One of the most exciting things about being a writer is when pieces of the real world around me fit, reflect, teach or enhance various parts of whatever project I happen to be working on.
I’ll hear about a principle that one of my characters struggles with, or a song that reflects something one of my characters might feel.
These little nuggets—when real life and fiction intersect—are what fuels fiction. It makes the setting, the circumstances, the characters, come alive in a writer’s mind.
Since I write Christian fiction, very often my intersections occur at church or in a Bible Study. No surprise there, since a spiritual thread runs unapologetically throughout all of my fiction.
Recently both church and Bible study provided some God-inspired fodder.
My new project, tentatively titled Great Deeds Never Die, revolves mainly around one deed my hero did which greatly impacted the quality of his life. My Henry did something he knows was wrong—he’s stolen money, and not just a little. He’s stolen a lot. Enough, in fact, to allow him to become a rich and influential banker in 1880s Denver.
Since my characters go with me everywhere, even as I’m sitting in church on Sunday morning or sitting at my Bible study session, whenever something comes up that might apply to one of my characters, my note-taking may take a brief detour.
At church, my pastor referenced a verse from Titus (1:16). From the Good News version: They claim they know God, but their actions deny it…
My character, by being an upstanding, church-going man in his community, knows how to “act” like a Christian. But he gave up any authenticity in that area a long time ago, and because he clings to his secret he doesn’t want to change. So his action denies his claim that he knows God. Perhaps that verse will come up in my story to remind him of his struggle…
In the study I’m doing with a large group of women (Beth Moore’s updated study on the Heart of David), she referenced James 5:16: So then, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you will be healed… Through this verse, Beth Moore suggested honesty with one another to prevent any sin from ruling over us. Obviously my character is being ruled by the sin of his past. Here’s another thought that might help free my poor, guilty Henry: a reminder that he’s not free. His secret sin rules nearly every decision he makes. Won’t he want to break free of that?
As you can see, it’s exactly this kind of thing that helps me not only to understand what my characters might be feeling, but how the Bible would help them out of their troubles—thereby helping me to write a credible and happy ending (once I get there, which at the moment seems impossibly far away!).
The only danger here would be to attribute all of these nuggets of truth only to my characters, forgetting God might have something to teach me along the way, too!
Just so you won’t think it’s only my hero getting all the attention, my heroine has a song that helps me evoke some of her thoughts and emotions. She’s a woman with a mission: she wants to help the fallen women of Denver, and in a territory that was largely mining towns full of lonely men, there would have been plenty of women for her to help. She decides to open an 1880s version of a women’s shelter, loosely inspired by Hull House in Chicago and Toynbee Hall in England.
Whenever I hear Laura Story sing her song “Blessings” I cannot help but imagine my heroine singing it to the wounded and fragile women she’s trying to help.
Join Me!