What is appropriate for a Christian to write about?

[SepiaAndDust]

Is "What the hell?!" a swear word? The main character in my story gets a pixie cut and her Mum overreacts and says "I can't believe you've done that, what the hell is wrong with you?!"

Technically, I'd consider it profanity, but not an obscenity. It might or might not be a vulgarity, depending on the audience

Not that I'd have a problem with reading or writing any of those.

 

[Radrook]

Write about whatever you choose; it doesn't matter whats appropriate.

To a Christian, or anyone else taking his particular type of faith seriously, it does matter because such a person feels that God is evaluating what he writes and tagging it as either righteous or sinful.

If the writing is deemed sinful, then the writer's status before his God is imperiled and so are his prospects for his eternal future. In short, unlike an atheist who doesn't worry about the content in relation to any supernatural entity, the religious writer feels that an entity is looking over his shoulder 24/7 at everything he writes.

So a religious writer feels forced to remain within certain acceptable parameters both in his subject-matter and in the way chosen to he convey that subject-matter in order to retain his God's approval. In short, he finds it impossible to adopt the flippant, uncaring attitude towards his writing that you recommend.

 

[IridescentLight]

I thought I was the only one who couldn't decide what was considered "ok" to write. I personally tend to say away from foul language or sex scenes. Granted, my stories are usually action/adventure type stories. But I feel like you can write a good villain without using foul language. The Chronicles of Narnia series is a good example of this.

 

[Radrook]

Not easy to write entertaining fiction and maintain a good Christian conscience. It demands walking a very fine line in order to avoid unintentionally promoting some vice or inadvertently conveying some anti-biblical theological view.

 

[JAM2b]

If no one in your story ever did anything bad, then you won't have much a story, and it won't be realistic. Unless you are writing for children, I think it is fine and maybe even necessary for it to contain sin. The Bible itself contains stories that include people's sin. I agree with your pastor.

 

[grasping the after wind]

I'm curious, do you write about things that go against your faith? Do you have your characters use foul language? Do you write graphic sex scenes? I was speaking with a pastor who said he feels that such things are okay for Christians to do, as long as they're used in the story, aren't done gratuitously, and don't lead to you doing those same things in your real life. What are your thoughts on this? I have a character who's a complete--he's just a terrible man, frankly. He's disgusting, he's amoral, he's an antagonist and protagonist at the same time. You hate to love him, love to hate him. Since trying to get back into my faith, I struggle with knowing whether it's appropriate to write him or not. I can't 'clean him up'--doing so would change him as a character. So I'm just conflicted.

I think your Pastor is on the right track. I would add that if you were writing for the purpose of encouraging people to act in the way an unsavory fictional acted then that would be wrong but as reality contains many unsavory characters and fiction that deals with the issues we encounter in the real world needs to at least in some ways mirror reality.
Jesus, in his parables, did not require that all his characters be paragons of virtue. If He had done that, the point He was trying to make could not have been made.

 

[JAM2b]

As a side note, one of my stories I have been working on is about a young lady who is leaving a life of prostitution. It includes plenty of mention of all kinds of sins. However, none of them are going to be graphically described.

 

[( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)]

There was a time when I struggled with this dilemma, and now I would say that if it bothers your conscience then there's probably a good reason to give yourself pause. On occasion, I work on a certain series where the characters can be very antagonistic toward the faith. I remember in one particular scene I had one character attack the person of Christ pretty vehemently, and it honestly caused me to hesitate and wonder if I was going over the top with it. For future stories, I'm learning that the safest bet when developing "graphic" scenes that may be considered gratuitous is to stick to general Bible references that describe these things that are thought of as wicked and sinful. I realize I forfeit a lot when it comes to this, but that's the only way I know to avoid or supress content that's clearly no Christian. I hate to say it, but without going into name calling, there are many authors who are putting out novels in the Christian genre that are obviously blaspheming the Holy Spirit with their works. It's one thing to branch out into the darker side of fiction with evil plotlines and stories, but when a writer starts replacing the good things of the Lord with things that are evil, then I believe they've gone too far. That's just my opinion.