Submitted for
your approval, a new word: controversiality.
Shakespeare invented words all the time. Assassination,
cold-blooded, arch-villain, addiction, scuffle. Thousands of them. It might
not have been the first time they were used in conversation, but scholars say it
was the first time these words were seen in print.
A level set: I
am to Shakespeare as Mad Dog 20/20 and Two-Buck Chuck are to Château Mouton-Rothschild.
Controversiality
is a literary minefield. A place where under-published genre authors are often told
not to tread, by agents, publishers, and other writers. Writing a thriller? A suspense
tale? A horror title? Toss in some hotly contested topics, and it could become
a literary death wish.
But I like using controversial topics in my
stuff, he says. Topics that are original because
they’re taboo, or because they utilize discomforting characters or situations,
their uniqueness oftentimes coming from the controversial topics themselves.
Controversies, and taking risks in the interest of originality, can provide
great backbones for plots and character traits.
Examples, you
say? Why yes, got a few handy, thanks for asking.
The landmark Roe v. Wade U.S. Supreme Court decision.
It’s a catalyst for the political crime thriller Jane’s Baby by yours truly, about assaults on the Supreme Court
both legal and physical. Are the characters pro this, or anti that? Conservative?
Liberal? Progressive? Is it right to make them, or their institutions, targets
of bad actors? The novel’s heroes and villains have biases; how could they not?
Some parallel the author’s. Gotta stir the pot, he says.
Or characters
with physical and mental challenges that make readers wince. Like a hero fugitive
recovery agent with Tourette syndrome. Or his ride-along who’s a little person,
with the hero consistently using that one
very derogatory term to describe his ride-along because his subconscious
can’t help itself.
Wait, what? And
you made these characters recurring, in a series? You’ll be excoriated.
Or gender
identity, where a transitioning transgender character with conflicting body
parts is mainstreamed as a cold-blooded assassin (thanks, Mr. Shakespeare) fueled
more by revenge than environment, and not by his internal wiring. America is a Gun, a thriller work in
progress, is an example.
“But transgender people have enough real-life
challenges trying to fit in. Don’t show one as being psychotic and evil. It
fuels the hate.” Sorry, but nope. Genre fiction is a great equalizer. It can blast
right past the sensitivities. Don’t make the story the character’s struggle in
dealing with his/her inner conflict and/or lack of acceptance. Normalize it as just
another genre character trait. Give him non-gender
identity motivation for why he goes batshit crazy enough to kill people.
He’s a genre villain who is transgender, is sympathetic, and not a villain because he’s transgender, also not any batshit
crazier because his gender packaging is reversed. Story is king, with the
character’s personal conflict simply an accouterment.
Or illegal immigrants
and their mistreatment in this country. Poor, frightened, and ripe for
exploitation. It’s one of the plot threads for Hiding Among the Dead, the first crime novel in a series about commercial
crime scene cleaners. Still working on convincing my agent it should go on
submission.
Or the crème de
la crème of controversies: guns, and gun control. It’s not simply
controversial, it’s radioactive. The aforementioned America is a Gun addresses how characters who live and die by their
firearms mimic many of our real-life law and order heroes in that they’re fed
up with the proliferation of guns and would gladly accept changes to gun
ownership laws, and their own rights too, if it could significantly reduce the real-life
bloodshed, so they do something on a grand scale about it. As a novel it dives
head-first into the gun lobby mosh pit, but accepts that firearms are ingrained
in the civilian pursuits and lifestyle of past generations and present, are so
much a part of America’s history, and are here to stay for generations to come.
And here’s
where things can get dicey. Why would an author spend time producing material
for public consumption that he knows will immediately piss off half, maybe more,
his potential audience? Where, when looking for blurbs from acclaimed
bestselling authors, she receives kudos for the material, the plot, the pace,
the entire story, but the kudos need to be off the record because she flew too
close to the sun for the blurber’s brand?
The answer is the other half of the audience is still a
helluva lot of potential readers, and this author should be so lucky to
write something that appeals to them. But this isn’t the way all publishers and
agents feel, unfortunately. Shooting oneself in the foot before one un-holsters
a weapon (sorry) can severely stifle a manuscript’s salability, they say.
How is all this
working out for me? Only one novel sold so far. Ask me in another five years.
So I’m just going
to let this sit out there: Controversiality works if an author can weather the
pushback and the rejection. If it adds to the originality of a story, or the voice,
or the delivery of a good plot, then hell, go for it. Take the risk. Maybe even
embrace it as your brand, or at least one of them.
Paraphrasing Ty
Webb (Chevy Chase) in Caddyshack,
while Danny Noonan (Michael O’Keefe) lined up his iron shot after Ty’s
blindfolded effort landed a few feet from the cup:
“Just be the
ball. Be… the ball. You’re not being the ball, Danny.”
Naysayers? Fuck
’em. I’m just gonna be the ball.
*
* *
Chris' new book is Jane’s Baby, of which Logan Krum, writing
for The Northeast Times, says, “The plot is a tightly wound coil ready to
spring at any second. Bauer wants to draw no conclusion for the reader -- he
just wants them to contemplate their own thoughts.” As a Philly native Chris has
had lengthy stops in Michigan and Connecticut, and he thinks Pittsburgh is a
great city even though some of his fictional characters do not. He likes the
pie more than the turkey. His short fiction has appeared in Thuglit, Shroud Magazine, and 100
Horrors, and has been podcasted by Well
Told Tales. He's a member of International Thriller Writers, Pennwriters,
and the Horror Writers Association. Chris is not to my knowledge related to the
actor Chris Bauer, best known here for playing Frank Sobotka in The Wire. This
Chris is a better writer, and that’s what OBAAT is about.
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