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Failed Writer's Journey: Politics is Not Bad [1]
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Date: 2025-01-31
The latest kerfuffle (again: greatest word in the English language) is an author stating that you should hide your politics in order to keep your sales as high as possible. Republicans and Democrats apparently both buy books, with apologies to Mr. Jordan (please don’t take that personally, Michael. LeBron cannot come up with pithy sayings like you can.). I can see the point. I just don’t agree with it.
It is easy to think that you can avoid politics because your books don’t have politics in them. Why should you turn down sales just to make a point on social media? Well, first, sometimes, especially in the cursed times that we live, it is right and proper and good to make a point. A good person does not ignore injustice and illegality when they can speak out on the issue. Now, of course, speaking out, especially on social media, is not generally the same as taking action, (There are exceptions, of course. Sometimes someone saying something forceful or unexpected, depending on their position in society, can be meaningful) so I can understand the inclination to not share in order to save sales. But I don’t think you can avoid politics in your writing.
Some writers revel in the politics. The book I am working under development with a small press (no sale — it’s a right of first refusal situation and the book, obviously, is not done) has this as its current pitch:
"WHO IS SARAH SMITH? When an elder millennial programmer finally gets her big career break as the only woman working on a woman's health app, she discovers the company is selling user's menstrual data to law enforcement in anti-abortion states. They warn her that if she whistleblows, they will fire and doxx her. She has to choose between her own safety and that of all women living in red states. A darkly funny, high-tech thriller in the vein of 'The Future' and 'We Are Watching, Eliza Bright.'"
(Did I put this pitch here just as a way to keep the book percolating in your mind, dear reader, so as to entice you if it ever comes out. Maybe.)
Anyone who is anti-abortion or pro-broligarchs is not going to be the audience for this book. And all of my books have some element of politics in them. I cannot help it — it is how I see the world, and so it is going to be how I see stories. Hiding that fact in my public face, such as it is, isn’t going to get me sales. It is just going to get me irritated readers. But even writers who lean away from the politics still must deal with them.
You are a person. You have a point of view. That point of view is going to peak through in some fashion in your writing, or there is no point to you writing it. That point of view makes your book worth reading as compared to someone else’s. And everyone has a view on what good people and a good society looks like, so if nothing else, your heroes and villains are likely to reflect those views. And that is political, whether or not we want to admit it. Ghostbusters has no overt politics in it, but making the EPA, an organization that literally makes our lives healthier and longer, the secondary villain (spoilers? But c’mon man, the thing is twice as old as my kids) tells me something about the politics of the writer and director. You simply cannot avoid your you-ness leaking into your work. And as it does, some people will approve, some people won’t care (I still love Ghostbusters), and some people will disapprove. Hiding won’t change those reactions.
Might as well be honest with your potential readers — you and they are likely to be happier.
Weekly Word Count
6200.
Ten chapters down in Who is Sarah Smith out of a planned twenty-eight, so a bit more than a third of the way through. Right now, if the word count stays consistent, it will be approximately 89,000 words. That feels right for a thriller, but I am a chronic underwriter. Describing people, in particular, is a weakness.
At some point, I got it in my head that vague descriptions were better as it allowed people to see more of themselves in the heroes and let their imagination create their own versions and it has kind of stuck in my writing. And since this is a first draft, I am likely to lose at least some of those words, so I am a touch worried about length.
Have to finish it first, though, so we will see.
Have a great weekend, everyone.
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