I have been asking myself this question a lot recently; as a writer, a wordsmith, a chronicler; do I have a responsibility to my readers and, as I don't truly know who my readers are yet does that mean I have a responsibility to the whole world until those who want to read my work make up their minds?
Writing The Chronicles of Enoch has become quite the Herculean task (exept Hercules was probably illiterate so maybe bad comparison) of study, research, filtration and decision. I started with one basic premise: All The Stories are True. Now what does that mean? Surely it would be impossible for every story to be true because many of them argue with and even contradict one another. Well, it did not start out that way. I am sure that every story, every legend, every myth was once based in fact, real events and real people. A long time ago the story was told for the first time and the storyteller added his first extras. You see that is what we do, we cater to our audience; we add tension, action, narrative, structure and the odd laugh, surprise or tear-jerker here and there. The idea is to keep people interested and engaged and maybe make some money or get a free meal. The truth is usually quite boring and people do not want that do they? They want an escape and a journey away from their everyday lives but they want a journey which means something and takes them somewhere.
One may often take a walk just for the sake of it but mostly one has a destination in mind, right?
I have one in my writing too, I think we all do. We write a story the way we write it for a reason don't we? We want the writer to think as we think for a moment,. to lead them along a part of our journey. So how can we be sure to lead them along the right road? If we can influence how people think do we not have a responsibility to think about what we are showing them? I mean, it is unavoidable for a writer not to put a piece of him or herself in their writing, any more than a mother and father puts a piece of themselves in their child. Writing is our creation, our child. Our biases, our beliefs and values are going to enter into our writing, it is inescapable.
I have often been asked; do we include current events and important matters in our writing? My answer is that of course we do. Writing is about reflecting the very human condition to our readers. I have often said that there are no original stories left and this is, mostly, true. Everything boils down to the same thing essentially; the eternal battle between Light and Dark, Good and Evil, Creation and Distruction, Life and Death. For this brief spell on Earth to mean something, to have a purpose. Tales of heroism inspire us. Good triumphing over Evil gives us hope that we, too can overcome the odds and succeed. There are no original stories left it is true. How we write it though, that's the unique and individual part.
Let's pick some examples eh?
Gun violence and Mass shootings.
Good or Bad current President in the USA.
Economic Uncertainty of today.
The Prevelence of the Internet and Nuetrality Thereof.
Illegal Immigrants and Walls.
Criminals and behaviour of the youth.
Racism or Prissy Liberals.
Secret Rulers of the World.
All current to the world of today right? Right but let's go back one thousand years, do you think that people worried about different things, had different goals and worries? OK some of today's technology was not around, granted to all today's technology does is exaggerate existing human behaviour and traits. I remember the world before the internet and we did the same stuff, just slower and less often. So they may have described things differently and given them different name but they were still concerned with the usual and very human things.
That is the point of The Chronicles, to touch the human condition and, I suppose, zeitgeist of today by crossing the entire span of human history to see that it really hasn't changed that much. What do people of today want at a basic level? To be fed? Yes. To have a stable home? Of course. To be accepted? Absolutely! To reproduce or leave a similar legacy? That's right. To be loved? You're not wrong. Now have a think and tell me how different that is to what humans wanted 10,000 years ago or even further back than that. The terminology, the caveats and the means of achieving them may be different but the goals are the same.
The tunnel goes on forever and ever and it never ends. My point in The Chronicles is that Lucifer, among others, takes advantage of the short-sightedness of humans. People tend not to see the long view and notice things like writers do. We are often considered weird for this mindset but it is part of why people love well-written fiction; it takes them places they don't normally go. Not ancient worlds. Not far-flung stars and planets. not alternate versions of our world. Inside of their heads. We construct our story to lead people to a certain place. We use imagery to create certain emotions and reactions. We seek to teach and illustrate.
So; ten thousand years ago they still had bandits who made travel difficult. This incoming group taking certain forms of employment (think Egypt; all these slaves, coming here and working for free when decent Egyptians need a job? Disgusting! MEGA - Make Egypt Great Again! Vote for Pharoah Trum-hotek! Keep the Hittites out, build the wall! Send the Israelites back!) from regular citizens and so forth. Once we realise this we can decode the old stories and unpeel them to find the truth.
Then we can take this nugget of truth and begin to apply our own layers to it and build our own tale which is in tune with the zeitgeist of today.
I say by all means include current events, current concerns, things which currently matter to people and, most importantly the vital element of making people think. I will personally add the spice of controversy to my writing. Why? I was once taught this by a debating tutor at Uni, one must be able to consider and argue FOR that view which opposes one's own before one can truly understand one's position. So I write about controversial things in order to challenge people to think about it and maybe give it some serious consideration. Either that or disagree with me and argue as long as they are thinking and pushing their minds, getting outside of that comfort zone and expanding their thoughts I don't worry. I think the best writing is that which takes us out of our comfort zone and unsettles us a little, makes us consider things we had never before considered. To go places we have never before even thought of visiting. That's the bit in the Star Trek intro people so misunderstand; it was not speaking about physical locations because most of the places they visited was the same set with the polystrene rocks painted a different colour or rearranged. It was talking about allowing yourself to consider thinking in new directions.
A great writer and truly excellent story can do that without your even realising it. I use a controversial example here but it still applies and is, in my opinion, the perfect example. No TV show has so polarised people (as Politics is doing today) so obviously. Lost, the TV show. It ended 7 years ago but people are still talking about it. Whether they speak of it positively or negatively, they're speaking and therefore thinking about it. Why? It touched something within us, it connected and made us think and question. That is good writing whether you approve of the actual ending or not.
Would you not say that this is the sign of great writing and, by extension, a great writer?
I may have been known to mock and perhaps complain about current writing trends (I am an old bugger to that is my old bugger duty, to complain about the youth) but I cannot call them bad writers (unless they are) because of the genre and topics they choose to write about. Why? Just because the the topics and themes they touch on mean little to me does not invalidate them. To my jaded and overly experienced mind, the characters are repetitive, underly nuanced and as predicatable as the plotlines. To YA and NA fans though, that is what they want. I want deeper and something to challenge my mind, they want people they can identify with and who're worried about the same things they are. They want answers to those things they don't know about yet, about relationships, sexual awakening; that place between child and adult. They want the dynamic between Really Good Friends and the high school archetypes for them to justifiably hate. Deep down they want the same stuff but in a different package. My weighty tomes will almost immediately turn most YA fans off but will appeal to others. Same with Romance and Erotic. Not my baggie at all but plenty of people like it. I may not like the genre but few who truly love the genre will be readers of my work because it is unlikely to appeal to them.
Learn something here, not everyone is going to like your work. It's inescapable and inevitable and that is indeed redundancy but I did it intentionally to be emphatic. Know your chosen genre and, if you cross them, know your target audience. You cannot force themes, lessons and ideas in which don't appeal to your audience. For example if you're writing deep and philosophical Space Opera, will YA themes fit? Will YA readers come over and risk you? Will Space Opera fans be turned off? Who do you want to read you and who needs your message most?
That is just an aside to consider. I got off topic sometimes, it happens....
So, to conclude; I am deeply of the opinion that we writers indeed have a duty to tell it like it is and reflect what truly matters in our world so that we can let people think about what truly matters in life. Make them argue with you, make them fight, challenge them and make your contribution to what you think is important.
I'm not saying you're going to be a Shakespeare, a Tolkein, a King, a Gaiman or a Dickens but what's wrong with wanting to be? If you don't have an ambition or goal then why are you here? I might write because I love it but I share that writing because I crave success and a legacy. I write to publish because I have a message to share and important things to do. Be honest, that is what we all want ultimately. So do it and make it count!