obvious in your fiction. For one thing, you can turn off at least half of your potential audience. Those who disagree with your political stance won’t read more than one of your books.
If your intent is to persuade, consider this. Have you ever heard anyone say something like this after a political argument: “Thank you. I’ve come around to your side, based on the strength of your logic. I see now that I’ve been voting the wrong way my whole life. Thanks again, for helping me see the light.” Almost nobody changes his party affiliations that easily.
Another danger in overt political fiction is predictability, and therefore dullness. When the good guys believe as the writer does, and the bad guys are of the other political party, the reader knows who will win. The reader can feel like she’s being preached to. Clever and rare is the writer who can represent the opposite side in a fair and convincing way.
It’s my view that Ayn Rand achieved this in her stage play “Night of January 16th.” The play occurs, for the most part, in a courtroom. Near the end, the judge dismisses the jury to their room to render a decision. At that point it’s announced to the audience that they are the jury and will be allowed to vote guilty or not guilty. (Either that or twelve audience members are selected at the start to play the jury.) A vote of not guilty represents a tilt toward Objectivism, and a vote of guilty means the opposite. There are two endings to the play, and the actors perform the one voted on by the “jury.” I understand that, in all the plays performances since it premiered in 1935, the ‘guilty’ and ‘not guilty’ outcomes occur about equally often.
My recommendation, if you’re set on writing overt political fiction, is to (1) do so in a subtle, metaphorical way without preaching to your readers, (2) poke fun at or lambaste all politicians equally, focusing on the separation between politicians and the rest of us, or (3) be as even-handed as possible, with bad guys and good guys on both sides.
What are your thoughts? No, not about the last election—I mean about the prudence of putting politics in your fiction! Leave a nonpartisan comment and let me know. Steering well clear of donkeys and elephants, I’m—
Poseidon’s Scribe
It’s important for a fiction writer to learn how to describe human facial expressions. A person’s face is the most communicative body area, and often it reveals a character’s feelings. Amazing, isn’t it, how many things we can make our faces do! There may be as many facial aspects as there are possible mental states.
I just wanted to thank all of you who voted for my stories in the Critters Workshop Predators & Editors Readers Poll. The results for 2012 are in, and my story “
Back a year ago when I came up with this idea for a blog post topic, I figured I would have made a few short story promotional videos by this time. That didn’t happen, but lack of experience has never prevented me from having opinions. (In fact sometimes I have more to say about things I know less about!)
Do you have what it takes to be a writer? If you did, would you know you did? Sometimes it’s difficult to tell. To make it easy for you, I’ve developed a handy test along the lines of Jeff Foxworthy’s ‘Redneck Test.’ See how many of these apply to you.
True, Leonardo da Vinci was an anatomist, architect, botanist, cartographer, engineer, geologist, inventor, mathematician, musician, painter, scientist, and sculptor. Arguably he was the greatest genius of all time. But…he never wrote fiction.
In his book 
At this point, I can’t resist a personal plug. Leonardo da Vinci is such a fascinating historical figure, I wrote a story about the mechanical automata lion he constructed for the King of France. Had that been all da Vinci did, it would have been achievement enough, far beyond the norm of the day, but it’s barely a footnote in any list of his accomplishments. My story, 
experience is based solely on twenty years of being in small, amateur, face-to-face critique groups; not writing workshops, classes, or online critique groups; so the following advice is tuned to that sort of critique.
Some time ago, in science fiction writing workshops, the participants worked out a vocabulary of writing terms called the Turkey City Lexicon (TCL). There is no authoritative source for the TCL, nor is it copyrighted. It’s available on many websites; just search for “turkey city lexicon.”
Federmann could be played well by actor Chris Hemsworth. He’d have to speak English with a German accent, but doesn’t have to do it well, since it’s a comedy. Count Federmann is a brooding character, angry at and jealous of Baron Münchhausen. The Count is intelligent, determined, and optimistic, but lacks sense.
The Count has a young French servant named Fidèle, and I’ll select Shia LaBeouf for that role. Mr. LaBeouf would have to speak English with a French accent, but not an especially good one. Fidèle is full of life, but has the sense to fear danger, though he’s always respectful of nobility.
Robin Williams. I need an older character of plain appearance who’s able to speak English with a German accent and captivate an audience with his words alone. Robin Williams played the part of the King of the Moon in the 1988 Movie “
Among the worst passive sentences ever written is “Mistakes were made.” Politicians since Ulysses S. Grant have used that one to acknowledge a problem but to hide the responsible party from blame. However, the press and the public are on to that tactic, and would pounce on any official who uttered it (after laughing out loud).