Big Truths in Fiction
By Heather Webb | March 18, 2024 |
Last month while in Florida during multiple stops on book tour, I wore my “I survived reading banned books and all I got was smarter” t-shirt. How could I not, given the unbelievable number of titles being banned in that state. Interestingly, it started some good conversations almost entirely positive, which made me happy. There were, however, a couple of dirty looks and even one middle finger. I waved and smiled at those because the long-ago buried southern belle in me knows that killing them with kindness is a more powerful countersuit in the end.
Another stop on the tour took me Tucson, Arizona, a city I’d never been to before (and what a gorgeous place it was!). I met hundreds of bookish types and participated on a panel in which a moderator asked us an unusual question: If you were to write a banned book, what topic would you choose?
I’ve fielded a lot of great—and random—interview questions, but this was a new one. I couldn’t imagine purposefully selecting a topic that might put me on a banned list. Then again, I do set out to write books that ultimately center around what I’d call important topics. Still, I couldn’t name a topic at the time, and my off-the-cuff answer to the question surprised me in that moment:
The book-banners don’t understand that their reaction to the novel in question isn’t really about a specific topic. It’s about their fear and lack of empathy.
It’s also about truths that make them uncomfortable. Truths are a difficult enough thing to face in our own lives, so when confronted with one in a novel, especially those that arise in the gray spaces of morality, these book-banning readers can’t and won’t face them.
Ultimately, banned books are a result of those who cannot step into someone else’s shoes. Who cannot imagine an alternate truth to the one they are living and refuse to extend beyond themselves to consider a different reality from their own. They also don’t believe others should be allowed to develop their own truths for themselves. They believe there is only one way. Once again, lack of empathy and Fear.
This line of thinking made me examine more carefully what it is we’re aiming to do with our stories with these big truths. More importantly, how revealing these truths through your protagonist’s choices—or lack of action—elevates a story and makes it bigger, more impactful, and lasting. So I ask you:
How do “important topics” and/or these big truths play out in your work-in-progress?
- What are the truths you’re exposing in your current WIP? Can you pinpoint them? Why are they important to your story?
- How do these truths shape your protagonist’s flaws? Strengths? Weaknesses?
- Does your protagonist hide from this truth because they’re unable to face it? How so and why?
- How can you underscore the themes or message in your story through your protagonist’s truths (or way of living, being, expressing themselves)?
- Alternatively, is there a character in your story that lacks empathy? That fears that which is different from them? What catalyst for change can you create to set them on a path of discovery?
How about you? Would you avoid certain topics for fear of banning? What big truths have you written about in your work?
Heather Webb is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of historical fiction. As a freelance editor and an adjunct in a MFA in Creative Writing program, Heather has helped many writers sign with agents and go on to sell at market. When not writing, she feeds her cookbook addiction, geeks out on history and pop culture, and looks for excuses to head to the other side of the world. To date, her books have been translated to seventeen languages.
I aspire to write a banable (word?) book. Getting on that list will mean that I’ve touched a nerve. One observation that has risen to the top for me over the last handful of years is the destructive nature of certainty (I’m right, you’re wrong. There’s only one (fill in the blank) and mine is it. Of course, this mindset has always been there, but these are times of stark division. Good fiction, for me, shatters the notion of certainty. It sets characters off on explorations beyond its borders, sometimes willingly and sometimes not. When a reader consents to go on that journey, to experience all that comes with questioning beliefs and expectation, there is opportunity for quantum change. This is what keeps me coming back to the keyboard. Thank you for this thoughtful post!
Susan, what a brilliant reply. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I especially love the way you put this: “the destructive nature of certainty (I’m right, you’re wrong. There’s only one (fill in the blank) and mine is it. Of course, this mindset has always been there, but these are times of stark division.” I couldn’t agree more, right down to Tweets and FB posts that are about lesser topics like “if you don’t love the movie Princess Bride than you’re a moron.” People think they’re being funny. I find it as destructive and off-putting as you do. And my very favorite kind of character to both write and read travel in the gray spaces, not the black and white, because it challenges me to empathize, to think about people who have been through experiences I never have, and like you so aptly said, it gives me the opportunity to grow and change.
Perhaps a timely topic for a children’s/young adult book might be the topic of “banning books” itself.
Yes! We need an updated Fahrenheit 451!
What a compassionate take on book banners. Thank you, Heather, and for your pointed questions. My story of an interracial family attempts to show the tangled webs among different generations and a spectrum of attitudes of how they understand racism and classism. That certainty you describe can be destructive. For several years, I copastored with a black clergyman, uniting two small churches. Most of the white parishioners were graceful and compassionate, pleased with the partnership, but boy howdy, a few let me know their dislike in subtle and not so subtle ways. Some left. That church is still going under his solo leadership. They’re a strong community of faith and I miss them.
Lisa, oddly, I lived in the south for 15 years and I never thought about, on this level, the racial division of churches. What a fascinating and important topic! Wishing you luck with its publication!
Hi, Heather. Thanks for addressing this topic in such a thoughtful way. Book banning really bothers me because it is part of a movement to advance an extremist political philosophy at the expense of free speech. It also reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the First Amendment. I teach a course on First Amendment and freedom of the press at the collegiate level. The First Amendment protects from government interference five freedoms: freedom of the press, religion, expression, the right to petition the government, and the right of assembly. Since libraries and schools are government entities, these bans fly in the face of First Amendment protection of free speech. If a private business wants to ban books, they have every right to do so. Similarly, if a newspaper refuses to publish far left or far right submissions on controversial issues, it is their right. That is not censorship. It’s only censorship when the government does it. Writers should speak out on this issue because the proliferation of book bans is an attack on the First Amendment and free speech.
Thanks so much, Chris, for reminding us that banning books is *against the law.* I’m going to memorize the phrase, “It’s only censorship when the government does it,” because I suspect I’ll be using it a lot.
… And now that I read over your remarks again, I begin to understand the inexplicable (to me) movement against public schools and public libraries. Private institutions don’t have to follow the number-one rule for American discourse: Freedom of Speech.
The courts have carved out some exceptions. For example, the courts have found that child pornography and obscenity can generally be banned without violating the First Amendment.
I really like that you shined a light on this aspect of book-banning, Chris: “Book banning really bothers me because it is part of a movement to advance an extremist political philosophy at the expense of free speech.” What right does any person or group have to enforce their political philosophies on someone else? It’s maddening to me. Thanks for your great comments today!
I’m writing a novel about a transgender daughter and aspiring conservative politician father. I can’t pretend to have done this topic justice, but everything I want to write is political.
Best of luck to you on your writing and publication journey! Have you read Laurie Frankle’s This is How it Always Ends? A gorgeous, gorgeous book on a transgender teen and their mother.
This sounds like an ambitious and important topic. If you’re compelled to write political pieces, you absolutely should. We need them. Have you read Laurie Frankel’s THIS IS HOW IT ALWAYS ENDS? It’s about a transgender teen coming-of-age and their mother, and it’s stunningly beautiful and gut-wrenching. Might make for a good study!
I second this recommendation! I read Frankel’s book when Susan DeFreitas mentioned it at the Uncon, thinking I already knew a lot about the subject. Ha! I learned a lot, while still being fully immersed in the characters’ journey. A brilliant book and–you’re right–a good model for how to address an explosive topic.
Ah, this is really good food for thought today, thank you. I haven’t thought of my current WIP as one that might be banned-book-potential, but given that it’s set in a small town facing a conflict, these questions really apply to how different characters respond to the situation…and even what the situation might entail. I think what’s needed now is to lean into the fear, for some of them, and trust that I’ll uncover some good answers!
Fear is always a great place to dig in, Alisha! Good luck with your WIP!
I wrote a blog post, “How to get PG-13 Pride’s Children banned,” because I think that PC would resonate with the kind of readers I crave: intelligent, well-read, literate readers who know that the banning is often ridiculous.
Being banned is a particular kind of inflammatory publicity: some of those books are darned good books (banning To Kill a Mockingbird? Really?).
Of course, some are crap, but no one protests when those are banned.
One man’s crap is another man’s gold–this is the heart of the issue. Art is subjective and what each reader brings to a book is unique, in terms of their experiences, so it’s inflammatory to ban them for sure, as you said, and illegal as Chris said, and frankly, unconscionable in a country that espouses free speech. Thanks for your comments today!
Well, my first and only novel so far, BOUND, deals with abortion, as I examine it from different angles via characters, and an agent told me early on that he didn’t think he could sell it even though it was very well written because it’s counter-cultural. A couple of others wanted me to change the ending–something that was not negotiable. So after 5 yrs I self-published it. I’ve discovered that marketing is a whole another thing one has to master, so this is a book that isn’t stocked in libraries or bookstores, like my other books. If my novel were banned, it’d have more visibility. Seriously. Thanks, Heather, for your thoughtful essay.
If only your wonderful tee shirt would convince the hating and willfully ignorant among us to actually read the books they seek to ban.
There is a Joseph Brodsky quote: “There are worse crimes than burning books. Of them is not reading them.”
That said my WIP, set in 1953, concerns a young debutant type who burns a public library to the ground. Why? Well now, that’s the story.
Thanks, Benjamin. Your book sounds right up my alley! :)
Vijaya, I’m sorry to hear your book was received that way. There are two novels right now all about abortion and also from multiple angles (Looking for Jane by Heather Marshall and All You Have to Do is Call by Kerri Maher), that have done quite well, so I’m frustrated on your behalf that you weren’t able to connect with the right agent. But keep writing the books of your heart and don’t shy away from difficult topics. They’re the ones that resonate most with readers!
Thanks for addressing this issue, Heather. You always put things in perspective. My goal: to read all the books that are being banned, or at the very least, promote those authors. Truth can be bitter. It is worse when we hide it, deny it, in all its problematic abilities. Bravo to you.
“Truth can be bitter. It is worse when we hide it, deny it, in all its problematic abilities.” You said it, Elizabeth. It has a way of rearing its ugly head in one way or other, doesn’t it, and very often at our own expense. Thanks for you comments today!
Thank you for this insightful post, Heather, and great prompts. My WIP is about a family members–some progressive (the MC) and some, er, not–dealing with racial prejudice; one of the main points is the fear lurking behind all of their positions: different fears, but still fear.
Thanks for stopping by, Barbara. I always enjoy your comments. Wishing you lots of luck with your book. It sounds compelling and important! The best combination.