In an article for Writer’s Digest, Jude Berman discusses whether and where writers should hammer home the message in their fiction. “Writers need the literary equivalent of a hammer in their toolbox,” Berman says. “They may not always choose to use it, but they should at least have it available.”
Non-fiction writers have more leeway to highlight their message, but this freedom is important for fiction writers, too. A great deal of writing advice recommends that writers avoid being too direct, lest we sound preachy, but Berman says this doesn’t always serve the story well. We’re told that “rocking the boat” makes for poor fiction, but what if that’s the point? “I can’t assume readers will always figure things out on their own,” Berman writes, or “whether they will bother to stop and think deeply about the message of a book they’re reading for fun, unless I’ve made the effort to hammer it home in some way.”
While a message may not be pertinent for entertainment fiction, there’s still room for thought-provoking literature. “Centering a moral or philosophical message should be allowable when writing fiction, not a reason to denigrate the book,” Berman writes. “It’s about knowing which tool best serves your purpose for the form of writing you choose. You don’t want to use a hammer to clean your antique china. But trying to pound in a nail with your duster won’t produce good results either.”
There’s a fine line between being too vague and sounding preachy. “Ultimately, it comes down to the quality of the writing itself. Or at least it should,” Berman says. “A hammer can easily smash things, but you can’t create anything with it unless you also have nails. The hammer is the force behind a message; the nails are the words that form that message.”
