abortion abortion abortion: writing about taboo topics

This weekend, my husband winced when I started telling our new friends about my work in progress, Tiny Shadows. I took it as both an insult and a compliment when he later explained that it made him uncomfortable when I discussed my novel with near strangers because I was writing about a “taboo subject.” I guess I hadn’t thought of the criminalization of abortion and its potential consequences as a taboo subject before. After all, abortion has been legal for over 40 years in the U.S., and it doesn’t seem likely that that is actually going to change.

Of course, he’s right–it is taboo. That’s the reason I chose the subject, after all. With all the legislation in place or passed recently to restrict women’s access to reproductive services such as abortion, it’s still a very contentious subject and you never know where your “friends” may land on it. (It turns out the husband of the couple we had over for dinner was extremely conservative, but his wife was oddly liberal–I’m not sure how that marriage works, but the bottom line is, it doesn’t seem to have affected our newfound friendship.)

It got me thinking–is that what makes a good book? Writing about the things that people are interested in, passionate in, have STRONG opinions about? Or is that what dooms it to failure, because there are clearly defined “sides” to the problem being presented, where one side is bound to condemn you for writing such filth, and you have therefore eliminated half or more of your audience in one fell swoop before they’ve even turned to Page One?

The answer isn’t really relevant, because when it comes down to it, I’m writing this story because I’m passionate about its message, not because I’m interested in profit. Well, okay, I’m a little interested in profit, but not so much that it overrides my passion for the message. I’m a new author, after all—it’s not likely that my first (probably self-published) book is going to be a smash hit.

(Maybe I should be a little more interested in whether I’d like to have friends, as well.)

(Is this a common conundrum amongst writers?)

I digress.

So, I wonder, what does make a good book? I thought back to the books I’ve loved, and quite honestly, none of them dealt with highly contentious subject matters like abortion, women’s reproductive rights, and fetal experimentation. Maybe it’s just that I’m a fiction and fantasy-oriented reader. Maybe it’s because there aren’t very many “good” books about taboo subjects. Maybe I just haven’t read enough books.

It’s an interesting subject matter, and I’d like to study it further. However, I must admit that my findings will not persuade me one way or another as to what to write. Perhaps my most fatal flaw as a new author is that I don’t really give a shit what people want to read—I have a story I want to tell, and while I will keep that specific, interested audience in mind as I write it—I’m not ready to set aside the subjects I have strong feelings about and write solely about the topics that audiences are more likely to read and be interested in on a more generic level. If there was any hope of this being my full-time career, perhaps. But not now. Now, I am blossoming, and I want to write about what moves me.