How Much God Do You Like In Your Spec Fic?
One of the first things I think many Christian spec-fic authors do when beginning a new story is deciding how they will be portraying our relationship with God in their new world. Will their tale stick to showcasing principles and […]
Stuart Stockton on Oct 5, 2010
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One of the first things I think many Christian spec-fic authors do when beginning a new story is deciding how they will be portraying our relationship with God in their new world. Will their tale stick to showcasing principles and morality consistent with God’s character, or will they showcase our relationship to him in a more up-front manner?
Neither of these paths are wrong, nor are the many various shades in between. But we do have to decide which fits the story and what we want to accomplish through the tale best.
Think back on the stories you have read? How have your favorite speculative stories portrayed God and His Truth in their worlds?
Will their tale stick to showcasing principles and morality consistent with God’s character, or will they showcase our relationship to him in a more up-front manner?
I guess if you asked me, I wouldn’t separate the two. The god of Star Wars is the Force: a faceless non-entity that is simply a power used, manipulated, or abused. You lose yourself to the Force: Your individual personality, your life, and anyone or thing you might love.
Neither of these paths are wrong, nor are the many various shades in between. But we do have to decide which fits the story and what we want to accomplish through the tale best.
Good point.
Think back on the stories you have read? How have your favorite speculative stories portrayed God and His Truth in their worlds?
I hadn’t considered the question that way. I think I like it best when the point is understood, when that moment comes and it’s so organic, so intricately woven into the story, that if you haven’t read the pages before you’re just going to miss the significance. The moment speaks for itself.
Over the summer, for instance, I read one about a monk who, through the course of his journey, goes from being an innocent, slightly naive young man of tremendous faith–his faith is of the sort that the master he’s sold to becomes a Christian–but soon after the master’s conversion, he loses his own faith. He turns his back and becomes jaded and bitter. His fiancee (a Muslim) leaves him because he’s turned his back on God. But there’s a scene at the end, a moment, a subtle, striking moment, where everything that’s happened to him suddenly makes sense, and only now, only now can he see God’s hand all along. And so his faith is restored even greater than before.
It’s a subtle thing. But I like it.
I love reading the subtle stories that close out showing God’s sovereignty worked out a little bit at a time. 🙂
I think those tend to mirror real life the most as we so often don’t see what God is doing until well after the work is complete in our life. And even then it’s just another piece of Gods’ story for our life on this planet.
Exactly! It’s lovely.
Was that book “Byzantium” by any chance?
I like writing for God. I feel it is the way I worship Him…and thank Him for all that he has given me. I want to make sure the reader glimpses how great my God is by the time they put the book down.
I’ve heard things in the past about Christian writers run the risk of sounding “preachy.” The longer I walk with God, the more eager I am to share the wonderful news of His love. If I’m anxious to tell my buddy about the latest electronic gadget, I should be even more excited to tell him about my Savior.
To answer the question: for me, I try to give both-“stick to showcasing principles and morality consistent with God’s character” AND portray our relationship to him in a more “up-front manner.” This mix is real life and, like the Bible, gives the reader an honest account of humans messing things up before Almighty God.
The cool thing is that, in the end, it’s the Father’s love that cleans up our messes and gives us stories to write that mirror His gift.
I think most people with a message sound preachy to those who don’t necessarily agree with it. Christian writer’s aren’t alone in this, they’re just the ones who are called out about it the most.
I do think that the best way to avoid that is to not talk down to your readers, but to gently lead them to conclusions by putting the right questions in front of them. Understanding that some won’t get it, but knowing that those who need it will, by God’s grace.
No, I’d argue that a book is considered preachy because it reads like a sermon, rather than providing an entertaining and thought-provoking story. There is often little subtlety, there’s a whole lot of predictability and the message doesn’t flow naturally through the story. Characters are one note and either near perfect or horribly evil. If you’re a Christian, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, your faith in God will breathe through your writings. There’s no need to force in an altar call or call to salvation.
Stuart:I think most people with a message sound preachy to those who don’t necessarily agree with it.
Christian:No, I’d argue that a book is considered preachy because it reads like a sermon, rather than providing an entertaining and thought-provoking story.
There’s probably truth to both statements.
The best I’ve seen “overt” done is when it suits the character. I think as long as it’s natural to the character and it’s used to season, not saturate, a story, it’s okay. The one thing I think is a huge negative, as Stuart says, is to talk down to the reader. Don’t write this beautiful scene that illustrates your theme with magnificence, then destroy it by having characters explain. You destroy the scene that way.
On the other hand, the character really might not get it unless it’s explained to them, in which case…don’t kill the scene.
Miscellaneous sidenote: Christian’s right; I don’t think there’s any keeping your faith completely out of a story. I tried once, and it wound up being the most obvious of my faith. Go figure. 0=)
The question is, why does a book read like a sermon? I suggest it’s because the author is talking to the reader.
One of the best Christian speculative writers, in my opinion, is George Bryan Polivka, and he wrote some overt, in your face Christianity in his Trophy Chase Trilogy, without ever preaching a sermon.
The main character was a failed seminary student. He had his own questions and doubts about God to sort out, and the readers got to watch and listen.
That’s good story telling. Never did the author turn to the reader and spell out what the character was dealing with or what he concluded. Never did he validate his decisions. In fact, he often left it up in the air whether or not the choices were wise. Other characters often questioned him, and the reader is left to wonder, what would I do? Do I have that kind of faith? Do I think God is really like that?
It’s not about being subtle or not—as Stuart said, both approaches are valid. It’s about showing the characters’ in their own quest to know and understand God (or the symbols for God or the God of the fantasy world) and letting the readers alone, letting them get it or not.
It’s a hard decision to come to—writing in such a way that some readers may misunderstand. But that’s the difference between telling a story that illustrates a point and spelling out the point.
Becky
Becky, I’m not going to disagree with you. I’m talking about the myriad of Christian fiction that has sub-par writing, characters and a sermon with a little story built around it. That’s not good writing. Your example shows that there can be more overt Christian fiction without it being both preachy and lame.
I like to see more than just good morals. After all, lots of people have good morals. I want to know why the characters behave they way they do and have a deeper reason for it. Maybe even better is conflict inside the character whether to do what is right or not. After all, my experience in real life is its not always easy to do the right thing and there have been some times when I’ve chosen sin instead.
On the other hand, I hate to have everything too simplistic: such as all the good guys are good guys and follow God and all the bad guys are bad guys. In actuality, there are good guys out there who don’t follow God (they just make morally good choices) and there are “good guys” who are actually bad.
I guess I’m saying I like really complex stories that make me pause and think about my own life lol.
Yep I try to keep that in mind when I write. I don’t want the “good guys” and the “bad guys” I want the “guys trying to do what they believe is right, and perhaps operating from a distorted world view as to what right is” 😉
Though I think there can be some value in the simple Good vs Evil style where the complexity comes not from the characters struggling within themselves, but the uncomfortableness of what that would actually look like if someone was truly completely good or completely evil. 🙂 (those would be tough characters to write)
Unless your main characters are Christ (completely good) and Satan (complete absence of good), I’m not sure how you would do that. Personally, I’d find such characters uninteresting (in fiction). The only time that’s been done well is with Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia and Elyon in Ted Dekker’s Circle Trilogy.
Becky, I’m not going to disagree with you. I’m talking about the myriad of Christian fiction that has sub-par writing, characters and a sermon with a little story built around it. That’s not good writing. Your example shows that there can be more overt Christian fiction without it being both preachy and lame.
Christian, I guess that’s my point—we must not mistake bad writing for Christian writing. If Christian writing was bad in the past (and certainly some was or it wouldn’t have earned that reputation), that still does not define it. Rather it merely described it.
So having God in fiction is not the problem. Having God in poor fiction is still not the problem. The issue is the poor fiction because the author could take God out and still have bad fiction.
Conversely, putting God into bad fiction does not make it good fiction.
In other words, whether the author chooses to insert God in any of a number of ways is a matter of preference and can be done well or poorly.
Becky