I’m feeling daring today, so I’m going to touch on one of the more difficult topics—religion. (Hope this isn’t one of those things where I wonder later what the heck I was thinking….)
Now, the books I’m writing are very secular in nature. We’re talking murder mysteries here. But I’m a Southern writer, and these books are based in the American South where life and religion are more naturally entwined. So the characters go to church meetings (where they, naturally, discover all kinds of clues to the murderer), attend funerals in churches….and even discover bodies there.
I’ve been reflecting that it seems actually more unnatural to ignore religion or spirituality in books that feature major conflicts. After all, these folks are having a rough time. In murder mysteries, people are dropping like flies and the characters may be endangered, themselves. Isn’t it stranger that they wouldn’t look for a little spiritual guidance? And in most fiction I’ve read, the protagonist is beset by a myriad of problems. But Eat, Pray, Love was the only book that I’ve recently read that included a spiritual quest (and it was nonfiction.)
The trick is to fit religion or spirituality into secular books in a non-preachy way. I usually use humor to make the reader more comfortable. And I try to weave my references in naturally. Because….I’m not writing Christian literature here. The church is the background, not the focal point.
Has anyone else dabbled in religion in their manuscripts? Why or why not?
Fortunately I write fantasy, and so the religions I tend to deal with are made up. However, religion is something that by a belief (or lack of a belief) in something greater than the individual, defines people, and therefore, defines characters – that sentence probably didn’t make sense outside of my head, but that’s okay. As you said, it is really unnatural for their to be an entire absence of any religious thought in a mixed group of characters.
The first novel I ever completed – titled for the moment “Death’s Daughter”, revolves almost entirely around religion because it is the gods messing about in the protagonists life that bring the entire story about. While the idea of many of these gods were inspired from Greek and Roman mythologies, the overall idea was to draw on characteristics for the gods that most people could relate to.
Despite the feeling that religion should be considered a fundamental part of a characters make up (either having or not having a belief in something) I don’t know that I would like to tread into those murky waters if I was writing stories based in the real world. Way too much space for offence, and sidetracking readers from the story at hand as they focus entirely on proving your explanation of theology wrong.
Interesting. I’m going to weave a little bit of a search for spirituality into my travel memoir, sort of akin to Eat, Pray, Love. But it’s difficult! Religion can be such a dominant theme that it’s hard to leave it in the background, if that’s where you want it to be.
Even in fantasy, the religion has to make sense and feel authentic. Nothing takes me out of a book faster than the feeling that a character’s emotions don’t seem right.
Religion is like anything else in a novel: it has to feel real. Sometimes that means doing your research. What is a Southern Baptist funeral service like in Texas — or Mississippi? I recall when one of my colleagues died the two different services held for him (by his two different families — there’s a whole novel-worth of material!) could not have been more divergent in style and tone and conveyed a lot about the two groups.
Excellent subject and post. I write in the spiritual/inspirational fiction genre, and even though my books have Christian based messages, I never write in a “preachy” way. My readership is mostly secular, that’s the way I want it, and thumping people over the head with bibles is a major turn off. I also make a distinction between spirituality and religion.
Religion = rules and laws
Spirituality = direct experience and freedom
The Old Silly from Free Spirit Blog
I don’t use religion in my stories. The church is the vocal point for everyone, especially the younger ones for it is this spititual thread that draws the members together as a church family as well as individual families.
As a little girl I read books where the children were taught to relie on Jesus, not religion, in times of trouble. These books were such an inspiration to me I vowed I’d write books like them . Now, I’m working on a Christian series to help troubled youth to depend on God to get them through troubled times.
I hope I answered your question about whether or not I use religion in mywriting. I don’t, I use christianity.
Very interesting points here. It would be a relief, I think, to write a fantasy religion…something completely different and (hopefully) guaranteed not to offend. It’s such a delicate balance.
And it’s true about the varying denominations being widely different in their customs. Good point.
Grace, you also make a good point as a Christian writer. Your focus seems to be more to the very source (God/Jesus)of your beliefs instead of the religious element surrounding it.
Elizabeth
You’re right about religion being a part of the fabric of Southern life. And the same may be true in other parts of the country. I’ve never lived anywhere but in the south. So, if your book is set here, then it would be natural to have religion be part of it. But it doesn’t have to be a big part, unless that’s part of the focus of the book.
Helen
Straight From Hel
It was very difficult with my novel. As it takes place after death, in what I call the After Life. I didn’t want to really be religious with mine or make it too towards one region’s beliefs. SO I had to research what EVERY denomination thought about the afterlife and heaven and did my best to intertwine them ALL together as best as I could. It was very difficult. But very interesting in the research portion of it.
I do often fear that my book may become controversial when on the shelves, but hey, maybe that will increase it’s sales ;)
Oh Elizabeth, I also meant to say “kudos” for putting up a post today – keeping the momentum going even after the PPD challenge is over. Nice going. This blog and you will be going places with your kind of commitment and work ethic. :)
The Old Silly from Free Spirit Blog
Religion is so much a part of life that it just makes sense some of your characters will be religious individuals. In fleshing them out you’ll naturally want to include this aspect of their lives.
Throughout history religion has been the impetus for wars as well as the foundation of political authority. Why ignore it in your writing? It’s part of civilization.
Elizabeth, you make a good point. Psychologist M. Scott Peck (People of the Lie, Road Less Travelled, and many more books)says evil people hide in churches, schools, boy/girls scouts. Why? Who would suspect real evil to be manifest in these places? The real evil isn’t messing up and making mistakes, even bad ones. For Peck, the truly evil are those who destroy life in others, as some of the characters you listed above did. Evil people hiding evil in church is not a slap at the church; it is an honest assessment of evil pretending to be what sincere people at church are trying to be: good people. wb