Young Writers Society

I just finished a very contreversial series (his dark materials) and really liked it. The author challenged a lot of ways of thinking, especially about religion. I'm doing a huge story this year for english, and I abandoned my other idea, so I wanted to know if I should use contreversy as a tool in my new story.

Basically, do you guys like contreversy in stories? Do you think it's a bad idea to make a contrevesial story (I'm only in 7th grade after all)? And what makes a story contreversial?

I'd love to hear what you guys think about it.

I'm not sure what you mean by controversy. Do you mean to create a controversy within the story (two opposing groups, for instance) or take an existing issue and apply it to what you're writing (abortion, or the death penalty, for example)?

If you're wondering what makes a book in general controversial, you might want to check out the banned book lists. The following link is to a list (books with titles beginning with A through books with titles beginning with I) of banned books and descriptions of why they're banned, often for profanity (warning: although used in a purely academic context, there are a few swear/offensive/derogatory words in the descriptions): http://www.banned-books.com/bblista-i.html

Though I don't know if writing a controversial story for the sake of being controversial will be all that effective. Personally, I think it should be based in something bigger and if there's controversy surrounding that, so be it.

Depends how you use it. It can boost the sales of a book, or it could kill it. If it horribly offends more people than it attracts, then it's going to suffer.

If, for example, you wrote a book about how great Osama bin Laden is, don't expect it to sell much, despite examining a controversial subject.

If, instead, you wrote a book arguing that Islam as a religion is dangerous, then it could well sell pretty well.

Well, controversy for the sake of controversy is never going to make a good book - the focus would be too much on being controversial, and not on the story itself. If, on the other hand, you don't set out to be specifically controversial, but it's just part of the plot/themes/etc in the book, then it could be good.

As to what is controversial, just take Harry Potter - hated by church groups all over the world due to its allegedly 'satanic, occult themes' (a load of BS, in my opinion). So, yeah. Whatever you do, do NOT set out to write a book purely for the controversy. Just write what you want to. If it ends up controversial, it will just be another part of the story, and read better as well.

Plenty of great books challenge or re-interpret popular opinion. That's what makes them so good. It doesn't have to be outright, humongous controversy involving a highly explosive subject (see: Da Vinci Code) but usually some theory about life, religion, love, etc. is challenged.

I'm not so sure if the problem's about whether you should use controversy in your story or not, though Amelia is right- don't focus purely on controversy. I think it's more of how you handle it, and if it really does raise some "challenging questions and ideas", as you said.

You're "only in 7th grade, after all."

To me its all an opinion. You decide what's good and evil for yourself, but that doesn't mean that everyone feels that way ohh no. Its what you believe is true. Cause well life is what you make it and in the end it doesn't matter. Everyone will have a different opinion, so just suck up and exsept it. But as for writting it shows your opinion.

I hope i was helpful!!

Thanks you guys! I think I was probaly a little to crazed off the book I read when I posted this. So, I think I'll try to "challeng or re-interpret popular opinion" but the book about about how great Osama- Bin Laden is will never be. I'd still like to hear about what everybody thinks about contrevery in books a lot, though!

I can pretty much assure you that when a man writes a book that turns out to be controversial, they don't say to themselves: "Man, I think I'll write a controversial story today!" No. What they do is say to themselves that, hey, maybe I could tell something nobody's told before, and maybe it'd be interesting to do this in an unconvetional way. That woman who won the Pulitzer prize for writing Brokeback Mountain didn't do it because she wanted to be controversial. She did it because she thought it would be very interesting to challenge the cowboy myth.

Think of good stories. If they happen to be controversial, let them.

Yeah, controversy isn't planned. It just happens. I like it, it fuels change in a society. Not always good change, but change none the less.

Ditto.

And, please, learn how to spell "controversy" correctly first.

It's quite irking.

I also agree. ^^
People rarely start writing and think, "Hey, I'll use controversy!"
It kind of...comes to them. I guess

I like controversy in books, it can be very thought-provoking and effective if used well.

But I'll echo everyone else: it HAS to happen naturally. Controversy should be used to challenge traditional ideas, express a personal belief or to create an interesting scenario for characters, but NEVER just for the sake of getting people riled up.

Controversy is a very subjective thing. You wouldn't believe some of the books that have been banned...stuff like Madeleine L'Engle's works, Moby Dick, the Scarlet Letter. There was even a book that was banned called "How to Prevent AIDS" or something like that.

So I guess my point is, write something that you'd want to read. Anything has the potential to be controversial. Not everything has the potential to be GOOD.