Spirituality & Religion → Reality of characterization
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My work is not "Christian" writing per se. My stories have strong Christian characters, but other characters are true to life--Which include language sometimes. I've had folks criticize that. What are your thoughts?
I think it depends on which you care more about - the reception from your readers or true-to-life characters. Obviously, it's a spectrum. My Joseph character says "freaking" at times as a curse, except on one occasion where he's extremely angry, then he drops the f-bomb. Since my target audience is late teens and up, Joseph's cursing is more about the character and how he would react given his upbringing. And since he's very religious, it's at moments of extreme stress that he takes the Lord's name in vain.
I agree, Dirk. Like when Ray finds out a thirteenth woman is missing with 12 already dead. I don't see a cop under those circumstances saying, "Phooey." The F word is quite appropriate in that case--Christian or not.
Janet, there is nothing wrong with making realistic characters. Christians do swear at times. And even Jesus hung out with people that would have been considered unsavory back when he was on Earth and I'm sure they didn't refrain from what they said around him.
Yes, that's true, mikira. And it's not like my stories have the F word or other curse words on every page. They a few and far between. Yet, I would never submit my manuscripts to mainstream Christian publishers. I'm pretty sure they would have heart attacks.
My novel is more geared to the secular world too, even though when I was nearly done writing it, I realized the underling theme has a much deeper meaning. My opinion is that like Jesus, I'm going to where I can bring His light to the people in need. And if that means I write stories that will appeal to the secular world then that's what I'll do, unless God guides me to change my focus.
In reading your comments I see a differentiation between Christian, and "true to life characters" and Christian and "true to life" readers. After 25 yrs in law enforcement, as a Christian, it may be unusual to find officers that do not indulge in profanity, but they do indeed exist. Police are also victims of profiling. There is also a vast difference in the occasional slip, and using profanity as your daily language. Dan Calibrisi (sp) a conservative blogger as well as Christian writer has recently re-written his early novels without the "worldly" language, giving his readers the option of with or without. I prefer to build characters who who do not use bad language but I realize it can be hard. What would Jesus do? Mike
Jesus would eat with the sinner and tax collector. It's not a matter of prolific use of profanity or obscenity. It's an occasional use for emphasis or if the scene just seems better with it. Like I said about Ray in Lucky Thirteen. I think the F word is in there all of 4 times. When it first came out, a friend since childhood refused to buy it as a gift for her 22-year-old son graduating with a degree in criminal justice b/c it had the F word. All I could think was, "Oh, grow up!" If he has not heard (maybe even used) that word by the time he graduates college, he's living on another planet.
I understand your friend, it is quite different to know your children, even grown children, have heard or even used profanity. It is entirely another thing to buy them something that contains it. I have a 50 year old son who has always been a truck driver and pipeliner, he uses rough language. I do not engage in it with him and he appreciates that fact. He may use it but he doesn't want to hear it from Dad. You are correct Jesus would never shun a sinner, he would also never compromise his message or speech to influence them. To me the F word has become a cliche that some people must use to show their worldliness and adulthood. In my day we did not use such language especially in front of women. For me I would rather write a book my Mom could read and be proud of, but that's just me. Mike
I agree it is a dilemma because, on the one hand, you want to reach out and share the love of Christ to the world so you can't make everything churchy all the time. But, on the other hand, you don't want to give a bad witness. The line I've drawn in the sand is that I don't use the Lord's name in vain. And, then I think you just have to use common sense and consider the subject matter/story of your book and the desired readers.
Most of the Christian fiction books I've read are Young Adult novels, so there would be limited foul language regardless. In one series I read there was no cussing and it worked. The author managed to bring them to life without it. That said, I read another set of books and each of them was horrendously self-righteous and so 'goody-goody' fake I could barely finish the books. I felt like a horrible Christian afterwards because I'm not as perfect as every Christian character in the books (only the non-Christians had imperfections or committed sins).
Make your characters real. The fact is Christians are not perfect. We sin, we make mistakes, we are as human as everyone else. What makes us different is our belief in Jesus and in his sacrifice to cleanse us of our sins. Expressing frustration or anger through words is not a sin. The closest sin to cussing would be taking the Lord's name in vain.
A word is simply a word until we add our expression, intention, and emotion into it. I often say the word crud if I'm angry or upset by something, thinking it's better than saying a cuss word. Well, my daughter repeated it the other day with the same type of expression and I realized it was just as bad as if she'd been saying s**t.
Penang, this is so true about some of the Christian novels. I'm not sure why they write that way, because my pastors are down to Earth and let us all know that we won't be fully perfected until we are reunited with Our Father in Heaven. And in fact its a wrong to be over self-righteous too.
As for swear words, I agree any word can become one depending on the emotion behind it.
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As for swear words, I agree any word can become one depending on the emotion behind it.
I agree one hundred percent. Our barracks in Japan was tended to by a number of very nice women who did the laundry, cooked food, and did general cleaning. I was what was called "Charge of Quarters". This meant I kept swearing down to a minimum. One girl came up to me and asked what the American phrase 'mozzarella" meant. I told her it was a cheese for pizza topping. She looked confused and wandered off. Later, I asked one of my guys if he knew why she'd asked me that. He told me that sometimes the guys really wanted to swear (delayed football games comes to mind here) and they'd "invented" a swear word out of mozzarella. So, if they really wanted to swear they switch to pizza cheese, but say it with feeling and punch the air with their fist. Thus, even cheese can be emotive.
~Tom
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Spirituality & Religion → Reality of characterization
