Writing with religion

A number of fiction novels touch upon the subject of spirituality, religion, and faith. Some make a point; the author using his story as a soapbox to share his views with readers. Others use the element of religion to flesh out characters, or a people.

I remember the story, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Phillip K. Dick. (The movie Bladerunner was based on this book). He included a unique take on adding religion in the form of futuristic sci-fi where people ‘plugged in’ a world where they join a man and his suffering called Mercerism. Mercer is this messiah like character. You can read more about it here..

What I found fascinating was the idea of experiencing Mercer’s suffering, like Christ on the cross. The plot touches upon humanity and empathy; that plugging into Mercer’s experiences,  you gain empathy. Since the novel’s protagonist must hunt down androids, the main test to discern man from machine is empathy.

While one story might offer religion as something to hold the hero together, to guide him/her through their hardship, another author might use religion as a vehicle for the villains to persecute others.

While playing the video game, Dishonored, they have an interesting character known as The Outsider- a neither-good-nor-evil supernatural god-like being that ‘gifts’ the main hero, Corvo, with his mark. This enables Corvo to use abilities to achieve his goals. How Corvo accomplishes this is up to you, however. The Outsider doesn’t seem to mind if you use the gifts for good or evil.

Another aspect of spiritual belief you can often find how it reflects the environment in which a people live. Harsh environments often give rise to unforgiving gods, while abundant environments often lead to generous, loving gods. All reflect humanity.

What are your thoughts on religion in books? Do you add spiritual beliefs for your characters, or avoid it? Post in comments.

Technorati Tags: religion in writing,writing,author,novel,stories,fictions,booksavers

So many stories…so little time

I’m not sure if other writers have this problem but this past week, I’ve had some issues with figuring out which story to write.

It reminds me of how you throw more than one ball to a dog, and it doesn’t catch any of them. Yeah, kind of like that.

Organizing is helping, but I’m a typical Libra who waffles between decisions trying to find the best choices. Should I go with the short story, the non-fiction, or should I finish the stuff I already started?

I suppose I should let the Creative Muse decide for me; this way, I’ll be bursting with words. Or one would hope. She often abandons me without warning.

So far I organize with the following tips;

- I setup each novel with its own folder. All notes, character biographies, and plot outlines get stuffed in there.

- Any file I want to work on, I add the ! (exclamation point) in front of the word. For instance, !ThisBook. Why? Because it puts this at the top of the alphabetized list.

- I don’t always write from the beginning. When I have issues where I’m not entirely sure where the story beings, I just start writing. Eventually, the plot will reveal where the story starts and where it will end.

What are your tips? Post in comments.

Technorati Tags: story,novel,writing,tips,author,manuscript,files,organizing writing

Writer Wednesday: Simon Haynes

I’ve mentioned Simon Haynes web site before, but for his very handy (and free) programs he shares on the site. He’s also an author of the Spacejock series. Blending sci-fi with humor, the stories follow Hal Spacejock and his adventures.

The first book is free. The remaining books are affordable and continue with the character’s adventures.

Some programs I’ve used include yWriter (free novel writing software), and yLaunch (a small program that lets you click one button to start a number of programs). They work exactly as described and his other programs offer the same usefulness.

Check him out.

Technorati Tags: brian haynes,spacejock,wednesday writer,a writer’s journey,frootbat31,sci-fi,humor,free ebook

More on my journey

I have been incredibly remiss on sharing my personal story about writing and getting published. I hope to remedy that this month by posting regular updates.

My daily vlog for April showed me that I can complete a challenge, so this month, I will be writing regularly and posting on this blog to let readers know about my journey, my frustrations, my successes (hopefully), and even setbacks.

What sort of story can I make of myself? I often wonder if I were a character in a book, would ‘she’ be a hero or villain? Would people care to follow along in her adventures? Does she even tackle her problems to overcome adversary and find her destination? That sort of shook me a bit.

No more excuses. Its go time! Carpe Diem! Tally-ho! And all that. I need to share more about my writer’s journey, and let my readers hop aboard to join in the ride.

I haven’t decided on details on how often to post, or what I’ll be posting exactly, but I will share more in future posts.

Wish me luck!

“Sharon mentally took inventory of the proper grammar, story lots, characters, and other tools she’d need on her journey. Time, creativity, and other abstracts intermingled with the inner editor, unceremoniously shoved into the inner pocket. His muffled protests went unnoticed, while the creative muse sat on the top, close to the ear, to whisper ideas and share her magic.

Taking a deep breath, the would-be author set fingers in the proper placement on the keyboard. “Let’s begin.” She whispered….”

Technorati Tags: writing,frootbat31,a writer’s journey,author,blog,stories,novel,fiction

Writer Wednesday: Becomingawriterblog.com

I found this site the other day, and felt its streamlined, straight-forward style refreshing.  The author, Angela Greenfield, offers posts on so many writing topics, including prompts.

She covers such topics for fiction writing as character development, inspiration, and dialogue, but also includes a category for non-fiction as well.

I think she needs to add more in the way of posts, of course, but the site is easy to navigate and get where you want to go.

Technorati Tags: wednesday writer,author,blog,character,inspiration

Chapter by Chapter program

In my “Daily Vlog Challenge”, I talked about the Chapter-by-Chapter program I use for compiling a novel. Its works similar to a ‘master document’ but without the bugs and issues, and helps organize scenes/chapters into single documents that also works with  ‘find-replace’ function for all files.

This program is free, works with MS Word 97 and later, and can work with Super Notecard as well.

Here is my video-

I’m thinking of also doing a video on the yWriter novel writing program I’ve used in the past, in case readers might be interested. If so, post in comments, or mention a program you’d like to see, or another topic.

Technorati Tags: chapter by chapter program,writing,author,novel,fictions,programs,ms word