It's my duty to see that they get the truth; but that's not enough, I've got to put it before them briefly so that they will read it, clearly so that they will understand it, forcibly so that they will appreciate it, picturesquely so that they will remember it, and, above all, accurately so that they may be wisely guided by its light. -Joseph Pulitzer, newspaper publisher (10 Apr 1847-1911)
We can use our writing to tell truths in a palatable way. I have been noticing the social commentary in the newest season of Dr. Who, and chuckling, because a certain Florida governor would just hate it if he saw it. But would he even recognize it if he did see it? That's the clever part, it makes perfect sense in story context, and yes, the lines are in character for the parts. But the situation is set up so that it is obvious, for instance, for the Doctor to get incensed because some faceless bureaucracy has required a facility to keep producing babies for a colony, but has not continued provisioning or staffing the facility. Hmmmmm. Or there was the social media addiction taken to its absurd extreme among privileged young adults on a planet settled and built just for them. They didn't know how to walk or use their own senses without "the bubble". Hmmmmmm.
Pratchett used his fantasy Discworld to say a lot, in every book, whether he was taking on war or racism or religion or yellow journalism or predatory capitalism or the inexplicable longing for a king...
Think of something you would like to say, be it philosophical, political, spiritual, or whatever. Then write a vignette using any of our stock characters or ones you make for the occasion, to express that idea in fictional form. If you need an elaborate setup, you can summarize that before the scene itself.
Stock characters and situations for many genres.
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