Ethical Fiction Writing
People usually think about ethics in writing when talking about journalism, but maybe it’s time ethical fiction.
One thing that makes humans fairly unique is the capacity to think about alternate realities: things that might have been, could be, and so on. It’s this capacity to think about such things that allows us to craft fictional tales.
Personally, I’m a huge scifi fan. Science fiction is a wonderful thing. It nurtures the imagination and inspires people in so many ways. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea helped inspire the development of submarines. Star Trek helped inspire numerous inventions, including the cell phone. In many ways, science fiction authors wield a lot of power to help forge the future. And so one could argue that they have a certain amount of responsibility to get things right. Most of this discussion focuses on scfi, but a lot of the ideas also apply to general fiction writing. It also applies to other forms of media beyond the written word.
There is no council of fiction writers, just as there is no council of journalism. But in both cases, there are ethical guidelines that should be considered. In journalism, ethical standards are meant to help reduce misinformation. Ethical standards also help to protect the industry of journalism, as people are…
