This past week we honored President’s Day in the United States. While I know that February is associated with romance, I thought it would be a good time to look at what makes good political fiction. While political fiction does not make as much money as romance or fantasy novels, Statista listed the genre sales at a respectable 10.15 million units for 2019.
Political fiction and romance have some similarities, mainly being that relationships are a key element to the storyline. You might be thinking to yourself that you’re pretty apolitical, and given the news these days, I wouldn’t blame you. Some of the classics that we read in school are more overtly political than we realize. And then there are the obvious ones like All the President’s Men or anything written by alternative history writer Harry Turtledove. Take 1984 by George Orwell or The Handmaid’s Tale by Martha Atwood. While the subject matter is dystopian, all books are based on the political systems overrunning the current system of democracy.
Here are three tips for writing good political fiction.
What are you writing about?
Like any story, you need to decide what this book is going to be about as you are trying to send a message. Is this book a true political thriller like the Patterson-Clinton novel, The President is Missing? Or is it going to be dystopian fiction like 1984? Ultimately these books are about personal relationships and how those relationships are influenced by the events around them.
Be clear about the role the politics takes…
First to realize in political fiction—it’s not mandatory to take sides with any political party. The writer has to decide the role that politics is playing. In 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale, the political systems were established as the enemy the main characters fought against. The exact opposite is seen in Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan series. Clancy’s main character works to ensure that American democracy survives and fights enemies who would destroy it, both abroad and at home.
Choosing an adventure…
Writers do not need to rip stories from the headlines to create a good political novel unless they want to. There are people from both schools of thought that like to take a headline and run with it or create something new.
If you decide you want to take something from the headlines and make it your own, then think about a few things. How wedded are you to the headline’s authenticity? Primarily, you’re writing political fiction not a fact. Writers using a headline will need to fictionalize it and decide what direction it will need to go to work. One of Tom Clancy’s novels, The Red Rabbit, incorporated the assassination attempt of Pope John Paul II and made it the cornerstone of the story. Robert Fish’s novel Pursuit did something similar by using the failed assassination on Hitler as a jumping point to start the story.
If you decide you want to go and make something completely new, then outstanding, because you are looking at possibly making a whole new world. Phillip Roth published The Plot Against America, an alternative history book that looked at what would have happened if Charles Lindbergh became president instead of Franklin Roosevelt. Stephen King has dabbled with this genre with his novel 11.22.63.
Authors can get creative here, making a new world from scratch. Do you think you know what would have happened if Lincoln had lived or Hitler was never born? Or what would have happened if George Washington decided he would be a king instead of a president? This is your chance to write about it.
Final thoughts…
Remember, writing good fiction, no matter the genre, is about providing the reader an escape for a few hours.
Thanks for reading!
The Aspiring Writer 