The bottom line-, storytellingthat many of them tell moral fables with tried-and-true outcomes,
full of time-tested observations. For example, money cannot buy
happiness; ambition carries the seeds of its own destruction; greed
is bad; love conquers all; anyone can be a hero. Sound simplistic?
Such sentiments are, but they still have power because they reflect
profound truths.
It is fashionable today to say that we have lost our values, that
we are wandering, directionless, at the end of the millennium. I dis-
agree. Look at popular fiction; it is full of morality. It brims with
hope. It affirms for us again and again that the beliefs and values we
hold dear are alive.
It would seem that The Bridges of Madison County is a huge exception
to that principle; after all, it is a novel that celebrates infidelity.
Indeed, no novel has caused as much puzzlement in publishing as
that one. What do people see in it? Why did it sell? I am convinced
that Bridges does affirm a belief for Americans: not that infidelity is
good, but that going through life in a deadened state is bad. Bridges
says that authentic feeling and true passion are worth great risk. The
writing may not be brilliant, but the message speaks directly to our
stressed-out decade.
The lesson in all this for novelists is not to dish tired plots on
overcooked themes, but to think about what you want to say: your
meaning, point, or moral. If it is something new, fine. If the message
is familiar, then by all means put it across to readers in a fresh and
exciting way.
The point is that to the extent that fiction validates our cherished
ideals it will sell. To the degree that it condemns us as people, hold-
ing up the ugly mirror of truth but leaving us without hope, it will be
shunned. Readers are largely optimists. They want to believe that
human beings are fundamentally good. They love happy endings.
Those, I believe, are the main reasons that trash sells.
CHARACTERS: SYMPATHY VS. STRENGTH
The formula for all-purpose story construction has been boiled
down to its essentials many times. One of the most effective break-
downs I have ever read is Dwight V. Swain's Techniques of the Selling
Writer, but there are many other how-to texts from which to choose.