"If the blind lead blind robots [fill in the blank... or not], then both shall fall in the ditch." That is the moral of quite a few of my stories. Not that new. The Terminator had a similar moral. "If blind ventriloquists make his sheep talk, the Chief gets nervous." As we blunder headlong into the future, writing in glee about all that we see, what is the moral of your story?
Good question! I'd have to say it's something along the lines of "Experimenting with heroin rarely ends well." or "There's always a better way out. Suicide is never the answer."
Um... "Innocence can be just as bad as... malice"? "Society puts far too much stock on innocence"? Honestly, I haven't thought that deeply into it. That's just the impression I'm getting, for my own story at least.
"Life sucks, and not just for you. If you stop trying to make it suck less, then you're just making it harder for the next guy."
"Stop moping about what you've done wrong; it's selfish. Ignore the past and do the right thing, right now."
My stories don't have an overall moral, I don't think. I give more morals to my characters like "Innocence brings about the best and worst" or "best of intentions can turn ugly" or "Nietzsche was right! There can only be one god!" Yes, I am aware Nietzsche never said that. It's a mix of his own writings and a few extrapolations of mine.
Not entirely. Ally goes to the depths of Hell, comes back, but ends up taking a return trip she can't come back from. She kind of reminds me of Jane from Breaking Bad in a way. (Spoiler Alert for those of you who haven't seen the show) Remember how she was a heroin addict that was going to NA and seemingly had her shit together? Then she met Pinkman and ended up back on smack and OD'ing herself to death? That's kind of how this is, except Ally ended up committing suicide at the end of her latest relapse. Hence: "Heroin stories rarely end well."
My first novel is about self-discovery and self-acceptance, through the lens of writing and using fictional fantasy scenes (story-within-story) to bring out the MC's inner convictions and give her confidence to accept them. Maybe a lesson of "learn to accept yourself," if a moral is what you're after. My second also touches on self-acceptance, but is more focused on forgiveness and agreeing to bury the hatchet. Miscommunication and holding things in lead to resentment, which leads to collapse of friendship. Then, through a literary gimmick (metaphor, motif, what have you) the characters get a grip and realize their squabbles are meaningless, agreeing to move past it all. My third, being more lighthearted, is essentially about recapturing youth, but it also touches on learning to let go of the small stuff. The MC is an IT admin who prides herself on her problem-solving abilities, though ironically she can't seem to solve her own, real-life problems. So there's also the idea that life is more complicated than ones and zeroes, and you can't just unplug your life and plug it back in to fix everything. My current project centers more on resistance to oppression and holding true to beliefs in spite of society, though I haven't fully explored all my avenues yet. Looking back over my answers, it seems I may need to come up with something different instead of playing the same notes on different instruments. But then again, the more universal the theme, the easier it is to relate...at least, in my experience!
''Only by plunging into the darkest abyss can you reach the brightest light.'' Inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. How you first have to pas through Hell and Purgatory before you can reach Paradise. My stories are often about how you can only pick one of two lesser evils, if you want the future to offer otherwise.
It gets better. I guess that would be the moral of a love story about a recent widow who clings a little too soon to a man who is afraid she's using him because most other women were too embarrassed to date him beyond a quick fling.
"Some boy you met in a Paris park when you were eight will return into your life when you're 14, and you'll get to date him." That's not really a moral, is it? My stories (when they're not about poverty) are usually escapism, ehehe.
Building a life on a web of lies is a really stupid idea. -or- Don't chase a free bird. -or- The ends do not always justify the means. (Three main characters; three morals of the story.)
I think it should be the moral of your character not story, otherwise you end up with clique's. The moral of the story is quite often actually the moral of the character. A moral about heroin as an example is character not story. If 'heroin stories never end well' is the moral of the story then that is because the character's story didn't end up well. But if your character shows strength and survives then the moral chanes.
The short story I'm working on right now has an idea, not necessarily a moral as so far the ending does not come up with an answer. Can ego admit creativity/an art work is not solely owned by the one doing the creating.
You are not s special snow flake, you are the all shutting all singing carp of the world. And your life is ending one second at a time. No story behind it, just one thing I realized.
