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Joined: 3/11/2011
Posts: 29
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So, someone asked me recently, "what are you trying to say with this piece?" And it got me to thinking... do you always write with a deeper meaning? Or do you sometimes just write for the sheer entertainment of the story?
For me, there are definite moments of both. Some of my pieces have something deeper, a message I'm trying to convey. I definitely like to make people think. But sometimes, a story is just a story...something fun meant to make someone smile, squirm or some combination of the two.
What about you? Do you always feel you need to load a "message"?
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Joined: 4/2/2011
Posts: 3
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I rarely start with a purpose, but my books tend to end up wanting to have a deeper meaning.
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Joined: 3/29/2011
Posts: 25
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I usually have a purpose or reason why I want to write a certain story, but I don't put any extra effort into conveying any sort of "moral to the story". A lot of times, the thing that inspired me in the first place doesn't even end up in the final piece.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 102
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My novels generally have a discussion point or deeper layer to them, but not an intended moral. I writer shorter stories for pure entertainment.
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There is rarely any meaning in my work beyond wanting to entertain.
A friend of mine started out in the Art department at our college, and she also struggled with her projects having to have "meaning". Sometimes a bowl of fruit is just a bowl of fruit. Sometimes a dragon is just a dragon.
I don't think works need to have a "meaning". Themes, yes. Plot, definitely. Good character development, of course. The story that eventually comes out, assuming it's a reasonably compelling story, will pick up a meaning of it's own and that meaning will be unique to each reader as they take the story in and color it by their own experiences.
In short, I don't worry about it. I'd rather just write something entertaining. Likely something with dragons.
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Joined: 3/3/2011
Posts: 68
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I usually have a goal when writing a piece, but that goal varies.
Goals for works have included "I want to write a Tango Space Opera," "I want to write a story that investigates plural marriage in a sociological and interpersonal context, with a strong dose of post-colonialism and GLBT politics." and "Can I write a cyberpunk that's more genuinely Japanese?"
I have my sociological/political agendas at times, but I try to make sure that the agenda doesn't get in the way of telling a compelling and emotionally realistic story.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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for me, i find that meaning shows up on its own. My intention is always just to write a fun story though.
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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I’m not sure that I write for meaning as so much that I adhere to a theme. In SSR, the theme is “All that glitters isn’t gold.” Conversely, there’s also an underlying theme of “Diamonds in the rough.” Despite numerous dings that should tell my MC that the most perfect marriages are fraught with dysfunction, she can’t get it through her thick head that she looks for the wrong type of man – men like her father, men like her ex-husband. She’s mesmerized by gold. Fool’s gold, that is. Pyrite.
I’m not big on delivering large “messages” or getting preachy. I intentionally created a MC who’s a little bit emotionally stunted when it comes to love relationships. She doesn’t realize that it’s not the outward image a man presents, nor is it his profession, his clothes, his social status and especially not his money. It’s his integrity that counts. But she doesn’t really “get” this at first, so it's her overall development that I chose to explore.
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Joined: 4/6/2011
Posts: 29
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Little turns me off a book faster than a writer with an obvious moral message to convey. If you want to tell me something, write a letter; if you want to show me something that makes me think, well, that's different. 
Which is not to say that scenes don't have "meaning" in the sense that they are intended to convey particular things to the reader -- events, emotions -- but to me as a writer that evokes "what are you trying to do" rather than "say". Perhaps it's nit-picking on my part. I don't set out to write "meaningful" things as such.
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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I think there are messages in what I write, but they're not preachy or glaringly obvious. Sacrifice, beauty is only skin deep, it's what's on the inside that counts. Those kinds of things.
If a reader can come away with those when they finish reading, awesome! I'm not going to be upset if they just say "that was entertaining" rather than "I learned an important life lesson!".
In fact, there is a discussion elsewhere about whether or not you should write your characters as real as possible or write them as role models. I think it's important readers (young ones anyway) understand the difference between fact and fiction and the life lessons should be left to their parents and educators.
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Joined: 3/17/2011
Posts: 88
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I honestly don't think meaning comes from trying--at least, not any kind of meaning that's really gonna matter to anyone. Meaning isn't a "trope" or a "theme" you can impose on a narrative. Meaning, to my mind, comes from talking about what truly matters to you, digging deep and being truthful. Your reader is going to find meaning in your work if you allow your own search for meaning to come through in your writing.
Seems to me, if you write about *life as it is lived,* whether through the lens of a far flung imagined future, a dream of a mystical past or anywhere in between, then your book will have meaning to human beings living their lives. If you write without regard to real life; if there are places the narrative "wants" to go that you are afraid to follow; if you pick and choose which difficulties will have real, relatable consequences and which will "magically" go away when they're inconvenient, or if you're content merely to string genre conventions together in ways you haven't seen before, then the meaning in your book will suffer accordingly.
If you write about what truly frightens you, enrages you, enthralls you, or touches you to the core, then your book will have meaning.
A lot of the W's IP I read online come across as momentarily diverting exercises, but they lack any particular meaning that I can take away, because the author doesn't seem really to be digging very deep at all, not really searching for anything other than the reader's approval. And when writers insert some moral or other into their work they are signaling that they have no interest in sharing their search for meaning with the reader. After all, they've found the truth and they're just here to foist it upon us (free of charge, of course).
And when it comes to "role models vs. realism" I would consider an unrealistic role model a contradiction in terms.
-Kevin
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Joined: 3/11/2011
Posts: 29
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I found this quote today and it really sums up how I feel about this question:
"You should have something to say in a story. But that doesn't always mean a message. It means truth." --Andrew Stanton, PIXAR, director of Wall-E and Finding Nemo
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Joined: 3/4/2011
Posts: 58
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The only thing I set out to do in my writing is to have strong, female characters, because, although things have improved, I still don't feel there are enough strong, female characters in sci-fi.
Otherwise, I write for pure escapism and entertainment. Often I find insights I did not consciously intend in the finished piece, but I don't plan them ahead of time. I'm also often stunned by the glimpses into my own psyche that I discover in my characters. Those can be a bit scary at times.
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