Writing about issues you care about

[Addison]

When facing a trouble with characterization or any sort of writing where you can not get a full scope, technicolor view of that side then go out and find those colors. Read the papers, the opinion pages, talk to other people about whatever situation or character you're having trouble with.

As for writing about situations in our stories which draw from personal or real life situations I find it difficult without practice. As I see those situations like writing in first person. It's hard to separate yourself from the character. Find the reason, the core reason, why you're drawing from that specific situation, and sculpt differences around it so you don't get too attached, too objective. That way your story will stay fresh and colorful.

 

[Shockley]

I had a further thought:

You mention that most of your notions about people come from the internet. Well, that could be the problem in and of itself. As great as the internet is, it also forces us to make people into caricatures when we argue with them over one issue. It's a different situation than doing it with your best friend or mother or most hated enemy (one of the really difficult issues I've had to come to terms with is that my greatest enemy (yet) happens to agree with me on nearly everything, which leads to me constantly questioning my state of being).

There's a saying about military strategy - plans and tactics only last until first contact with the enemy. Political, social and religious views are much the same - most of our core positions are only as strong as our ignorance of the opposing side. Sometimes you become more entrenched in the righteousness of your views (for example, I've never met anyone who could dissuade me from supporting gay rights) and other times you have to sit back and think, 'Well what the hell was I even thinking before?' (which is exactly what happened to me the first time I paid attention to anyone debating gun policy).

What I would suggest you do is engage the people around you - and really, engage them. If you disagree with a parent on something (and I'm certain you do) sit down with them and actually talk to them about the issue. I've spoken on here before about an issue I have with my mother - she believes that she is sensitive to psychic emanations from ghosts, and I believe such things are impossible. I know she's not stupid (she's a university professor teaching psychiatric nursing) and I don't think I'm stupid; obviously, one of us just lacks an experience by the other, has thought about the issue in a different way or has a completely different view of the way the world works. What she sees as definite evidence of ghostly presences, I see as a number of unrelated (but admittedly weird) incidents that, over time, were conflated into one mass occurrence.

So go out and meet people. If you walk into your local 'rival partisan group' and ask them to explain why they think the things they do, some of them will be really stupid and confirm all of your expectations. Others will be highly intelligent, thoughtful and knowledgeable about many things and will break your concepts. But the most important thing is to engage with people, and that will lead to a greater understanding and more compassion.

 

[saellys]

To nutshell-ify what basically everything else in this thread has said, make sure you're writing about characters, not issues.

To expand on that point rather redundantly, keep in mind that everyone who believes a certain thing (homosexuality is a sin, we should drill for oil in the Arctic, or what-have-you) has reasons for believing it. They might evil, stupid, or deluded, but more likely, they have some past experiences that have led them to believe a certain thing.

If you can find people in real life who hold such views and have an actual conversation about it, you will come away enriched. (This, in fact, is how my husband overcame homophobia that had been instilled in him from childhood by his family.) But even if you can't, characters in your story who believe things you think are wrong still need understandable motivation for believing them. Life is a long chain of variables that influence our personalities in unpredictable ways--or, as my favorite fictional chaos theorist put it, "A butterfly flaps its wings in Peking, and in Central Park you get rain instead of sunshine." A childhood trauma most people would shake off can set someone down the path to being a serial killer.

Now, here's the really hard part--don't make those issues the only thing your character has, whether or not they're the antagonist. Social causes are great, but the overwhelming majority of oppressed and othered human beings have many day-to-day, short term, and long term challenges in addition to the pursuit of equal rights. A homosexual person does not spend twenty four hours a day fighting for the legalization of gay marriage, even if they've taken up that cause as a defining issue. They also have to deal with cleaning the litterbox, paying this month's bills, getting out of a crummy job and into a career that fulfills them, and any number of other things common to the rest of humanity, each with its own timeline and set of obstacles.

Accordingly, your characters need a broad variety of immediate and distant goals and struggles. Some might even fall beyond the scope of your story, and that's fine, because no one accomplishes everything they want to do in their life. By no means should you sap issues and causes from your stories entirely--that would be unrealistic. Just make sure your characters are whole, and not just meat puppets for an issue.