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| Carol Ashby |
As
Christian writers, our goal is often to inspire people in their faith. But, how
do we stay true to what we’re called to write while still meeting the challenge
of what may or may not sell in today’s market? Author Carol Ashby shares some thoughts. ~ Dawn
Walking
the
Tightrope with
a Spiritual Arc
I love a deep dive into a story where people start with
conflicting world views and maybe as enemies, then grow to understand and even
love each other when God has His way in their lives. Nothing satisfies like the
roller coaster of hope, despair, and new hope as a character struggles with
faith, forgiveness, and love that goes far beyond romance.
But many writer’s blogs and books on the craft tell us novels
shouldn’t probe how a person moves from skepticism to belief. Such stories can
turn off readers and hurt sales. That’s a risk most traditional publishers
won’t take, especially with a debut author. It’s better to treat issues of
faith more as background than as the real meat of the story.
But what if that’s the kind of stories you feel God calling
you to write? How does an author find the right balance between writing stories
where the spiritual arc of a main character is at the core of the plot and
writing novels that enough readers will buy to sell the thousands of copies in
the first six months that traditional publishers need?
The answer is…I don’t know. I’ve chosen to self-publish to
avoid that problem. But my goal isn’t having thousands of readers waiting for
my next novel to appear. It’s obeying God’s call and doing my very best for
Him. I’m willing to dedicate uncounted hours to learning the writer’s craft so
a publisher would reject my manuscript based on platform and not literary
quality. I’ll gladly edit to refine and tighten a manuscript until I can’t find
anything that must be changed.
Why? I want each novel to have the ring of truth. Characters
should be flesh-and-blood people who wrestle with living the faith when their
heart’s desire might be pulling them away from it. Who of us hasn’t experienced
that? And what we’ve learned in our own struggles can help our characters
become “real.”
For characters who don’t start as believers, that means
dragging them through trials that lead to questions and arguments like I’ve
shared with friends as they try to decide what to do with Jesus in their own
lives. Making that choice can be fairly easy or dreadfully difficult in real
life. How can we make the spiritual arc in our stories reflect that in a way
that feels real?
Readers don’t want novels to read like sermons. Spiritual
discussions can’t simply be tacked onto the story. They should flow naturally
from the action so they feel real instead of contrived.
That can be a tightrope walk, and we shouldn’t do it alone.
When writing scenes with deep spiritual content, I call on my prayer partners.
Then they review what I’ve written, asking “Does this feel like real people
having real conversations and making believable decisions?”
When the answer comes back “yes,” I give thanks and dream of
how those words might serve God’s purpose in a reader’s heart.
If your
story has a strong spiritual arc, how do you find the right balance?
When Rome
has taken everything, what’s left for a man to give?
Betrayed
by a ruthless son who’ll do anything for power and wealth, Publius Drusus faces
death with an unanswered prayer―that his treasured daughter, Claudia, and
honorable son, Titus, will someday share his faith. But who will lead them to
the truth once he’s gone?
Claudia’s
oldest brother Lucius arranged their father’s execution to inherit everything,
and now he’s forcing her to marry a cruel Roman power broker. If only she could
get to Titus―a thousand miles away in Thracia. Then the man who secretly told
her father about Jesus arranges for his son Philip to sneak her out of Rome and
take her to the brother she can trust.
A
childhood accident scarred Philip’s face. A woman’s rejection scarred his
heart. Claudia’s gratitude grows into love, but what can Philip do when the
first woman who returns his love hates the God he loves even more?
Titus and
Claudia hunger for revenge on their brother and the Christians they blame for their father’s deadly conversion. When Titus
buys Miriam, a secret Christian, to serve his sister, he starts them all down a
path of conflicting loyalties and dangerous decisions. His father’s final
letter commands the forgiveness Titus refuses to give. What will it take to
free him from the hatred poisoning his own heart?
Carol Ashby has been a
professional writer for most of her life, but her articles and books were about
lasers and compound semiconductors (the electronics that make cell phones,
laser pointers, and LED displays work). She still writes about light, but her
Light in the Empire series tells stories of difficult friendships and
life-changing decisions in dangerous times, where forgiveness and love open
hearts to discover their own faith in Christ. Her fascination with the Roman
Empire was born during her first middle-school Latin class. A research career
in New Mexico inspires her to get every historical detail right so she can spin
stories that make her readers feel like they’re living under the Caesars
themselves.
To connect with Carol and learn more about her books, please
visit:
Blog: The Beauty of Truth (https://carol-ashby.com)
History website: Life in the Roman Empire: Historical Fact and
Fiction (https://carolashby.com)
Wow
ReplyDeleteJames, "wow" sums it up for me when I watch a real person take a step toward Jesus. Isn't it funny how our characters become so real to us that we feel their emotional struggles as if they were alive?
DeleteFinding that balance is tough! When writing the first book in my historical romance series, my goal was to present a subtle message. But as the story started to flow, the message was not so subtle. Still, it worked. Like you've shared, I also think the key is to not "preach," but to have the characters change through dialogue and experiences so readers can relate and hopefully grow with them.
ReplyDeleteDawn, it always makes me smile when God pulls a story in a direction I wasn't planning.
DeleteHi Carol - you picked a tough subject! I really don’t like preachy books and tend to avoid them BUT I also find it sad that so many recent releases barely have a Christian message. I think you have found the right balance - the message needs to feel like a natural occurrence in the character’s lives and not a sermon. And I love it when the author is able to write characters with different journeys - not simply the same two characters with different names in each book. Thanks for addressing a tough and sometimes unpopular topic. Blessings!
ReplyDeleteI love writing in the perfect era for totally opposite spiritual perspectives at the beginning. It was also the time when changing your perspective on Jesus could get you killed. That makes it easier in some ways to write the arc than if it were a time when most of the people were nominally Christian.
DeleteWriting an arc rom skepticism to belief is tough, and you do an awesome job.
ReplyDeleteI've generally chickened out, writing a shorter arc that brings someone who's fallen away back to faith.
I wouldn't call that chickening out, Andrew. That's much closer to the experience most of us have, and that can be so encouraging!
DeleteI tend to write lighter hearted stories, but Ibe yet to have a book that didn't have moments of spiritual growth or awareness for one of the characters, even if it was a secondary character. Like you, I want it to seem natural.
ReplyDeleteGod is with us in our light-hearted moments, too. I bet you'll find just the right way to make it natural!
DeleteGreat post! You expressed my feelings precisely—only much more eloquently. When I wrote my latest novel, I did what you did. I self-published what I felt God had directed me to write. I do what I can to market my book but leave the sales results to God.
ReplyDeleteSo glad to hear from like-minded authors!
So true about leaving the sales to God, Dee Dee! I pray that He will lead people who need the message to find the books. I pray for each reader as I see the sales come in at Amazon. I pray that He will use what I've written to strengthen and encourage each reader in her or his faith. In God's eternal economy, it's much better to sell 100 that serve Him than 100,000 that only serve me.
ReplyDeleteI actively seek out books with solid Christian themes woven in the plots (both to edit and to read). I want to be encouraged in my faith! There is enough godless trauma and tragedy in the world...I want to see God's hand working in people's lives and His love transforming hearts and replacing fear with trust. I'm going to buy this book. :-)
ReplyDeleteLora, I love those kinds of stories, too, both in real life and in novels. It feels so good to write them as well, but I do keep Kleenex handy for the tough scenes! I hope you'll enjoy reading The Legacy as much as I enjoyed writing it.
DeleteCarol, as an author I have struggled with some of the same things you address in this great blog post. I was recently encouraged by a very long thread on Avid Readers of Christian Fiction (FB) where readers poured out how much they want to see real characters dealing with real issues, and finding restoration and healing in Christ. They gave many story ideas that have hardly been touched. Many authors shared they have to go indie to publish a book like that. Like you said, we each have to do what we're been called to do. That may mean writing a feel-good, light-hearted romance one year and a deep spiritual journey another, or finding publishers open to deeper character journeys. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete