Writing Saturday; Showing our Faith

10:18 AM

One of the things that we as Christian authors struggle with is how to show our faith and the faith of our characters in our stories and books. Some of us overdo it to the point that our characters are doing nothing but quoting verses and praying, and some of us barely put anything in because we don’t want to appear to be preaching.

Now don’t get me wrong, our characters should pray and quote verses, and we don't want to hide our faith for fear of sounding preachy, we just need to find the balance between the two. One of the things that helps me is to read my book aloud and really listen to the dialog. Make sure that when your characters pray, quote a verse, or talk about a spiritual subject that it fits into what is happening and flows in the dialog. You don’t want your characters to be in the middle of a life and death situation arguing whether or not they are held to the Old Testament law not to eat pork.

Do you have something that helps you to have a good balance? Do you have anything that you would like to add?

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3 comments

  1. Hmmm. I don't really have any tips on how to keep a good balance. For me, I can just kind of tell when something doesn't fit right. However, If I miss something, Rachel is always there to point it out to me so that my story is better. I recently wrote something with an elderly woman that was supposed to be a Christian.

    Rachel helped me to get a good balance in the story so that while she was worried for the welfare of one of the characters, she wasn't over exaggerating and freaking out instead of trusting God. That was kind of hard to find a balance for, but with Rachel's help, I was able to do it pretty well I think.

    So, I guess I would say...
    Get feedback from others and take their constructive criticism and use it to better your writing.

    God Bless,
    Jessica

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  2. great post! I never know where to stick the bible verses in!

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  3. Yes, reading your story aloud is a great idea! Jessica was writing her story about the elderly lady and I said something didn't fit. Jessica said something like "yes it does" and read the line aloud. She started to read the line and got about halfway through when she realized that when you read it aloud, it didn't make any sense at all! Lol! So I agree with you that reading it aloud is a good idea! =;)

    Some other things that might help are getting feedback from others (especially if they write or read a lot
    ), setting your work aside for a few days before looking at it again (to give you a break and a better perspective), reading books that have the same style as your book;

    Ex: If you are writing a Christian story set in the country, read a Christian book that is set in the country with the same amount of verses and praying and Christian attitude in it as you want your book to be. What you read flows and carries over into your writing. So if you are reading books that are too preachy, you might have a tendency to write your's too preachy without meaning too! It's like when you read a Victorian era book or one with old English in it, your speech can sometimes show that you have been reading that style of book (saying "good day" instead of good morning for example and so on).

    Hopefully that made sense! And I hope that helped too! =:) As a reader instead of a writer, I have a slightly different perspective on things. =;)

    Blessings!
    ~Rachel~

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