My story is a cross between historical fiction, Christian fiction, and some romance thrown in. My main male character is a pastor's kid who joins the US army during WW2. My main female character is a single Christian girl working in a factory on the home front during WW2. Both of them were actually high school sweethearts but broke up for a variety of reasons. Actually, he broke up with her but that's not important.
Both of them, through many trials and tribulations, end up growing stronger in their spiritual walk with God.
My big question is how do you show spiritual maturity and progression in your writing? Is there a way to do this in a realistic way? I can look at my own personal experiences as a Christian and my relationship with God but their story is just so much more dramatic than my life. I have some ideas on how to show it but I was wondering if anyone else had some input, suggestions, and tips on how to write characters coming closer to God in their own stories or with any books they may have read.
Thanks for reading!
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2008 :: Bullet Through Blue Eyes
Genre :: Historical Fiction
Current Word Count :: 13,193
Number Behind Daily Word Count :: 10,145
Characters Dead :: 1
10,122 / 50,000
Okt 31, 2008 - 02 46
Funny you should ask that, because this is the very topic of my novel: a Christian chick-lit taking a look at teenagers who do not live the "media-recommended" lifestyle. This is actually a novel that is a composite of my life and the lives of about a hundred people I knew/am serving with right now.
My first main character is a college student who has been on "both sides" of the story: she started off high school as a Christian youth leader in training and volunteer in a slum area then sometime later in high school or just before stepping into college began going in the opposite direction: a snarky journalist who is content to sit on the sidelines and make bitter commentaries about everything she once believed in. My story is all about how she hits rock bottom (since I go in media res) and how she finds her way back.
My character's spiritual progression works on several levels--she starts off the story thinking that she is already mature and free to do as she wants. She considers her previous life as a volunteer and leader as naive and stupid, but as she starts realizing how much trouble she is in during her present situation, she starts making comparisons along the lines of "Was I on the right track all along?". It's actually learning to re-experience God's love (whether directly as through prayer and worship or more indirectly as in everyday life and relationships) that makes the difference in my character. The best sign of this is showing how my character's prayer life evolves as seen in either the way she analyzes Scripture or in the content of her prayers (as the prayers become less self-centered, her friends become vaguely aware of the presence of someone praying for them...). If I am so blessed as to write the later parts of my character's story, I could even show her or her friends in the process of discernment (asking for God's will to be done in an important life decision).
Another way I intend to show my character's maturity is in how she takes on the role of a sister in her peer relationships. She starts off the story snarking her would-be-partner, but later she learns to care for him and even pray for his welfare despite their frequent disagreements. She starts off as the one being "understood", but eventually she has to move to understanding others who come into her care. She views her classmates at first as professional rivals, but later she learns to reach out to them in a healthy manner.
Perhaps the most dramatic way could be in how my character's exclamations change throughout the novel. My first drafts have her swearing profusely. The later bits have her moving from "Okay God, is this supposed to be a joke?" to an actual "Praise God" during a seemingly adverse circumstance.
----------My heart, my life, my praise is all for Yours.
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Nov 1, 2008 - 06 54
A few suggestions based on 30 years of experience as a pastor. I can get more complicated if you want because of graduate research on the topic.
Three suggestions that might be helpful:
1. There are three basic commandments in the New Testament:
(#1) Mat 22:36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 (#2) And a second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets."
(#3) Jesus added this one: John 13:34 A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. 35 By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."
Over time as they mature, Christians will live so as to be more obedient to these three commandments. They will struggle with them as a part of growth, and those struggles can inform your plot.
2. Paul offers a nine characteristic description of spirituality in Galatians 5:22-23: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness (generosity), faithfulness (trustworthyness), gentleness, self-control; against such there is no law.
Over time as they mature, Christians will live so as to display more of these characteristics. They will struggle with them as a part of growth, and those struggles can inform your plot.
3. John 8:31-32 Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
Over time, maturing Christians will learn more and more about the bible, feel free discussing it, and through it learn the truth about themselves - primarily awareness of their sins and their need for forgiveness.
I hope these ideas will suggest plot events and experiences for your characters.
Dave Zdras
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Okt 31, 2008 - 21 39
I would take a look at C.S. Lewis and then also "The Year of Living Biblically" by A.J. Jacobs. These are interesting books on the level that they talk about the sorts of issues that everyone struggles with in their faith and also how people view their faith at different times in their life. I think once you introduce the idea that these characters are struggling with their relationship with God, it should come naturally how they end up growing. In short, read a lot of stuff, and then just what write what sounds most natural and go with it! If it needs editing, you can attack that after nano.
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NaNo Winner
2007 - Zion Andrews
52,581 / 50,000
Nov 3, 2008 - 03 16
This is a very helpful thread - thanks for asking the question.
I'm dong a memoir so evne though it's my OWN spiritual growth over the course of a few years and I have a ton of journals and notes to read back over - I'm still having a hard time letting 2003 me be in 2003 and not influenced by the 2008. When I get too frustrated I just start writing with an "I'll fix it in December" mutter to myself.
50,005 / 50,000
Nov 15, 2008 - 22 00
I think, from a writing standpoint, you'll need to make your MC's actions tell the tale of her spiritual journey. Action is a more compelling read than introspection, and while a story needs some introspection to give the reader a break (all action and no introspection can wear the reader out!), I think the bulk of her maturing needs to be shown through how she lives. So maybe keep the fruits of the spirit in mind and make her not very good at any of them in the beginning of the book, and then show how she improves in them over the course of the story.
----------Alison Strobel ~ stories that make you think
50,230 / 50,000
Nov 20, 2008 - 12 52
You might list out the fruits of the spirit and then figure out how they're showing those traits more and more as the story goes along.
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2004: Unday: WON -- 2005: Fortune's Fool: WON -- 2007: Hench: WON -- 2008: The Wey of Dolor: WON
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Dec 2, 2008 - 10 21
As people grow in spiritual maturity, their behavior and thoughts are going to change. For my 05 (the one I'm working on the most), this is a major issue: a very selfish, self-centered, wealthy man who ends up in a situation beyond his control. As he grows, his behavior changes, although as someone in my writers group pointed out, what they liked about his changes is that he is still himself at the end. He's still got the same personality at the core, but now instead of his confidence being arrogance and bullying, it's confidence put to use to stand up for other people, say.
For some people, those changes come very quickly, but for many of us, they don't, and that's how I wrote it for my character.
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The Minstrel Boy (Sequel to Blue Bells), 08
enTWINed, 07, won
Sins of the Fathers, 06, won
Blue Bells of Scotland, 05, won, working on final edit