Definition of Fiction

[billy5772]

"Fiction - if it at all aspires to be art - appeals to the temperament...temperaments whose subtle and resistless power endows passing events with their true meaning, and creates the moral, the emotional atmosphere of the place and time."

What do you think of this quote and how it applies to what we do here? Do you think about adding messages to your fics when you write them? Like morals, truths, lessons and themes? And if those things are absent, is a fic hollow because of it?

P.S. - that's just one author's definition of fiction, btw

 

[Saffire Persian]

Well, I do think of adding messages into my stories, but more often than not, they write in the messages themselves, and I don't realize it until after I've written it. ^_^

I think every most writers do have some sort of moral in their story, whether they realize it or not... I don't necessarily think that a fic would be hollow because it's absent of 'hidden meanings', but I think those meanings often make a 'fic more fun to read and connect to. ^_^

 

[Negrek]

I think that it's almost impossible to write a 'fic without some sort of moral underpinnings. Even the most trite of amateur 'fics speak somewhat of the tendencies of the human spirit and human ego, if only indirectly.

Generally, I'd say that most morals write themselves in. They are not something that you put into a story, they are something that the reader gets out of a story: the story makes an impression upon others, even if it is not what you intended. It's almost impossible to read any work of fiction and not get something out of it, even if it's just "Wow, four exclamation points in a row is really eye-burning!"

 

[Kyle of Pallet]

Usually, when I write, I have three things in mind.

1) Plot (and my alternate plots)
2) Basings on real life (real life poeple, games, and things)
3) My emotional underpin.

Basicly, the moral writes itself, but its okay to plan with one in mind ;101;
And what better way to convey this but with a little word called
"Symbology". And the lack of a moral underpin does make a story empty in my honest opinion, 'cause all stories have that, from the Bible to the Karma Sutra, to Eragon, to Ian Fleming's novels (like James Bond, and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang)