How to avoid falling on your face when writing political commentary

I'm sure we've all been there. You get the great idea to write an allegory for current events or a scathing political commentary, everything lines up the way you expect it to, you're even lucky enough for the message to sync perfectly with the in-universe logic of the narrative so it doesn't come across as making your characters or narrative seem preachy and stupid. Then you go to write it and the most appalling problem with this scenario becomes clear to you.

You actually don't know jack shit about politics.

Let's be honest, a lot of us have a fringe knowledge of politics at best, mostly the stuff we gleam from campaign ads, the news, and the occasional televised broadcast of a bipartisan debate we actually give enough of a shit to watch (substitute "bipartisan" for your country's governmental system of choice). So you have something you wanna say about society, but how do you know that you know enough about the subject to not sound like an ignorant bumbletwat? How do you know you're being fair to all sides and not making any obvious logical errors or doing any strawmanning?

edited 30th Jun '14 6:07:24 PM by KSPAM

Research is king... but remember that about half of the total audience will, at least initially, disagree with you.

My favorite political storylines do a buttload of self-reflection on their own ideas. Readers will forgive ignorance to a point if you at least present them with an internally consistent idea.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.

If you want to make commentary on a topic but you don't feel qualified to make a comment on it, then learn more about it!

Once you feel confident, share your work and see what criticism you get. Not all of it will be valid, but at least it can give you an idea of where to look next for more information.

edited 30th Jun '14 7:50:59 PM by DrStarky

Quite simple. Don't write about it unless you're qualified to do so, which means you actually know what you're going on about. My personal philosophy: if you can't answer challenges and field questions about it, you're better off not advancing the point in the first place. (Or to use a military analogy, don't attack territory if you can't hold it.) Informed satire and commentary are a pleasure to read; uninformed blathering you can get for free on network TV talk shows.

Best answer I can give? Don't make it sound like you have an agenda. A few people, Michael Moore would be one example, had come undone in clearly trying to demonize or have an Author Avatar or Author Tract in what they write. I don't think you would have a problem in using political commentary in saying something is wrong, if you look at what some people really say in regards to politics then they look more foolish than you could ever hope to make your characters. You can even show that the characters have a lack of understanding about politics and get upset about one issue of it without having the facts. Just...try and be clear it is your characters who are saying this rather than you yourself. Have a look at some works where there is political commentary and see whether there is grandstanding on the issues or whether it sounds like a Take That! from the writer

I think the best way to avoid strawmen in fiction, if you write your characters as people instead of making them after stereotypes, alrought they may be just as right as a stopped clock twice a day, but be careful with those. So if you're writing neo-nazis, they're not a neo-nazi just for the sake of naziism (this would be a good example of Captain Planet villain), they actually think they're the good guys (maybe a good place to implement the Knight Templar trope), but actually their outdated racism and radical nationalism makes them the villains.

Also every movement is very divided. There're republicans, who not denying evolution and climate change, there're pro-porn and anti-porn feminists, etc, so do your job in writing them as individuals, even if you think they're all sheeps.

There are a few views on this. One is to focus on the story and if some sort of political commentary comes out of that, then so be it. The other is that if you are going to start with a political commentary premise and build the story around it, then stick to action and avoid speeches.

Explicitly political commentary classically came in the form of the visitor to a strange land plot: Erehwon, Utopia, Gulliver, etc. If the characters are politicians, make them Democrats (not my rule, but virutally every drama of this type - West Wing, House of Cards, The American President et al - are always Dems. Most creative types are Dems, otherwise they are libertarians).

As for research, it depends on the nature of your story and what you are commenting on. If it is broad strokes about certain political philosophies then dig into some text books rather than watching C-Span. You don't have to know the intricate workings of the government to make political/societal comments. You said it was an allegory so the story has nothing to do with politics itself. You only have to know about the underlying issues of what you want to comment on.

Not committing logical fallacies is good, but who told you you had to be fair to your political opponents? You're a writer, not a judge. Throw some acid in the fuckers' faces (metaphorically speaking, of course).

As for the rest of it... well, educate yourself? There are literally thousands of books on politics and history that have been written over the years. Go to your local library and start reading. Read newspapers and news websites. Watch the BBC and Al Jazeera (and round it out with Russia Today and CNN). Talk to local activists; get involved in the campaign to save your local post office or whatever (there's always something going on).