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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/43906
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

When I write I always want to deliver a message. Not matter what I'm writing I ultimately have something important (_to me_,) to say. For that reason I try to be very careful about how I deliver certain themes. But sometimes I also want to portray things in my story that I find distasteful. For example, a bully who picks on the weak. And sometimes it is nice when the story evolves and at the end the bully gets their comeuppance. Or maybe if you are feeling more charitable, they gain rehabilitation and reconciliation and grow to be a better person.

But life doesn't always work like that. Sometimes standing up to a bully gets you beat up. Sometimes the schoolyard bully doesn't grow up and mature. Sometimes they grow to be a very successful bully. And sometimes the themes are more subtle than schoolyard bullies.

How do I portray those themes and characters, while treating them fairly and mostly accurately, and have them succeed, without sending the message that they represent anything more but a portrayal of how the world sometimes works?

Original score: 3