“Preaching can take the power away from characters’ experiences and puts all of that growth into one long section of dialogue or narrative, which is ultimately disappointing.”
— Rachel Garner
Introduction
What is the purpose of a story? To explore the truths of human nature. Stories should promote truths to its audiences. Sometimes they are encouraging and inspiring truths. Sometimes, they are cautionary truths. In short, a story usually has a message it’s trying to relay to its audience.
Regardless of one’s upbringing, personal beliefs, or status, there are fundamental truths that apply to all of us. A good story shares a truth that we can all relate to or resonate with. We recognize it in ourselves and in the world around us.
Stories should reveal that we all agree with each other. We may have differences of opinion when it comes to how the world ought to function, but we do realize that it does function under certain principles. Stories explore these principles, good or bad, and allow us to come together and discuss them.
But there are better ways of sharing these messages than others. And using your story as a means to preach, is not one of them. Preachy stories are divisive. They sacrifice creativity for the sake of a message they are promoting. They spoon feed their message to the audience, usually with little to no nuance, alienating half of the audience.
Some people agree with the message, some feel like they are being lectured, and others (myself) are just plain bored by the lack of creativity. Let’s explore why preachy stories are not the best stories.
Preachy Stories vs Thematically Rich Stories
All good stories have a theme. What is a theme? It’s an idea or truth that is explored throughout the story. Some themes might include “how power corrupts,” “how unconditional love looks past someone’s mistakes,” and “how our time with our children is too short.” Most of the time, themes are not explicitly stated, but rather, inferred. Themes are important for helping us as the audience connect to the stories and characters.
Preachy stories have themes too. But what makes them unappealing to most people? A theme should be an exploration of an idea. A preachy story isn’t an exploration so much as a statement. A thematically rich story doesn’t beat its message across the audience’s head, but rather, trusts that the audience will pick up on the message.
Preachy stories tend to push people away. Not always because of the message they are promoting, but because they are insulting. They assume the audience isn’t clever enough to pick up on the message. It goes out of its way to make sure the audience cannot possibly miss what it has to say by shoving it down their throats.
An example of a preachy story vs a thematically rich story covering the same topic would be the movies God’s Not Dead and Martin Scorsese’s Silence. Both explore the theme of standing up for your faith, even when it’s hard. The first movie explores this theme through overly antagonist characters, a lead character who is mostly perfect, and everyone coming to faith at the end. The latter movie has an imperfect protagonist, antagonists who provide compelling arguments for their beliefs, and a realistic ending that has us ponder the meaning of the events we witnessed.
HOW TO AVOID WritING Preachy Stories
How does one avoid turning their story into a sermon? I’m glad you asked. There are a few guidelines you can follow to help guide your story to be more thematically rich than preachy.
The three guidelines would be:
- Show don’t tell
- Don’t be one-sided when presenting your arguments
- Avoid being heavy-handed with your message
Let’s look at the classic dinner scene from Jurassic Park as an example. (Queue the fanfare.)
Jeff Goldblum’s character very nearly states the theme explicitly: “They were so concerned with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.” Well, that’s breaking at least two of the guidelines, right? Not really.
The scene takes place about a third of the way into the movie. At this point, we’ve been shown the wondrous possibilities of bringing dinosaurs back from the dead. It’s exciting and magical. Our protagonists are all struggling paleontologists who could have their lives radically change for the better because of this new-found reality.
Already, we have seen the positive side of the equation. But once the reality of there being dangerous dinosaurs occurs to everyone, the tone shifts. That’s when the dialogue this conversation takes place. We’ve already been shown a great deal. We’ve seen both sides of the argument, so when the dinner scene takes place, it’s fitting. You can understand everyone’s perspective.
And once Jeff Goldblum utters that sentence, we never hear anything like it again throughout the entire film. Instead, we watch the unfolding of events explore the ramifications of what he said. It’s an exploration of a idea. Not a heavy-handed story that is trying to indoctrinate us.
Personal Interpretation
The best stories allow the audience to draw their own conclusion. They witness the events take place and have an opinion on the matter. A story should challenge its audience to think deeply. Nuanced in its ideas, but not difficult for them to wrap their head around.
The audience should be able to discover the theme naturally as the story progresses. Think of a curtain that is pulled back, gradually revealing what is behind it. The theme was always there, but as the story goes on, more information suggests it more clearly. The Lord of the Rings is a perfect example of this. The story begins in the simple world of the Hobbits, a small and innocent folk. Then fate is thrust upon our protagonist, Frodo, and he enters a world of monsters, men, and war. Despite the cataclysmic events that are taking place, it is only he that can take the ring into Mordor. Thus, the story slowly reveals that the small, humble acts people overlook often make the greatest difference.
The beauty of a story is the personal interpretation anyone brings to it. Preachy stories don’t like this. They are so worried that people will interpret it the wrong way, they spell out their themes so clearly there is no room for doubt. They don’t trust the audience. Their first priority is the message and not the audience. This is a grevious mistake. Everyone who enjoys a story has their own experiences and thoughts of how the world works. Thus, it is going to shape how they interpret the story. A good story recognizes this.
Conclusion
The best stories are a metaphorical dialogue. They are inviting everyone to come and engage. They will not lecture its audience. A preachy story doesn’t offer the chance of a dialogue, because it’s a one way conversation. There’s no room for discussion. This is alienating. Nobody likes to be lectured at. (At least I don’t!)
A story should feel approachable by anyone. In some ways, it should be universal, because there are things that are true for all people. Preachy stories present one-sided messages. There is little nuance to them. Because when there is an agenda to be promoted or pushed, why take the risk of someone drawing the wrong conclusion from your story? Well, ironically, if you are to persuade anyone of anything, the best way to do it is to engage with your audience.
Related Articles:
How to NOT Preach to Audiences (Theme Writing Advice) – YouTube
Three Ways of Revising (or Avoiding) Preachy Themes in Your Story – DIY MFA
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