At our Writers for a Reason Unite Q&A yesterday, one of the things we talked about was weaving a message into a story. How do we do this gently, with respect? After all, we are not here to try to persuade, but to allow readers to think through issues and make up their own minds.
Of course, as Christians, we would love everyone to share our faith! But not everyone will choose to do so, and that’s between them and God – our job is to simply to share our story.
So, to get back to the message in the story: first you need to think about what you want your readers to take away. Do you want them to think about forgiveness instead of revenge? Or do you want them to know that even though they may feel lonely, God is always there?
This will probably come from deep within – your reason for writing!
Once you have your theme decided on, now you can take your characters on a journey, learning about revenge/forgiveness, for example, through the adventures/trials they face.
Readers can then see that, as forgiveness has set ‘Lucy’ free by the end of the story (and perhaps Lucy also finds forgiveness, too!), so they can do the same. You don’t need to spell it out. It’s all there in the story.
So, stories are brilliant for sharing good news, but they should also be lots of fun. Let’s give our readers lots to think about! 🙂
Enjoy your writing this week,
Janet