"Deep Philosophical Content" in fiction
A comment on Twitter (hat tip to @TomCat1066) and one of Dave Farland's Daily Kicks got me thinking about what makes good stories.
Now. I write werewolf fiction (among other things), and I'm certainly not shy about it, or ashamed of it. I write the stories I want to read. And I definitely think that a cracking good story comes first. You have to have a Person in a Place with a Problem to even get off the ground, at least in the genre I write.
But I think at the end of the day, a story has to be about a little more than what's on the surface. A lot of my werewolf fiction is about the fundamental things that make us human and who the real monsters are. The outer struggles are a mirror for the inner struggles. In the last Ben story I wrote, he exorcises some very personal demons in the course of solving a murder mystery, overcoming a bugbear of his own that has nothing to do with why (outwardly) he's in that particular Place with that particular Problem. The Hell's Process Server story points up the fact that our inner demons are a whole lot more scary than than demons that actually dwell in Hell.
That being said... I don't actually set out to explore these philosophical issues when I sit down and outline a story. I don't say "I'm going to write a story about coming to terms with inner fears by dealing with outer ones." I say "I'm going to write a story where my protagonist has to confront something scary and awful" and then the inner fears of that character just sort of manifest in the writing. The best stories, for me, come organically from the natural marriage of Philosophy with Story. I don't shoehorn this stuff in. It just happens. And I think a story where it doesn't happen (at least on some level) fails--and conversely, a story where you have to shove Message with a trowel also fails.
It's a fine line we walk. And sometimes I wonder how well I do it.
Now. I write werewolf fiction (among other things), and I'm certainly not shy about it, or ashamed of it. I write the stories I want to read. And I definitely think that a cracking good story comes first. You have to have a Person in a Place with a Problem to even get off the ground, at least in the genre I write.
But I think at the end of the day, a story has to be about a little more than what's on the surface. A lot of my werewolf fiction is about the fundamental things that make us human and who the real monsters are. The outer struggles are a mirror for the inner struggles. In the last Ben story I wrote, he exorcises some very personal demons in the course of solving a murder mystery, overcoming a bugbear of his own that has nothing to do with why (outwardly) he's in that particular Place with that particular Problem. The Hell's Process Server story points up the fact that our inner demons are a whole lot more scary than than demons that actually dwell in Hell.
That being said... I don't actually set out to explore these philosophical issues when I sit down and outline a story. I don't say "I'm going to write a story about coming to terms with inner fears by dealing with outer ones." I say "I'm going to write a story where my protagonist has to confront something scary and awful" and then the inner fears of that character just sort of manifest in the writing. The best stories, for me, come organically from the natural marriage of Philosophy with Story. I don't shoehorn this stuff in. It just happens. And I think a story where it doesn't happen (at least on some level) fails--and conversely, a story where you have to shove Message with a trowel also fails.
It's a fine line we walk. And sometimes I wonder how well I do it.