1. Every story, even the most seemingly fluffy or superficial, contains a message. It may be as simple and even clichéd as “love conquers all” or “follow your heart” or “there’s nothing more important than family,” but the message is there.

    If we assume that only serious, weighty-seeming stories contain a message and are only on the lookout for (or defensive against) those, we can easily find ourselves swayed by stories we thought were “just good fun”. Someone who consumes a steady diet of violent action movies, for instance, may* find themselves desensitized to or even tempted to justify real-world violence as a result; a reader who buries themselves in romance novels may* find their definition of love subtly rewritten in a way that makes them more susceptible to temptation. Even the frothiest “beach read” with no overt violence or sexuality still says something about the way the author views the world, and the way they want you (if only for the sake of the story) to see it too.

    That’s clearly not the point of what you were trying to say, though! So on a more positive note, I’ve just finished reading Lisa Cron’s STORY GENIUS, which claims that what actually distinguishes Story from a mere string of plot incidents or character reactions is what she calls the “third rail” of the MC’s inner life and most deeply held beliefs. Regardless of genre, it’s how the protagonist sees him or herself, what they want from life and how they think they’re going to get it that determines what external conflicts and challenges will go into the plot, and which gives a well-written story its emotional and spiritual resonance for the reader.

    In other words, even a fast-paced thriller, a Jane Austen-style novel of manners or a child’s picture book is sparked off and driven forward by the MC’s personal investment in what happens next, and how the decisions they make and the consequences of those decisions change them for better or worse. That principle applies from everything to the simplest fairy tale to the most complex literary novel, and if you don’t have that element you don’t have a story in any real sense at all, no matter how many explosions or kisses or plot twists you try to pack in.

    Once that key element of story is in place, though, certain kinds of books are naturally going to appeal more to certain kinds of people, and each reader will bring something different to their understanding of those novels. I happen to love books with emotionally repressed characters who seldom say what they feel; to me that makes the rare glimpses and hints of their true feelings ten times more powerful. But other readers find that approach frustrating and dismiss those same characters as not having any real feelings at all. Sometimes that’s because the story really isn’t as well written as it could be on a character level, and I’m filling in the blanks for the author because I really love the premise and am willing to give him/her the benefit of the doubt. But sometimes it really is just a matter of taste.


    * I am careful to say may here, because every reader (or viewer) is different, and has different reasons for watching or reading the things they do. Some are more naturally discerning and cautious than others, and less vulnerable to manipulation. But even if we consider ourselves to have a perceptive mind and strong convictions, we can still be influenced without realizing it just by the sheer repetition of the same message over and over.

What do you think?