Weaving Christian Themes in your Fiction Novel: A 3 Part Series

I must admit, this is the one thing that stumps yet-to-be published Christian writers. Do I go for straight hellfire preaching or do I dilute the ‘message’ of the book? There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. It all depends on the writing process itself and what the writer wants to achieve with her books. I have ideas for what I call ‘campaign books’. These are books written specifically to raise awareness of an issue. I’m currently working on White Man’s Curse, a campaign book about a teenage prostitute in Africa who is eventually diagnosed as HIV+. The book - when it’s eventually finished - is intended to raise awareness of the disease and the many difficulties faced by African communities confronted with it. Other books have started life with nothing but a character in mind. My first book, Kemi’s Journal, is about a 28-year-old convert to Christianity and her struggles to reconcile her newfound faith with life in the real world. I must confess that the book started off being about me but with Spirit-directed prods, grew wings and developed a life of its own. So you see, there are no right or wrong answers. I’ll say this though; I have yet to read a well-written sermon masquerading as a fiction novel. Generally speaking, readers (your clients) don’t like being cheated. They paid money for a good read. If they wanted a sermon, they would’ve bought a non-fiction book or better yet, gone to church. Personally speaking, I would advise you to concentrate on telling a good story with strong, believable characters and let your readers work out what the ‘message’ of your book is – if indeed there is one.

 

The film, the Constant Gardener clearly has a message about Africa and the powers that be that exploit its people and resources. The film did not preach at the audience, it told a story. However, the audience leaves the cinema with a profound message about Africa, exploitation and what happens when we ignore the evil happening right at our doorstep. This, in essence is what Christian fiction writers should aim for.

 

The Constant Gardener is about a man, his wife and the opposing forces against him who are represented in many forms. The lead character is a human being, someone with flaws. He has been betrayed. He’s running scared. He doesn’t know whom to trust. We’ve all been there. These issues are ones that every human being can identify with. This is because they are universal. We all know what it’s like to be betrayed or even scared. And that is what it boils down to. When someone buys a fiction novel, they are looking for a diversion, something to transport them away from their current environment. They want a book they can sink their teeth into. They want characters and a story line that they can identify with and say, ‘So I’m not the only one!’ Of course this depends on the genre. A contemporary novel is more character-led while thrillers tend to be plot-led. My first book Kemi’s Journal is a contemporary novel about a 28 year old struggling to reconcile her newfound faith with her job, non-Christian boyfriend and parents. Nothing remarkable about that but the book goes a little deeper. The last thing a reader wants is a soppy novel about some girl in love with somebody she can’t have so I threw in some conflict. I made the non-believing boyfriend likeable because I wanted to show that not every non-Christian is a fork wielding Satanist. I made her parents English and Nigerian. I made her an only child. I threw her some work pressures and the final clincher; some sex and the odd jaunt down the abortion clinic. The diary style nature of the book also helped because quite frankly, human beings are by nature very nosy. A diary style format appeals to the voyeur inside all of us.

 

If you’re writing a character-led book, don’t just give us something about ‘a woman who’s just trying to live her life.’ Sorry, not good enough. If I wanted boring, I wouldn’t have spent £6.99 on a book. I want more. Frank Peretti’s book, The Visitation is about Travis Jordan, a washed out and jaded former pastor. I guess you could say that he was just a man trying to ‘live his life.’ But Peretti didn’t leave it at that. No. He’s too much of a master storyteller. One day, a man strolls into Travis’s town claiming to be Jesus. He has the nail-spiked holes in the wrists to prove it and the miracles to match. And best of all, he wouldn’t leave our washed out and jaded former pastor alone. But the former pastor is not interested. He’s had enough of religion, of people, of church and of the whole Jesus business. He wants to walk away, but he can’t. The whole town has fallen under the Jesus look-alike spell. What’s a washed out and jaded former pastor to do?

 

Yes, our character started out being about a character trying to live his life, nursing his pain and his disappointment with God and church in his pokey apartment. We’ve all done that, but Peretti doesn’t allow his book to be another sermon about jaded pastors and the inadequacies of the church. Rather, it’s an expose of church life and one man’s journey of healing and redemption in the midst of immense deception. Peretti’s book is a warning for all Christians and non-Christians but God’s grace and plan shines through the very end, even if it’s not immediately to the human eye.

 

How did Peretti choose his themes? Well, he started with a character. He’s admitted in interviews that the skeletal framework for the main character in The Visitation was based on himself. He’d reached a pivotal point in his Christian life when he was sick of ‘church.’ I don’t blame him. We’ve all been there. Then, he goes deeper with Travis, his character. Travis used to be a pastor. He was a widow. Together with his wife, they’d pastored churches and got burned more times than they care to admit. The moral of the story? You may wish to serve God with all your heart but you serve God by serving human beings - Christians, whoever - and in the process, you get burned and learn about grace, Jesus-style. In The Visitation, we didn’t hear God’s Voice in a thunderstorm but we see Him at work in all the characters’ lives and for Travis, redemption comes through the most unlikeliest of places.

 

So now we know, people buy books to read a story. We also know we need good, strong characters but how does one actually create believable characters? All this and more in the November edition of www.christianwriter.co.uk.

 

Characterisation

Dialogue