"And both being classically trained lit professors probably didn't hurt, especially considering the types of education they got. They probably wrote more during their teen years than most authors writing today have done in their entire lives"
Reading about Tolkien and Lewis you get more that they LIVED more in their teens, but the speaker condemns themselves for not growing their own knowledge base if they are a writer. Get more toward that professorial attitude yourself and grow as a person to be a better writer.
Your point about striving toward Goodness versus the focus on wrestling in the morass of Evil is a pertinent one. As Christians we are told that none is Good other than God, so we already start on the Evil square of the Monopoly board. We are supposed to work toward Park Place and build that hotel, not hang out in Free Parking for the duration of the game.
How has the protag inched toward Goodness in the story is a great metric to keep in mind as a creator of entertainment.
You make an excellent point. Like you, I crack open a purportedly Christian book, and it is often unreadable or off-putting. Most of the time, it's pure saccharine and openly religious in tone and verbiage. Tolkien wrote a great story, supported by superb worldbuilding, and the Christians virtues and themes are in its bones rather than on its skin. It still gets the message across but in a far more palatable way.
I sometimes worry that my story is too heavy handed in the handling of Christian themes. The world's mythos has a fair number of direct ties to my actual faith. The eponymous "Som" is a direct analogue of my experience and understanding of God. The transformation of my main character from an selfish, doomed man into a servant of Som is a clear progression of spiritual transformation. At what point does it become cringe-inducingly obvious?
But then I recall that 1.) This is a first draft, Osborne, chill out. and 2.) I'm writing this book/series with the entire goal to objectively, no-wondering-necessary give glory to Jesus Christ. So, yeah, no-duh it's going to be obvious. I want it to be obvious. But I want to do so in such a way that, like Tolkien and Lewis, even non-Christians can look at the story and worldbuilding and still appreciate it (and hopefully be influenced by it).
I think your point on Goodness is right on, and it's the exact kind of encouragement I needed. Thanks so much for sharing!
I find your article quite interesting and look forward to discussing it with a friend of mine who is a writer. I am intrigued by your idea that Christian’s fantasy writers have potentially been placing an emphasis on the negative rather than the goodness. I’m not sure if I summarized that adequately but I think I do understand what you were saying. Thank you for sharing.
Excellent article. I had never heard that definition of Goodness before. Like you, I assumed it was a form of being "nice" and had never made the connection to "high-quality".
I think that with modern stories focusing on anti-heroes and morally gray characters, people are primed for a resurgence of characters striving for Goodness.
'Goodness' is a great way of putting it. The way a character gravitates towards the light, and in LOTR's case, notions of humility and self-sacrifice, really does resonate with readers. I agree with other posters, though, this must be cloaked. Readers want stories with themes, not sermons bolted on halfway through.
Very interesting post! This is something that I've been thinking about recently.
Both Tolkien and Lewis wrote exceptionally good books that are justly considered classics and still read and loved. I have long wondered what it is that they did *right*, and why so many who have followed them fail to achieve that level of greatness. Your suggestion is a challenging possible explanation. Really exploring Goodness and virtue ought to be something all Christian authors do. If we're not, no wonder so many stories go astray.
This is a great observation. So few heroes to aspire to these days. I think the coming of age/conversion story is one of my favorite narratives, and in these narratives, wallowing in sin is the mode. And that is the laziness in Christian art, and it happens in music too: because Christians will snap up comforting stories and songs, we Christian artists don't have to try very hard to gain notoriety and sales. My first (unpublished) novel was about a man who embraced the darkness only to find it empty, so I guess I'm lazy too. Thanks for the challenge to write a narrative of struggle for good! Very inspiring.
I've been working with notions of Christian metaphysics, neo-platonic ideas and plan to read Aquinas' theory on Kingship then City of God by St-Augustine to have a better idea of Christian philosophy. My personal philosophies and ideas regarding Christianity do however show in my works, notably in Caladbohlg, Brotherhood of the Gemstone and in Darkspire Conspiracy.
That being said my own personal view is that if you make something allegorical it will suck. If you make it heavy-handed it will suck. You must do what Tolkien and Howard did and cloak it. They knew best and so it is that writers need to strive to not only capture Christian views but also cloak it and make one's work more metaphorical than allegorical if that makes sense.
Not a Christian, but you might dig my stuff nonetheless. While I sometimes go very dark (The Resurrection Junket), most of my stuff concentrates on the heoric, sometimes in absurd ways, but always with a focus on courage and integrity when wrestling with difficult dilemmas and temptations. Hadrian's Flight is a good place to start. :-)
Definitely not better, but there is much goodness, honor, and hope alive in the alternate history universe of Starshatter. For example, you may read the Terran Star Knight code here https://theblackknight.substack.com/p/just-reverence
"And both being classically trained lit professors probably didn't hurt, especially considering the types of education they got. They probably wrote more during their teen years than most authors writing today have done in their entire lives"
Reading about Tolkien and Lewis you get more that they LIVED more in their teens, but the speaker condemns themselves for not growing their own knowledge base if they are a writer. Get more toward that professorial attitude yourself and grow as a person to be a better writer.
Your point about striving toward Goodness versus the focus on wrestling in the morass of Evil is a pertinent one. As Christians we are told that none is Good other than God, so we already start on the Evil square of the Monopoly board. We are supposed to work toward Park Place and build that hotel, not hang out in Free Parking for the duration of the game.
How has the protag inched toward Goodness in the story is a great metric to keep in mind as a creator of entertainment.
You make an excellent point. Like you, I crack open a purportedly Christian book, and it is often unreadable or off-putting. Most of the time, it's pure saccharine and openly religious in tone and verbiage. Tolkien wrote a great story, supported by superb worldbuilding, and the Christians virtues and themes are in its bones rather than on its skin. It still gets the message across but in a far more palatable way.
I sometimes worry that my story is too heavy handed in the handling of Christian themes. The world's mythos has a fair number of direct ties to my actual faith. The eponymous "Som" is a direct analogue of my experience and understanding of God. The transformation of my main character from an selfish, doomed man into a servant of Som is a clear progression of spiritual transformation. At what point does it become cringe-inducingly obvious?
But then I recall that 1.) This is a first draft, Osborne, chill out. and 2.) I'm writing this book/series with the entire goal to objectively, no-wondering-necessary give glory to Jesus Christ. So, yeah, no-duh it's going to be obvious. I want it to be obvious. But I want to do so in such a way that, like Tolkien and Lewis, even non-Christians can look at the story and worldbuilding and still appreciate it (and hopefully be influenced by it).
I think your point on Goodness is right on, and it's the exact kind of encouragement I needed. Thanks so much for sharing!
I find your article quite interesting and look forward to discussing it with a friend of mine who is a writer. I am intrigued by your idea that Christian’s fantasy writers have potentially been placing an emphasis on the negative rather than the goodness. I’m not sure if I summarized that adequately but I think I do understand what you were saying. Thank you for sharing.
Excellent article. I had never heard that definition of Goodness before. Like you, I assumed it was a form of being "nice" and had never made the connection to "high-quality".
I think that with modern stories focusing on anti-heroes and morally gray characters, people are primed for a resurgence of characters striving for Goodness.
'Goodness' is a great way of putting it. The way a character gravitates towards the light, and in LOTR's case, notions of humility and self-sacrifice, really does resonate with readers. I agree with other posters, though, this must be cloaked. Readers want stories with themes, not sermons bolted on halfway through.
Very interesting post! This is something that I've been thinking about recently.
Both Tolkien and Lewis wrote exceptionally good books that are justly considered classics and still read and loved. I have long wondered what it is that they did *right*, and why so many who have followed them fail to achieve that level of greatness. Your suggestion is a challenging possible explanation. Really exploring Goodness and virtue ought to be something all Christian authors do. If we're not, no wonder so many stories go astray.
This is a great observation. So few heroes to aspire to these days. I think the coming of age/conversion story is one of my favorite narratives, and in these narratives, wallowing in sin is the mode. And that is the laziness in Christian art, and it happens in music too: because Christians will snap up comforting stories and songs, we Christian artists don't have to try very hard to gain notoriety and sales. My first (unpublished) novel was about a man who embraced the darkness only to find it empty, so I guess I'm lazy too. Thanks for the challenge to write a narrative of struggle for good! Very inspiring.
I've been working with notions of Christian metaphysics, neo-platonic ideas and plan to read Aquinas' theory on Kingship then City of God by St-Augustine to have a better idea of Christian philosophy. My personal philosophies and ideas regarding Christianity do however show in my works, notably in Caladbohlg, Brotherhood of the Gemstone and in Darkspire Conspiracy.
That being said my own personal view is that if you make something allegorical it will suck. If you make it heavy-handed it will suck. You must do what Tolkien and Howard did and cloak it. They knew best and so it is that writers need to strive to not only capture Christian views but also cloak it and make one's work more metaphorical than allegorical if that makes sense.
Try The Rooster Rider by me.
https://www.amazon.com/Rooster-Rider-Knightly-Adventure-Creatures/dp/B09ZCVCWJ3/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1WYXWV9R62S6S&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.qdzIxpNrU4YsN-H3jXtCjw2cthNLN-L_gWW3TIQ9jEjqgyEGfCDyQzrBJzXYqqj3eDno5jkEv3MPPSpp66QkwU_E1zTmchQSpDMpFWpgK-etZY3gpumfAKtSrrrgMpb5OvXuOqKXj-Tad75n-yibj3R6jUQEjvCRD7ZfhkBvdwHR764uOWTos1K4NjfmF35f_hhN_Iw3fumC7Q3fxgp4uUrzN4Rf33CXufxpbFqJAGM.1eLXitb6eGJktOpviD0a8vYL-ZuzjFVG6Ld86FMQgeg&dib_tag=se&keywords=The+Rooster+Rider&qid=1725833013&sprefix=the+rooster+rider%2Caps%2C218&sr=8-1
Not a Christian, but you might dig my stuff nonetheless. While I sometimes go very dark (The Resurrection Junket), most of my stuff concentrates on the heoric, sometimes in absurd ways, but always with a focus on courage and integrity when wrestling with difficult dilemmas and temptations. Hadrian's Flight is a good place to start. :-)
Definitely not better, but there is much goodness, honor, and hope alive in the alternate history universe of Starshatter. For example, you may read the Terran Star Knight code here https://theblackknight.substack.com/p/just-reverence