Ascribing A Point Of View

One of the pitfalls of writing is that many people will assume that the writer agrees with the point of view the characters espouse.  I’ve been called an atheist, a religious zealot, a peacenik, and a warmonger.  With the release of Schism, I’m sure I’ll be called a liberal, a conservative, a hippie, a redneck, a communist, and a nazi.  Why?  Because the characters in the novel hold a wide assortment of views, and in order to best capture the spirit of the book, I’ve had to write from each of those points of view.

Normally I wouldn’t care.  For the most part, I still don’t care.  Unfortunately, in today’s polarized world, folks go looking to be offended, so they’ll find snippets to support their outrage(and believe me, there’s plenty).  The way the military is portrayed in the book will be condemned by those who are all rah-rah about the Armed Forces, and I’m sure they’ll say I hate our Soldiers.  The environmental movement comes out no better, so I’m sure all the Gaia worshippers will say I hate the Earth.

Truth be told, I don’t know how to write in any other way and make the characters believable.  I’ve seen lots of wooden and stereotypical characters in books, and those characters usually reveal the author’s own biases, making for a less complex and enjoyable story.  To me, the best books are those that have characters who are believable and genuine in their motives(after all, no bad guy really believes he’s a bad guy).  I loved Ralph Peters’ War in 2020, and the commander of the enemy forces, General Noburu Kabata is one of the most sympathetic characters of the book.  Within the Thrawn Trilogy, getting to finally see beyond the motives of folks like Gallad Palleon and Borsk Fey’Lya made us better understand why they did stuff beyond “Oh, I’m evil, and I like it.”  Not only did that stuff not detract from the book, but it enhanced enjoyment of it.

The difference with Schism is that I’m dealing with more real-world issues people are familiar with rather than space battles and elven wars, so will that affect how people view the book, as well as myself?  Hopefully those that read Schism will also read this post and remember that it’s just a book.