Often the most
engaging stories, the most affecting stories, are those that involve
contentious issues.
War, sex,
religion, race—highly emotive subject-matter that people tend to have strong
views about are a quick way to draw a reader in. You don’t have to worry
whether people will be interested in your story’s themes, because everyone’s
interested in these sorts of themes.
At least, that’s
how it seems.
In practice, while it’s easy to catch a reader’s attention with a
topic that they already have strong feelings about, it can be a lot harder to
maintain and build on that interest through the 300+ pages of a novel. And even
harder to follow through with a satisfying ending.
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