About The Good Preachers
Post 198:
You’re not supposed to preach. Unless you’re a preacher. Even then, people might say you’re being too preachy.
It’s a wonder who started this baseless and fatuous rumor. Not sure we’ll ever find out.
The rule is hung over the heads of writers like the Sword of Damocles. It’s pretty stupid, and it engenders more fear than creativity. Things that do that are not good things.
If there’s something worth preaching, preach on. Most artists have something to say. Occasionally, it’s fine to just come out and say it. What a revolutionary thought.
It ain’t new, but it doesn’t have to be new to be revolutionary. Ask editors and marketing execs and publishing douchebags from here to Timbuktu and they’ll tell you not to come out and say it. There’s no place on their team for someone riding a high horse.
And to an extent, they have a point. Because most people preaching while writing don’t having anything that interesting to say.
My old Russian friend Fyodor Dostoevsky, however, could preach. And it’s not always about God or spiritual matters. Any subject under the sun. Sometimes it’s a straight direct address to the reader. Other times he finds clever ways to do his preaching. He’ll put it in the dialogue of a character, for instance. Read Crime and Punishment for myriad examples.
The main character in this one is a real jerkoff. At one point he gets a letter from his mother. She’s clearly just doing the best she can. She says in the letter, “in order to understand any man one must be deliberate and careful to avoid forming prejudices and mistaken ideas, which are very difficult to correct and get over afterwards.”
This is sound advice in pretty much any situation, and it’s something the writer wishes to say. It makes sense in the story because it’s a morality tale. (among other things) Most stories are, to some degree.
So preach on preachers. Just don’t suck at it. See you after.
