How can I incorporate Christian themes into my story without it seeming forced or cringey?

[Livi_Dreams]

I’d like to write a sequel to a book I started nearly four years ago, and when I wrote that one it was very secular-leaning. I stopped writing it a little over a year ago due to mental health circumstances, and now I’d like to pick it up again and add in some biblical themes as a “sprinkling of salt” (as the Bible would say). I’d like to explore themes of religious trauma/hurt, overcoming, found family, loss, and faltering of faith in God. Specifically, I’d like to have two characters who were both hurt by religion, one of which has overcome her trauma and grown stronger faith because of it, and one who has lost his belief and trust in God altogether. I’d like the former character to show the latter character Gods love and try to talk to him about it, but I’m not sure how to do so without it coming off as pushy or forced.

On another (slightly related) note, do any experienced Christian writers have any tips on how to not make your writing into an idol? I feel like I do that so often, and it always leads to me getting hurt and distancing myself from God. Thank you!!

 

[Petros2015]

I found that whenever I tried to imagine how Christ would act in a situation, it surprised me.

One time, I (re)wrote the story of the temptation in the desert, but it did not end or develop how I thought I would.
In the story, I had the devil appear in the guise of a small lost human girl, and there was some back and forth between them in between the temptations. It was kind of an interesting situation, their last chance to meet together when you think about it.

Christ, while rejecting the temptations spends the time tempting the devil back with his kindness, since by the nature of the ruse Satan had chosen in my story, he had the opportunity. They watched the sunset one last time together before going up the mountain. My story ended much the same, though the girl in a fit of rage pushes him off the mountaintop after the last rejection.

"Only to be borne up by the hands of angels"

 

[SavedByGrace3]

Deep metaphors and subliminal messages. Say the message without actually saying it. Let them think they perceived the thought themselves.

 

[Petros2015]

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card is an excellent sci-fi book that did some of the kind of thing you are talking about; read it sometime, you might find it worthwhile as an inspiration

 

[Petros2015]

Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card is an excellent sci-fi book that did some of the kind of thing you are talking about; read it sometime, you might find it worthwhile as an inspiration

Also, "Till we have Faces" by C.S. Lewis is set in a pre-Christian pagan time. It's not widely known among his works, but it's one of his best. There is a lot of family and personal trauma involved, yet the themes of Christ and representations of Christ and what love is (and is not) are deeply ingrained in the book. I read it first in High School, and hadn't lived enough life yet to understand. When I read it the second time, a few years ago, I wept. Highly recommend.

Pretty much what this guy says lol

 

[Will Joseph]

You might get some good methods by reading other christian books.

 

[bèlla]

Our gifts and talents are designed for the kingdom. It's our responsibility to discover how they're meant to utilized for His glory. The primary reason you're struggling with idolatry and how to convey the message is because you're in the way. Your flesh is the culprit. If you surrender your creativity to the Lord He'll write through you. You'll have more ideas than you can imagine and you'll need a notebook to hold them. Put it on the altar and see what He does.

~bella

 

[LoriSaysHey2U]

I’d like to write a sequel to a book I started nearly four years ago, and when I wrote that one it was very secular-leaning. I stopped writing it a little over a year ago due to mental health circumstances, and now I’d like to pick it up again and add in some biblical themes as a “sprinkling of salt” (as the Bible would say). I’d like to explore themes of religious trauma/hurt, overcoming, found family, loss, and faltering of faith in God. Specifically, I’d like to have two characters who were both hurt by religion, one of which has overcome her trauma and grown stronger faith because of it, and one who has lost his belief and trust in God altogether. I’d like the former character to show the latter character Gods love and try to talk to him about it, but I’m not sure how to do so without it coming off as pushy or forced.

On another (slightly related) note, do any experienced Christian writers have any tips on how to not make your writing into an idol? I feel like I do that so often, and it always leads to me getting hurt and distancing myself from God. Thank you!!

deleted

 

[linux.poet]

By the way, this is a sub-forum for creative writing, but why nobody shares his/her stories here?
Could anyone tell me where can members share their stories? I would like to share some stories with others.

Welcome to CF! I think you’re looking for the Poetry and Prose subforum. Stories, including short stories, are technically prose, so stories belong there.

It’s just that we have a very prolific poet in that area who is making a lot of topics (not me lol) and the entire forum is slow. The first reason why the forum is slow is that it’s a public forum open to the internet and once your work is on the Internet it’s technically considered “published” and it’s unsaleable, and writers like to get paid for their work. This means they are more likely to post their work on sites like critiquecircle.com to get feedback, which is a closed forum that doesn’t automatically “publish” your work since submissions are only visible to other members of the forum.

The second reason why that forum is slow is that christianforums.com does not specifically attract story writers, and usually the best way to do that is to have a story as part of the main page of the site. This forum is more of a factual information type place dedicated to evangelism, debate, and spiritual growth of its members. As an example of a Christian website for prose writers, theaetherlight.com was that (maybe you can find that on the way back machine?) where there was a Christian kids game story RPG that attracted a lot of kids to write stories. For a secular example, bzpower.com piggybacked off the prose Bionicle story to attract a huge variety of storytellers in long stories, short stories, comedies, and even comics.

———————————————

Which brings me back to the title question - The Aetherlight did the incorporation of Biblical themes by retelling the story of the Bible in a fantasy steampunk setting and making it into a video game. That’s one way to do it. The other way is really to do more of a “Christian life” type novel. Put some Christian characters on the page and get them to interact with non-Christians (and maybe even themselves). That’s more “realistic fiction”, but maybe you can do it in a fantasy setting with a few allegorical tweaks - in essence combining the two ideas. Think Pilgrims’ Progress.

I also think there is a huge place in Christianity for memoir. I used to write novels as a kid, but I gave up writing them when I realized that villains weren’t cool at all and being a novel protagonist was a truly awful position in real life. There’s no reason to glorify adversity - it’s just awful. But maybe one day I will put pen to paper to write my own story of overcoming as a witness to Christ’s power in my life. Telling your own spiritual victories or giving them to one of your characters in your novel is another way to incorporate Christian themes.

Anyway, that’s what I got for nerd hour. Go forth and write, and fight the publishers. You deserve to be paid for your stories, and paid well.