The Word Cloud

Hi,

Why did he think people would react badly to this story? I don't think that you can write what's in your heart and always expect everyone to like or not be offended by it. Your story sounds interesting, I always feel that if faith can't stand up to a struggle or two then it's not much good is it? If someone can live through the Holocaust and still believe in God, I would suggest that your book should be no problem!

I think if you write honestly, not trying to propagandise or push a particular agenda but trying to explore important ideas of faith and free will with sensitivity, then anyone who reacts badly is just having a knee-jerk reaction to a story which doesn't reinforce their particular world view. And there's no reason to pander to them.

Thanks for your thoughts ladies,

"By questioning 'love', I'm indirectly questioning 'faith' - in this case religious."

All the truly religious people I know question their faith every day of their lives - how it relates to the world, what it says about what they do, etc. etc. A faith that can't absorb questioning and still go on having meaning for someone is a pretty thin thing, and not worth you worrying about.

I don't quite see what the problem is here at all. I don't think you are questioning faith a all, your character is when life throws him a curve ball, but that doesn't me that the book is offensive, it's a jounrey. By shoing that human love can be inconistant and self serving, which frankly when faced by death is quite understandable - are you not showing that divine love is immortal and therefore superior? There are loads of cases when people change after medical disasters, and people who are knitted together by adversity who find they have nothing in common when the dust settels, so personaly I can't understand what the problem is with this idea. The wife only loves him while she has a tumour - makes perfect sense to me and I can see both ehr side and his - she feels she has been given a new lease of life and suddenly wants to break out and go wild, he feels cheated as she's been 'saved' but rejects him which causes him to question his faith and the role of carer he's been given (Which can be enjoyable, nothing like a bit of self sacrifice) I simple have no idea what your friend was worried about. I just don't see that by questioning love you question faith, sorry!

There's not been much said about the 'free will' side of the story. I get the impression that it will be showing that while we think we fall in love freely, it is actually very much to do with the makeup of our brains and if that changes our feelings of love may change, too - automatically, no free will about it. This could be quite a challenge to the accepted way of thinking. But nothing wrong with that. Challenge away.

As to the faith aspect, that could be handled in so many different ways. Your MC is a pastor. That suggests he is probably a Baptist or a Pentacostalist; other mainstream denominations have different names for their leaders. You need to research well to 'know' your MC. (I've assumed he is of the Christian faith, but similar questions would apply for other religions.) For example, is he a born-again Christian? Not every church leader is; a few wouldn't even claim to be. Of course, he should be, but is he? If he claims to be a Christian, even thinks he really is, has he actually had a conversion experience when he received the Lord Jesus into his life, or has he just come to a mental decision that he believes what the church teaches and thinks that's all there is to it? If he is a true, born-again Christian does he struggle with the usual temptations? Is he filled with the Holy Spirit? Does he regularly know God's guidance in his life? And so on, and so on.

You don't need to tell the reader the answer to all these questions, but you should know them, because they will affect how he reacts to what life throws at him. It doesn't matter if you decide your MC is going to lose his struggle and his faith - it happens. But the intellectual 'Christian' reaction to that is likely to be quite different to that of the spiritual Christian. So you need to know your man in order to write convincingly.

Hi Eli,

I can't go with self-censorship. If it needs to be written, then write it.
Having said that, I read 'The 120 days of Sodom' recently, and I thought it was a pretty worthless piece of self-indulgence, but should it have been written? Yes. I would not deny anyone the freedom to express themselves. It just wasn't to my taste, and I had the choice not to read it.