Blog #6 Dina Agendas and Beliefs

When I first read the topic, I thought writing with an agenda and having my beliefs come out in my writing were two separate issues. As I thought about my writing, though, I realized that my agendas come out of my belief systems about the world and about reading. I read to experience things I have never, and may never, experience in my own life. I write to either create an alternate world, show something that I've never experienced before myself and learn as I write, or write about something I've learned through experience.

My short stories tend to have a more deliberate agenda and tend to be about things I've either experienced first hand or through loved ones. For example, I wrote a story about blind dating in a light-hearted way in an attempt to show how hard being single can be, especially as you get older. I wrote another story about a teen mom because my own mother was one, and I wanted to show how much harder being a mom can be when you're barely more than a child yourself. I'd like to write one about being raised in a religious community where homosexuality is viewed as a sin only to have your beliefs shaken when your brother tells you he's homosexual. My agenda there would be "judge not lest ye be judged."

My novels, however, haven't had an agenda other than to entertain and amuse.
With that said, so far anyway, my belief systems always come through because my protagonists are similar to me in their economic, religious, political, and sexual points of view, but I don't intend to do that every time. How boring would that be? I'd like to create protagonists more conservative or more liberal than myself and see where that takes the story. Thinking about agendas and belief systems has made me want to be more diverse when creating my characters, hopefully making my stories more interesting.

This topic made me contemplate what I want to accomplish with my writing. Do I want to do more than entertain? I think I do, and I'd like to be more deliberate about how and what comes through. I love books that challenge things I thought I already knew and understood, books that make me look at the world or at people from a fresh perspective. I'd like to accomplish through my writing. My main agenda, though, is to entertain - both myself and others.