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Hey everyone!! As the topic shows…I was thinking today about some questions I have and could use some advice!
In my fantasy series, God is definitely present. He’s called the Light One, and just like our world is always present, the creator of everything, etc.
I want Him to be present, in the story just like He’s in our everyday lives even though we may not be constantly thinking about Him (even tho we probably should XD)
But how do I do this without sounding preachy or like a kid’s story?
For instance, i want them to be able to have him speak into their lives at moments, or hear His voice sometimes. I’ve already thought of having it kinda like C.S. Lewis and Tolkien did and using Allegory and such, but even then my past drafts sound dumb when I try to do stuff.
Also, I want my characters to be changed by Him and don’t want it to come off as cheesy or dumb? And I have a character later in the series who is all about God, who loves to praise and serve Him, and again, I don’t want to write her as too preachy? Anyway, just wondering how to do this and not come off as stupid sounding, preachy, etc, and still kinda appeal to non-christians.
#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSebOof, I don’t know. Personally I don’t acknowledge God in my stories directly, so from that perspective I’m no genius 🤷♀️
But as a reader, I really like it when God isn’t mentioned but the worldviews of the characters mean something more. You already mentioned LotR, and in that series God is never mentioned – but the way the characters process things totally foreshadows a god. When Gandalf describes death as being the next adventure, or describes everything as pre-written, or when the characters show a deeply innate sense of right and wrong. It’s all strikingly different from how you might expect a sinful person to see the world. I don’t know, it’s just cool.
So maybe you want to mention the Light, but you make it very rare? Other than normal exclamations and blessings, like “may the Light follow your footsteps” or whatever. And just never address the Light directly unless it’s by Luna, and even then, make her passion something of a private thing. But you still weave Christian worldviews in.
Then again, if you really want to give Luna that attention… I’m not sure… maybe subtext will help. Make the God stuff subcontext. He becomes an underlying motive behind Luna’s words, so it isn’t preach but still has that substance. For example, instant of mentioning the Light outright while giving someone advice, she clutches a necklace given to her by her religious mentors, and speaks the advice with a softly contemplative look on her face.
You may think the God stuff will breeze over the reader’s head, but I remember a book where there were maybe two mentions of God. By a different name! And I still noticed, purely by vibes! Readers are very observant XD
“Everything is a mountain”
Ooh, this is something I’ve been thinking about too.
The trick is that you have to balance between being clear when God acts, but not heavy handed.
You could try something like this:
God intervenes at the character’s darkest hour in their internal conflict. Set things up so that as the character is wrestling with themselves it becomes clear that they will lose. God can intervene by just planting a seed. Something that they didn’t realize before that allows them to win their internal struggle. I haven’t tried this, but on paper it seems like it would work. For one thing, it doesn’t make it feel like God is solving all their problems for the character (which isn’t usually something you want in a story) because He only gave them a small bit of aid that let them win their internal struggle and also, the external climax is still ahead, which the character will now be able to solve, having won the internal conflict. In this scenario, God only provides a little push, but it ends being the thing that allows the character to triumph in both the internal and external conflicts.
Does that make sense? Was that helpful? Not sure if that was exactly what you’re looking for.
🏰 Fantasy Writer
✨ Magic System Creator
🎭 Character RPer
📚 Appreciator of BooksI really like the way you put that!
WE ARE REVIVING THE PROTECTION SQUAD! *steals Joseph, Julian, and Sabina from Ellette*
Sooo… I’m actually having a bit of the same problem… so I’ll just stick around and see what everyone else says… *subscribes*
Write what should not be forgotten. — Isabel Allende
@whalekeeper (I almost put @marcel 🤦🏻♀️ ROFL)
I like that about Luna, where it’s subcontext and stuff! Makes sense!!
@jonas, yea that’s good advice! Thx!
@esther-c yea it can be difficult, and if I figure some stuff out as I write I’ll totally try to share 😊#IfMarcelDiesIRiot
#ProtectMarcel
#ProtectSebI used to struggle with that, but I don’t really think about it that much XD I just kind of go for it?
Do you want me to post a scene for an example?
Sorry, I know I’m not much help.
Lukas&Livia
#Lalbert
Sef&Chase
#HOTTOLINE
LEFSE FOREVER!!!!!! <333(I almost put @marcel 🤦🏻♀️ ROFL)
Oh my XD I have an imaginary representative at the helm.
I like that about Luna, where it’s subcontext and stuff! Makes sense!!
Good! I have a hard time practicing subtext myself, but that’s okay. We’re learning.
“Everything is a mountain”
You have some good responses already, which I shall have to think over. Nonetheless…
[Disclaimers: 1) While I am not writing “kid’s stories” I am writing Middle-grade, which is definitely not YA. 2) I am not writing to unbelievers, but rather young people still building their foundations. 3) One major theme in my current series is that God is not an “absent Creator,” which means He is most definitely a big part of the story.]
I have found that writing a story too “preachy” is actually harder than it may sound, or at least to a writer who can show-not-tell. As long as your purpose isn’t to preach, you probably aren’t going to start sounding like Pilgrim’s Progress. There’s a big difference between a sermonizing and crafting a theme. When most people say “preachy” they don’t mean talking passionately about a theme. They mean pointing fingers.
What you glorify in your writing is what your stories will ultimately point to, just like real life. Both a person and a character can talk about God all day long and still point people in the opposite direction. Both a person and a character can speak aloud very little about God and yet be a standing witness. It you’re writing these stories for the glory of God, guess who’s gonna shine through?
As for me, I have decided to outright call God God in my current series, not just the Author or Maker or some other attribute, although I will be using attributes to refer to Him as the book’s theme dictates (book 1- The One Who Sees, book 2- Truth, Peace, Mercy, Father, book 3- Author). I debated using another Name, but it’s turning out easier for this series not to.
Anyway, I hope that was a little helpful to someone. My question is, What do I tell heart broken kids when their favorite character dies? (In other words, how to write Heaven and Hell in middle-grade animal fantasy.)
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Fork the Gork@every-one else who commented on here gave such good advice as I’ve struggled with this myself!
I don’t know if it helps but in one WIP I had to set aside for the time being (it was too complex, needed to take a step back to reorganize later), my God-figure was included like you demonstrate, but was treated more as an enigma or an eldritch being without the horror, yet was still compassionate and kind, and deeply affects my protagonist. Bottom line, hinting and foreshadowing and treating Him as an extremely powerful and mysterious being is how I went about it, the main character dosen’t really know who or what he is until later in the story after the initial NDE that he had which made him experience this, and it’s always in the back of his mind throughout the rest of it, even though he dosen’t know a thing about religion.
If you want some good examples of a god-figure included like how you describe, almost anything George Macdonald related (The Princess and the Goblin and the Princess and Curdie are great examples) the Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson, and if you want a webcomic example, I recommend Children of Eldair by JemmaMYoung on Webtoon, it’s unfinished, but what I’ve read so far is really good and she includes deity-like beings in an interesting way. (BTW there is mild gore, but it’s about Lord of the rings caliber, minus the “meat’s back on the menu, boys!” scene, but it does hurt a bit to watch as it happens to endearing characters), and there’s mythology, which is also including God-figures.
Also, think of ways your god-figure has impacted the world. Think of the Tower of Babel, the Great Flood, Mt. Siniai (look up the real mt. Sinai, it’s SUPER cool!) and the parting of the Red Sea as real-world examples. For fantasy, there’s the Stone Table that is cracked, the sunken part of Malacandra, and probably more that I can’t think of at the moment. Your God-Figure is a character in this story who has done things and will continue to do them. These types of large-scale events can illustrate how truly powerful this figure is and give us a glimpse into his nature.
As an example of this applied, in my WIP, my god-figure gave all the blood in his body to provide the world with water after a cataclysmic drought, and now the world has no ocean, but a couple large lakes and rivers that eventually turn into marshes that turn into an endless desert, with saltwater no longer existing but for one well maybe (I’m still worldbuilding and figuring a lot of this out) and all water contains a small amount of magic that affects every living thing, causing humans to be able to control animals, and elves to control plants (but there are some conditions to both these things) all based on a being’s retention of the magic that exists in the water (which is a will-amplifier/life force). It’s not perfect, but it’s the basic gist of how it works.
I hope this helps you!
Anyway, I hope that was a little helpful to someone. My question is, What do I tell heart broken kids when their favorite character dies? (In other words, how to write Heaven and Hell in middle-grade animal fantasy.)
First off, the tips you gave were excellent!
Secondly, I’m not sure, whenever I’ve tried to do it (before I felt that the character didn’t really need to die) I considered showing a glimpse of that afterlife, or have the characters feel content as they can with dying. One character’s (temporary) last scene was being lead off by the God Figure, and the character feeling at peace, another his soul is seen after he dies and he looked relieved and happy before disappearing, and another the character he died realizing he was loved and had the forgiveness he’d fought his whole life for. but of course I keep on swinging between killing or sparing on this issue lol because I’m a softie with my characters.
I think mainly, imply, hint, and foreshadow before something happens, sublty of course. And if you want the readers to feel better about the death, be sure that they can tell the character is somewhat at peace with it. Don’t shy away from how it hurts the other characters, but definitely don’t make it feel meaningless. Make sure the character needs to die for the story’s benefit, and if so, don’t worry if it hurts your readers, just make sure there are other good characters who can carry the story in their absence.
Also, your “christian” characters (“” because you might have a different name for the religion, or keep things loosely implied) be content in some way like if formerly stated, even if they leave things unfinished, and your evil characters, if they are killed off, can have a negative emotion of some kind, not at peace.
I don’t know what to do exactly if you plan on including the afterlife in your story, I only ever hint at it or loosely imply it. For example soul-eating monsters versus a mysterious and powerful God that takes souls into his domain from one WIP on the sidelines, or literally becoming angels in another WIP that is on the back-burner till later.
Here are some examples of people who have done this, *MILD SPOILER WARNING!*
Wingfeather Saga does this well, but I’m not spoiling it for you even though it made me cry.
LOTR does this superbly, telling us about the afterlife off and on long before the implied death happens.
Chronicles of Narnia is probably one of the best examples. again won’t spoil, but will imply.
Beyonders by Brandon Mull does this well too, but I can’t spoil this either, it’s better to be surprised, but there are several deaths, and they affect the rest of the story.
The Space Trilogy also does this well, evil faces terrifying ends at the hands of their own wrongdoings, and the good guy who passes goes peacefully. Again won’t go into further detail, as books 2 and 3 are more adult reads than kid-friendly, even though they aren’t too graphic.
We crazy people are the normal ones.
I suppose I refer to death, eternal life, ect. in the trilogy more than actually happens. My characters get in some tight circumstances (like pretty much every other character out there).
There are only two deaths which actually happen to important characters (no MCs die in this series, although one is getting pretty close to it. I just haven’t been able to do that to myself.). I know other characters die though, and even as background characters I need to have them figured out.
I think mainly, imply, hint, and foreshadow before something happens, sublty of course.
Good point. I happen to be using animal characters, which would make simply implying things a lot easier to write than deeper explanations. Maybe if each culture has their own euphemisms for heaven ect. I don’t really want to call these types of things in “real world” terms. I want to show what is real in the abstract as real in a figurative physical, so it can be understood by kids (but not an allegory).
I did love Wingfeather…it about broke my heart, but it was beautiful.
LotR, I don’t know. I like how he did most of his character deaths, but what ever was the thing that happened to Aragorn?! I mean, Gandalf told the other guy that it wasn’t for a man to choose when he wanted to die. I did like his portrayal of death otherwise though.
I love Chronicles of Narnia, but never thought to apply it to my own books I suppose. Hmm, I’ll have to think about that.
I haven’t heard about the last two, but then I have tended to stay in Middle-grade and classics when choosing next read. I should probably branch out more. XD
And that was way more of a ramble than I intended…
First Grand Historian of Arreth and the Lesser Realms (aka Kitty)
Fork the GorkYou’re fine!
Ahh that makes sense!
Beyonders is a middle-grade fantasy trilogy, and it’s quite well-done, but not written from a particularly Christian perspective, (I think the author is Mormon? but it doesn’t greatly affect the story, but a certain character that only appears for a brief time is similar to the oracle of Delphi)
The Space Trilogy is written by C.S. Lewis and is an adult fantasy story (completely forgot this might not be an ideal reference for a teen site, as it has some heavy themes in books 2 and 3). It is AMAZING, but be prepared, the villains are super dark, but not dark enough to overshadow the good (It’s C.S. Lewis so it’s tactful). I don’t know how old you are (and you don’t have to tell me!) but go into this awesome series prepared for some heavy topics, (tv 14+ if it was a movie rating) and ones surrounding marriage (again, 14+ but tactful, but might raise questions you’re parents could be waiting to discuss with you). I read this series around 17 or 18 years old too, for reference. I included this without thinking as it was late when I responded to you lol, but if you’re younger, do get your parent’s opinions and probably only read book 1 until you’re about 17 or 18. Again, these books are really good, I cannot overstate that, but if you decide to read it, it has about a 14+ rating, and would be steeper if a movie. they aren’t light reading in books 2 and 3. But if you’ve read/like Ray Bradbury and C.S. Lewis, you may like this.
We crazy people are the normal ones.
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