There are always caveats that can be added, perhaps some cases where making a strong moral point can work but the principle that one should bare in mind is the one I outline in my article: let the reader decide. I think it was a failing in Harry Potter too.

Some of it comes down to the old adage of “showing” not “telling”. Suggest an idea to your readers, make them emote and perhaps side with one character / group of characters, but don’t require them to wholly agree with any one particular stance. It is still possible that someone who disagrees with your work will still read it and enjoy it.

I agree about StarTrek, in some places it did seem rather preachy. Although in others they got the balance right. It is somewhat like Tolkien: there are elements of morality and a sense of how things should be done without simply relying on “this is pure evil and you dear reader must hate it”.

Feel free to send me comments on Twitter. There are too many names to remember so apologies if we have already connected and spoken.

I’m trying to incorporate a lot of gray area into the characters of my book I’m writing. I don’t think I could deliver a ideological message on morality if I wanted to, because what’s interesting to me isn’t telling people what to think — it’s showing people that people themselves may not know what to think, or how to think, in certain situations.

It’s the situations that challenge someone to ask themselves what they would do or think if they were in the same circumstance that engage the reader.

You’re ultimately absolutely right about ideological writing. Gene Roddenberry may have written one of the most popular science fiction series in history, but he also wrote about a socialist utopia with preachy monologues by Jean Luc Picard about how people of the 20th century were “ugly” and “barbaric”. All he did was insult everyone in the 20th century, or at least everyone who likes anything about the 20th century and material wealth. He didn’t win anyone over who wasn’t already on board his ideological bandwagon.

Hopefully people will find my book’s characters morally engaging when I’m finished with it.