I love a good political thriller. I read Tom Clancy and Robert Ludlum. I like Jack Ryan and Jason Bourne, and a lot of other characters by a lot of other great political thriller authors. So what's my point?
Image by Thomas Ritter
Well, that's a specific genre. It's supposed to be that way. But it is my humble opinion that that's where politics belong. In their own genre. Nevertheless, a trend was started decades ago that every novel must have social-political overtones or the work is meaningless. I don't believe that. Sometimes people just want a good story. Sometimes they're reading to escape heaviness. Sometimes they're reading because they want to feel better. Sometimes they're reading because they want to see if they can figure out a mystery before the novel ends. Sometimes they're reading to get away from politics for a while.
We all have political bias, but where and what is the place and the time? That is the question.
I think that when you're tempted to launch a political campaign in the pages of your book, keep in mind that you don't know who's reading. You may have someone who's completely absorbed and engaged in your novel, but he or she becomes so turned off by the political slant that the book eventually gets tossed. At that point you have to ask yourself if it was worth it. You got your licks in for sure, and you let people know where you stand politically, but did it help you or hurt you, and was it really necessary?
Those are the questions I urge writers to ask themselves. If you know why you're doing it and what you hope to accomplish and you feel it's the best way to write your stories, then of course, go for it. But if you're doing it just because you think you're supposed to, you might be losing some readers for no other reason except that you're doing something "just cause." That's why I stay away from it.
Of course, depending on the era you are writing in, there may be a lot of political unrest or war, and naturally, that has to be worked into the plot to make it authentic. However, you can do that without inserting your modern-age political opinion into the story.
I won't mention the author's name, but a highly popular romance writer got so political with her books that it actually started to hurt her sales at one point. Virtually every novel was a 350 page object lesson about why you should belong to a certain party. I'm sure even people in that party got tired of it after a while.
We need a break from that stuff, peeps. That's the bottom line.
I urge other writers out there to consider eliminating politics from a novel and simply write an engaging book that other people can relate to and enjoy and leave your personal bias out if it. (Who knows? You might even enjoy your own writing more.)