What Novels Make You Think? by Jill Williamson, author of Replication

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What Novels Make You Think? by Jill Williamson, author of Replication

EV: I have a very cool author on the site today. Jill Williamson, supafly spec fiction author. Or maybe her clone wrote this post, I’m not really sure. They look alike. Anyway, she has a rockin story posted on her website, which tells her story of publication and all that jazz, and I suggest any future writers out there, go and check it out. But here, and now, she’s sharing her insights about novels, about writing. In short, what novels make you think? These are the novels that stick with you, that make you feel something you didn’t before…these bad boys are powerful. So, without further ado, I give you Madame Jill Williamson. Hope you dig it!

JW: What novel impacted you and made you rethink something? One example for me was the novel The Giver by Lois Lowry. There were many powerful themes to take away from that novel, but what stuck with me was, “People need pain. They learn from pain. Pain can make us stronger and smarter.” The novel fascinated me on so many levels.

Have you ever read a novel that made you angry? I have. And I’m usually angry because I disagreed with the direction the author took his story. Either the story didn’t end the way I thought it should or it contradicted my beliefs about the world we live in. An example for me was the novel The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold. It was such a brilliant concept, but I had a hard time reading about a heaven with no God, and the possession scene at the end went too far. The novel left me angry and disappointed.

Most of us can forgive the direction of a story. Artistic license. The author has the right to weave his story however he wants. But readers have a harder time forgiving a contradicted belief. If a story says something against the reader’s beliefs, he gets offended. And an offended reader tends to say so in the form of a book review. Go read some one-star reviews to see what I mean.

But that’s one reason I love writing speculative fiction. In a fantasy, science fiction, or dystopian novel, I can make statements though my storyworld or characters that I couldn’t make otherwise. A clone that has never seen the light of day can ask questions a regular guy can’t. A story about pregnancy and abortion is easier for readers swallow when the pregnant character is a female cyborg. And some readers are more willing to read about God when he is shown as a black woman called Papa.

That’s why dystopian is so popular right now. Because the end of the word, global pandemic, or governments that turn on their people are real societal fears for many people. And if people can relate, if a story speaks to a reader’s fears or hopes about the world he lives in, the author has usually hit a home run.