Two weeks ago, in the post “God in Writing, Part 1,” we identified some of the problems within Christian fiction. Today, we’ll be looking at how to solve those problems, using examples from the Bible itself.
- Sticking God in as an afterthought
The solution to this problem is actually quite simple… begin with God. He should be the foundation not the embellishment. For a long time, writers have used concepts like the Lie and the Truth to craft great stories. These elements form the very heart of a story, as we’ve learned in our Plots and Characters Arcs series.
So, when you want your faith to be the foundation of your story, the Lie and the Truth is the best place to start. The secular world defines the Lie as a misconception of the world, and the Truth as… well, the truth about the misconception.
But, in Christian fiction, I would propose that the Lie should not only be a misconception of the world but, ultimately, a misconception of God Himself. Once this is done, our faith will be woven naturally throughout the story right alongside the Lie and the Truth.
In the Bible, we are faced with many mini-Lies, but the greatest is that man can sustain himself without God—and, therefore, God is not worthy of glory. Of course, by the time the book ends, we have seen that God brings everything together to glorify His name, and He is truly the master of the universe.
Symbolism and allegories are also great tools to help you get your message across in a very natural way. When we are telling stories about a physical world, we sometimes have to use physical things to portray the spiritual. But, when you’re using allegories, make sure they themselves are woven into the story.
For instance, a medieval story about knights could deal with the Christian warfare. Or perhaps an atheist detective discovers “clues” to God’s existence. A romance could deal with the question of what love really is… and reveal that the greatest love of all comes from God Himself.
The Bible is full of allegories and symbolism. Examples include the story of God providing Abraham a sacrifice, the story of Passover, Rahab and the scarlet cord, Jonah and the whale, and Hosea and Gomer. Notice that all of these allegories have points to them. They aren’t just there for the cool plot twists or dramatic sequences… they’re ultimately used to point people to the Bible’s Truth.
A bonus example is “The Pilgrim’s Progress,” one of the most famous Christian books ever. This book doesn’t just use symbolism… the entire thing is an allegory of the Christian life.
- Everything turns out alright as long as you trust God
Let’s be honest—this is the real world. And sometimes (many times), God allows bad things to happen even when we trust him. So maybe the MC’s mom, whom the whole church is praying for, still succumbs to that head injury and dies.
Even if the plot doesn’t end up where the MC wants it to, they will come forth believing the Truth. No one wants to read a book where everything immediately becomes better after the MC trusts God.
A more realistic approach would be that the MC trusts God (or, in a Positive Change Arc, learns to trust God) through the trials. Things may not always work out exactly like your MC planned, but that’s life, and that’s God. He never promised a smooth road—He only said He would be there to guide us through it.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe in happy endings, but there should be plenty of hard trials in between.
I mean, no one’s going to care that the MC lived happily ever after when things were going their way for half of the book.
Then there’s also the fact that God does send discipline to those who disobey Him. And those consequences don’t necessarily disappear even if the MC ends up repenting.
In the Bible, I think it’s safe to say that the bad times definitely outweigh the good. God’s people go through a lot of trials—many of which are because of their own sin. But there are also times where a believe suffers even though they might not have done anything wrong… in fact, maybe they even stood up for what was right. Jesus Himself went to the cross even though He was perfect in every way.
God doesn’t always reveal why He allows certain things to happen, but He gives us plenty of reasons to trust that He knows what He’s doing. And, for us, the ultimate “happy ending” of the Bible—reigning with Christ among the new heavens and earth—hasn’t happened yet. But because God said it was going to happen, we know it’s as good as done.
- Unsaved people are always the bad guys, and the Christians are always goody-two-shoe Flat Arcs
If you find yourself falling into this trap, remind yourself that the world is not all black and white. Yes, good and evil remain the same throughout the ages, but people don’t always adhere to just one or the other.
So make your characters realistic and somewhat gray. The antagonist can pet a dog or help an old lady cross the street. (Since we already know good deeds cannot save him, we can still be convinced of his evilness.) However, don’t overdo it too much. He might do some good things, but he’s still the antagonist.
Your Christian characters (especially Positive Change Arcs) can do wrong things like get into a fist-fight, or steal. Remember, we won’t ever be perfect until we get to Heaven. However, we are being sanctified, so, again, don’t overdo it.
Think about the people you see every day. Do any of them always do right or wrong? Thinking about it in a real-world perspective can cause you to realize that a purely good or purely evil character is unrealistic. (Of course, some people are closer to either end of the spectrum than others.)
The more I read the Bible, the more clearly I see this truth. Even David, the man after God’s own heart, messed up badly and brought lasting consequences on him and his family. And Balaam, who was by no means a righteous man, refused to go against God’s commands and curse Israel. But you’ll notice that there was a still a difference between the two men. David repented of his sin and begged God for forgiveness, while Balaam went on to cause the entire nation of Israel to stumble.
- Ultimately, a great idea (or even a not-so-great idea) is sacrificed for the sake of an easy way out
The solution to this is just to do your best. Work hard. Research. Take advice. Read good books. And, above all, seek to glorify God. I truly believe that, if you are called to be a writer and you seek to do your very best, you will succeed in your goal to praise God’s name.
There will never be a perfect book outside of the Bible. Don’t be hard on yourself because you missed a typo, messed up the sentence structure, or misplaced a major plot point. However, you should be thorough—you should sweat a little (at least, in a sense… I’m not sure you should be sweating over your keyboard).
As with everything you do throughout your Christian life, your writing will constantly be improving. But if you take the talents and resources you have right now and use them to the very best of your ability, I believe God will bless that.
Before I finish for today, here are some bonus tips that can help you write Christian fiction:
- Use subtext
Of course, your characters should definitely make statements about God, but don’t make it a sermon. Probably most of your Christian characters won’t be preachers or anything like that. And even if they are, most preachers don’t speak in sermons all the time (at least, the ones I’ve talked to).
Just beware of unreal situations and how you bring up subjects of faith. Definitely bring them up, but make sure you’re doing so in a natural way.
You could even have an outspoken Christian who doesn’t obey the above rule, as long as other characters seem somewhat uncomfortable or awkward during the conversation. (The level of awkwardness will decrease a lot if all of the present characters are Christians, especially mature ones.) The rule of thumb is to make sure that everyone’s behaving as they would in the real world.
Use a lot of subtext and somewhat vague dialogue to create better-flowing scenes. You’re probably still going to have some long conversations about spirituality. But readers are often smarter than what you give them credit for… their memories can be jogged by just the slightest bit of subtext. So, when you can, try to use it.
It’s hard to explain exactly how much subtext to use, but I encourage you to experiment to find what best suits your story, your voice, and your audience. Subtext is also useful in stories for many things outside of the spiritual realm, so learning how to use it is a must.
The Bible often uses subtext in its dialogue, especially during long conversations or exchanges. If you want to further study it, I would suggest starting with the gospels. Jesus speaks to many different audiences, whether the disciples, the multitudes, the Pharisees, or a lost sinner. Often, not much more is given except the dialogue, but readers are still able to understand and comprehend the scene.
- Use foreshadowing
There’s another problem within (though not exclusive to) Christian fiction that I haven’t addressed yet. And is what is referred to as deus ex machina, which is Latin for, “God from a machine.” This basically represents a person or event in a story that swoops in out of the blue to rescue the MC and solve all their problems.
This is typically a big no-no for writers because these events happen for no reason at all and have no grounds in the story. However, some Christian authors still use deus ex machina simply because they believe it does have grounds in their books. (And this goes along with Problem #2 that we addressed above.)
Since deus ex machina means “God from a machine,” some Christian writers think that the presence of God in their stories gives them the liberty to use this technique. Therefore, their MC ends up being rescued from all of their troubles during the Climax, as opposed to overcoming them through the Truth (and, ultimately, through God’s power).
Typically, God does not just swoop down and rescue us. Instead, He gives us the strength we need to battle through the trouble. So don’t use God as an excuse to be lazy and not do the proper setup for your story.
Instead of using deus ex machina, you can use the technique of foreshadowing, which shows different elements early on in the story, then brings these elements back during the Climax. Using foreshadowing enables you to write a fast, smooth-flowing Climax without throwing in a bunch of random objects, characters, and events to save the day.
For example, in the movie “Treasure Planet,” there’s a scene at the beginning where Jim flies his skateboard contraption into a restricted area, which the scriptwriters utilized as a great Characteristic Moment.
However, this scene also serves as foreshadowing for a scene later on in the Climax. This is where Jim ingeniously uses scrap metal to forge a skateboard (much like the one he flew during the Characteristic Moment), which he hops aboard to save the entire ship’s crew. Along with the skateboard, there are also a few other elements in this Climatic Moment that mirror the Characteristic Moment earlier in the film.
There’s also the Climax in “A Bug’s Life,” where the ants use a mechanical bird to chase off the grasshoppers (and then later get chased by a real bird). This was foreshadowed by the ants’ constant fear of birds throughout the film.
There are examples of this all over secular movies. Sadly, there aren’t many Christian movies or books out there that use foreshadowing, but the movie “Fireproof” is a rare example:
During the Climax, Catherine finds out that Caleb paid for her parents’ medical expenses with his boat money. This was foreshadowed in a scene earlier on, when they argued about Caleb buying a boat. It was also foreshadowed throughout the film by Caleb’s obvious selfishness and his struggle to overcome it. Using his boat money to buy the equipment showed both Catherine and the audience that he truly had changed.
So, bottom line… don’t just throw in something to rescue the MC at the Climax. Instead, foreshadow. Take those amazing elements from the beginning of your story, and give them a place in the Climax.
In the Bible, there’s actually a whole section dedicated to foreshadowing, and that’s the Prophets. However, foreshadowing is not limited to this. In fact, we find it in the very first book of the Bible. After Adam and Eve sinned, they blame the serpent for deceiving them.
God then turns to the serpent and says, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”
This is direct foreshadowing of when Jesus would die on the cross and rise from the dead, defeating sin and death forever.
That’s all for this post today, but I would encourage you to use these tips as you write your own stories. They’ve helped me a lot, so I’m glad to pass them on to others.
Comment below what your favorite Christian writing technique is!