Finding my truth in fiction

I've been trying to write a non-fiction book about my world view for over a decade.  And I've failed miserably.  All I produced was leaden, plodding prose.  My views were controversial, and I realised I was afraid of setting them out so baldly.  I feared attack for my views, something women suffer often.

So I abandoned the non-fiction book.  But that doesn't mean I feel any less strongly about our culture and its shortcomings, or what I believe women have to do for themselves to secure real freedom.  But I've realised I can get my views across better by stealth, in fiction.  

I had a problem with baring my soul, with becoming personal with the world, with all the attendant risks that women run of being abused in social media for their opinions.  But if I put those words into the mouths of my characters I'm still making the point, but the attacks would be different.  Nobody's quite sure if that's my world view, or whether my character is playing devil's advocate.

I've found the best way to get the most controversial points across is to put them into the mouth of a minor character, and have my main character try to refute them.  That gives me a story where my beliefs get aired, but in a sideways manner.  And using this format means I pull my punches far less.

Of course, fiction has always been used in this way, but until the last few years the link between my beliefs and my work had been muted.  It was there in the background, informing the writing and characters, but not centre stage as part of the narrative,  I've always written about strong independent women, but I hadn't labelled then as feminist.  The truth is that they always were.

They were well-educated and qualified women at the tops of their professional careers.  Their world was way bigger than the domestic, and sex and babies could never tie them down.  They always had more interesting and more important things to do.

More recently I've added truths relating to wildlife conservation and human destruction of species to my work.  And I've tackled the problem that still no-one dares to name: the issue of massive human overbreeding.

Time will tell whether this fictional way of speaking my truth bears results.  But the one thing it does do is make my writing authentic.  It's about things I care about.  I've finally found my way to discuss my truth with the world, through the mouths of my fictional characters.