A couple of weeks ago, I was pondering how to bring spiritual themes into my latest book. In After the Dream, my first book, my main character had a grandfather who could guide her spiritual journey. In Pigs Fly, my second book, I want to have characters on various parts of their spiritual pathways, but I don't necessarily want just one character to embody spiritual strength in this book. I feel like I've played that card and don't want to over-play it. I also have two different side characters who I want to be main characters in future books. If I make their voices all-wise here, how can they learn, grow, and develop when it becomes their turn to tell their own story? How can a reader identify with someone who just needs to tweak perfection in order to be MORE perfect?
So I want a source of wisdom that isn't necessarily just a character here. I have considered for a while having Robin, my main character, who is a pilot, look to one of the real presidency of the LDS church, a pilot named President Uchtdorf, for her spiritual guidance. Today, as part of the semi-annual LDS General Conference, President Uchtdorf gave a talk in which he described how men took ruins of a chapel destroyed during World War II and built something new and beautiful from these ruins. He went on to say as capable as man is of recreating beauty from the ashes, the Lord is all the more capable. The Lord can take the ruins of life and soul and restore them to something better than we ever imagined possible. I recognized as I listened that this is the spiritual heart of my story, a key to my damaged and angry character's healing process. I prayed for guidance about how to bring in more spiritual themes--since that's a critical part of why I write--without making the story feel fake or contrived. Thank you, Father, for sending me an answer from above.
No comments:
Post a Comment