As a young, aspiring fiction writer myself, I prefer not to use my stories as a means of shoving social, political, or religious messages down the throats of the reader. It's part of the reason I shy away from reading the works of people like Heinlein and Ayn Rand. I am of the opinion that good storytelling should have a balance between what I call The Two E's: Enlightenment and Entertainment. You can have substance in your story, but at the same time, you have to hold the interest of the reader.
I'll use my current work in progress novel, Alphaboy, as an example. The hero, Sean Gillespie, is a high school freshman with superpowers who finds out that not only was he adopted, but that he is also part of an advanced subspecies of humanity. I could go the usual route and throw in a lot of melodrama about how he's an outsider because of his adoptee status, but considering the story is a superhero actioner, I don't really dwell on it much. His adoptive parents are loving, if odd; his father is a cynical, aging ex-Special Forces operative and his mother is sweet and nurturing, if somewhat doting ER nurse. What's the point of throwing in whining when there's no need for it?
I'm realizing a little too late that stories shouldn't reflect the author's personal beliefs and issues to an excessive amount. It comes off as almost masturbatory. As much as I think Redesigning Eva has potential to be a good horror-thriller, I hated writing the first draft because I found it to be ugly. When I finally finished it, I felt as though demons had been exorcised. It's virtually unreadable, sure, but at the very least, I have something to work with when the time comes to begin the second draft.
My advice? When you're writing, don't have such a stick up your rectum. Have fun!
