“Today’s society calls for more from a fiction writer than a fluff-piece,” says Mollie Hunt. “It’s our obligation to bring light to the causes and conflicts of our world.” In her presentation, Changing the World Through Fiction, Mollie offered methods that even the coziest of writers can implement to gently present their values within the story. So here, with thanks to Mollie, are her notes from her talk.

If you feel strongly about something, it’s easy to talk about it. Sometimes ad nauseam. I’m like that when it comes to cats. I love cats, have cats in my home, I foster sick cats, and volunteer at a cat shelter. I attend classes about cat health and behavior. I write cat mysteries and cat sci- fantasy as well as a little cat poetry.

It’s not just a cute kitty thing with me; it’s a lifestyle, a relationship, and with it comes responsibility. A lot of bad things happen to animals in this world, and that must change. Indian visionary Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” I’ve chosen to be a cat advocate, both in real life and in my writing. It may come down to one cat at a time, but it’s enough. No kindness is ever too small.

Sometimes I get carried away talking about shelters, rescues, and animal aid. People’s eyes glaze over, and they begin to hear only the words: cat cat cat. If that happens at a gathering, they can just walk away, but if I bore them on the page, they will put down the book and may never pick it up again.

As fiction writers, it’s important to remember the point of our writing is to tell a story, to entertain, but that doesn’t mean we can’t educate and enlighten at the same time, without using soapbox rhetoric or putting our readers to sleep.

All causes are based on something bad that needs to be changed, but by keeping your attitude “positive,” you’ll  leave your readers feeling optimistic about both your cause and your book.

The following notes combine Mollie’s handout and Sheila’s minutes:

1. Pick your battle and your cause. You can’t champion everything, but, for example:
   1. cat advocacy leads to
   2. care for animals, leads to
   3. kindness – the battle gets bigger. It’s the theme to your story, and it’s secondary to the genre—mystery, scifi, etc—and it’s secondary to plot.
2. Tighten up, and avoid the temptation to Infodump. You don’t need to put all your message into one paragraph, or have your protagonist say everything all at once. Use your message to tell yourself where you’re going, but don’t bore the reader.
3. Establish your place. Use Epigraphs, quotes, a Forward or an Afterward for the less entertaining aspects of your cause.
   1. Readers often skip forwards, so the afterward might be better
   2. Epigraphs at the start of each chapter are a great way to hand over information in tiny chunks too. Just keep them short and interesting.
   3. Footnotes are possible too.
4. Why so serious? Not everything relating to a serious subject needs to be said seriously. Don’t forget to include your cause’s lighter components.
   1. Humor helps people remember what you’ve said.
   2. Gravity puts them to sleep
5. Show don’t tell. Weave the cause into your story as an element of its own. It’s easy to say what the world should be like. It’s harder to make a story.
6. Whisper, don’t shout. Be subtle: don’t give in to the lecture impulse. So no soapboxes, no sermons, no lectures. It’s hard to tell if you’re lecturing, so this is where beta-readers and editors come in.
7. Write to entertain. Make it fun. That’s why people read fiction. But even in non-fiction, if you don’t entertain the reader they’ll just get bored.

And finally, that bonus rule:

1. Eliminate the negative. As Mollie’s father-in-law said: As my father-in-law said: “You’ve got to accentuate the positive, Eliminate the negative, Latch on to the affirmative Don’t mess with Mister In Between.” (~Bing Crosby) This might depend on your writing voice. You might be writing a really noir story. But a cozy mystery has to not just have, but promise and move toward a happy ending. Instead of retelling all the awful things that might happen, accentuate the positive. Use fewer words for negative and more for positive.

Thank you so much Mollie, for a fun talk, very memorable illustrations, and these great notes that made my minute-writing so much easier!