Don't preach - - as a writer it is your job to entertain.

To quote Stephen King exactly: "You want to get up on a soapbox and preach? Fine. Get one and try your local park. You want to write for money? Get to the point. And if you remove all the excess garbage and discover you can't find the point, tear up what you wrote and start all over again . . . or try something new."

Fact is, as a writer, we are entertainers on paper. I have always wrote with a moral in mind, but it killed the story. My characters are individuals. They must not be me. They must be them. That is when my writing got good.