Today, I am thrilled to host Karina Fabian as a guest blogger.
By day, Karina is a mild-mannered reviewer of business
software and services for TopTenReviews.com. After hours, she’s a psychic
intent on saving the world; a snarky dragon who thinks he saves the world
all-too regularly, a zombie exterminator who just wants her world clear of
undead vermin, and Catholic religious sisters whose callings have taken them
off our world. Needless to say, her imagination is vast, her stories legion,
and her brain crowded. When she’s not converting her wild tales to stories,
she’s enjoying time with her husband, Rob, their four kids, and their two
dogs. Her new work of Catholic Science Fiction, Discovery, is now available.
Five Rules of Incorporating Faith into Fiction
With the Enlightenment era came an anti-religious fervor
that not only permeated science and philosophy but also literature. Now, some
200 years later, the pendulum is swinging back, and people are again interested
in seeing stories that show an expression of faith in a familiar and religious
way. However, in those two centuries, we seem to have lost the knack for
weaving the faith and fiction, and that has led to heavy handed or even preachy
expositions rather than a beautiful demonstration of faith in a good story that
influences the reader.
We know it can be done. Many of our best loved classics have
religious underpinnings in the theme and worldbuilding. We can do it again, and
I think the key lies in five simple rules.
#1 Tell a good
story. If you are only writing your
story because you have a message to send (or an ax to grind), then write an
essay. Good stories have characters you
love—or love to hate—plots that are exciting and intriguing, and settings that
bring you into the story. Know the art
of storytelling, and let the story deliver your message—not your message
dictate your story.
#2 Give the reader
complexity. Readers are more
sophisticated, for the most part—they do not want a simplistic Good and Evil
scenario. Nor do they want “plastic
Jesus.” Whether it’s your priest hero or
the church your main character attends, let the reader see beyond the surface—the
good and the bad, and the stuff that isn’t so clear.
#3 Know the religion
you’re writing about. Don’t let
ignorance lead you to misrepresent a faith, whether someone else’s or your
own. Do some research, get someone of
that faith to read your book, and also examine your own motives. For example,
in the Rescue Sister’s story, “Antivenin,” (Infinite
Space, Infinite God II), I had a Pentecostal snake handler. Personally, I think the idea of handling
snakes to prove your faith is nuts, but the idea was fascinating. I’m lucky enough to have a friend whose
mother was a Pentecostal minister, and she read the story for me, noting that a
lot of what this minister did is NOT the way the church approves—even down to
the kind of snakes I’d put on the spaceship.
I did more research and discovered other errors. When I fixed them, it made the story stronger
because I had added a new dimension to the character, that he was rejected by
his church because of his excessive ways.
#4 Don’t use religion
as a crutch. There’s nothing more
dissatisfying in a story than an easy answer—yet (ironically) the temptation is
to use religion to solve the conflict.
The person “finds God” and suddenly their attitude changes and all their
problems start to fade. Or someone prays
and the miracle happens, The End. Life
is messy. Good fiction, while more
clearly portrayed than reality, is not cut-and-dried, either.
#5 When submitting,
know the publisher. No matter how good
your story is, you still have to follow their guidelines and conform to their
philosophies. A good example is Rachel’s Contrition by Michelle
Buckman. It’s a powerful story of a
woman who loses a child, and her faith—Catholicism—is an integral part of her
healing, and thus of the story. Michelle
has been successfully published with CBA publishers, but this book was too
Catholic for their tastes. She had the
choice of removing all traces of the religion—changing the theme and
character—or going to a smaller, Catholic press.
I have a reputation for being a faith-in-fiction
writer. My faith informs my identity,
and it fires my imagination. I’ve been
very proud of the books I’ve written and edited, the latest of which is Discovery. I would classify it as a
“Catholic Pride” novel, because not only can you not take out the Catholic
elements and keep the story, but the faith itself is a kind of hero in the
book. However, most of my books are not so obvious. Nonetheless, my characters
often have a religious side that does not want to be hidden, and my worlds have
religions. That’s a reflection of life.
