The influence on writers

[Rexenm]

When you put religion into your character profile as part of their backstory, a character will develop at a different rate than a villian. So to speak, he is influenced by a clean slate that is highly reliant on the interpreter’s imagination.

I am worried about the effect that it will have on an editor or publisher. The creator or his creation live outside the realm of the heavenly bodies, either with a different sense of right and wrong or perspective of the heavenly bodies.

I wonder how accurately can you portray your MC as part of yourself, and do you share the same flaw. You could say that I am blindfolded by the loving censorship and the resemblance I received in my upbringing.

 

[pmmg]

Why would I put religion in their character profile and not into their character on page?

I am sure it is true that there will be Editors and Publishers who will find it a problem and try to change or reject. But...who's the author? and How important is it? If its very important, look elsewhere.

Well...All my characters are partly myself and partly not. Its not my goal to have an avatar in my story. My characters are meant to be their own separate people. How can I portray something as large as religion and not have something to contrast with? In making just that, I have already stepped outside of myself. All characters need to have believable, relatable, belief sets, Do them justice and it should not be a problem.

I don't follow the rest.

If you are saying that you want to portray your religious values on page, through a character that is a stand in for you,..Well, I mean a lot of people are doing that, and some have success.

If I was to offer commentary on the industry, they tend to look down on religious themes, and its a harder road to sell on. But not an impossible one. There are many who like things to ask the big questions.

 

[ThinkerX]

ultimately, all of the characters are a part of you because they come from you.

 

[Rexenm]

Why would I put religion in their character profile and not into their character on page?

Merlin is a funny one. He seems to be the only genuine dude, yet his mostly unmagical comrades, are the only other good guys, unless they grant wishes. I really need to re-read it, thoroughly, but I do own it.

ultimately, all of the characters are a part of you because they come from you

In theory, that sounds good.

 

[Rexenm]

What do you do about evil characters? Do they have a creed instead of a religion? I was watching Wind in the Willows, followed shortly by Dune, and I wondered which was more sinful. Really, they both love open spaces, countryside, and live on the wild side. A utopian and dystopian look at the speculative?

 

[CupofJoe]

I don’t worry too much about how a reader will interpret my character’s beliefs. I can’t control what they think and make up for themselves. As long as I feel the character is acting true to what I believe they need to be, then the rest is up to the reader.
And yes. There is a bit of me in every character I write. Even if that is only by exclusion of a trait, skill, ability, physicality or belief.
As for sin... That's someone else's department.

 

[Queshire]

Religion tends to be mostly just a background element for me. I don't have a lot of prominent characters that feature faith as a core part of their character. Honestly it's something I need to work on.

I do have more than a few gods and a good idea of how I want the celestial realm in my story to function, but that's mostly dealing with gods as characters rather than objects of faith.

What do you do about evil characters? Do they have a creed instead of a religion? I was watching Wind in the Willows, followed shortly by Dune, and I wondered which was more sinful. Really, they both love open spaces, countryside, and live on the wild side. A utopian and dystopian look at the speculative?

Evil priests or bishops aren't that unusual in fiction. I know the X-men dealt with at least one of them, and of course there's Frollo from the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

I'm not a big fan of the character trope personally. I don't mind it when it comes up in a story, but I'm mostly just neutral about it.

A lot of my villains have a focus on twisted virtue. For an RPG I took part in recently I played an Archdemon of Sloth and one of the abilities of Sloth was the ability to transmute people into trees if they didn't constantly move. (See, they'd get rooted into place if they gave into Sloth.) I had said Archdemon view it as a mercy since the alternative was living in actual hell.

With religious villain characters I'd either go with that route, or just have them be an honest believer. I like the contrast that would come from like, seeing Lex Luthor in a church or something and honestly praying.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Evil really just is a matter of perspective. Unless your evil character actually considers himself evil, then they're the hero of their own story.

Just take Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Pretty evil guy right? From his perspective though, he just wanted to get back a ring that was precious to him and which was stolen by some random dude a few thousand years ago. He wanted to create order and advance society by industrialization. He was twarted by a bunch of terrorists who for some reason held a grudge against him.

Or think of thieves. They tend to be pretty evil people right? Stealing stuff from others, maybe resorting to violence. Not great. And yet, we root for the protagonists of Ocean's 11 and The Italian Job, even though in real life we'd consider them on the evil side of things.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Evil really just is a matter of perspective. Unless your evil character actually considers himself evil, then they're the hero of their own story.

Just take Sauron from Lord of the Rings. Pretty evil guy right? From his perspective though, he just wanted to get back a ring that was precious to him and which was stolen by some random dude a few thousand years ago. He wanted to create order and advance society by industrialization. He was twarted by a bunch of terrorists who for some reason held a grudge against him.

Or think of thieves. They tend to be pretty evil people right? Stealing stuff from others, maybe resorting to violence. Not great. And yet, we root for the protagonists of Ocean's 11 and The Italian Job, even though in real life we'd consider them on the evil side of things.

Perspective really is everything, whether one writes character-driven stories or plot-driven. Lolita's Humbert Humbert is a classic example. The idea that a villain is the hero of their own story is a more modern one. And a big chunk of that perspective, and the one that is the most difficult to diverge from, is our own perspectives as creators, writers, and humans. We infuse our work with slivers of our souls. We can't help it. And that wee bit of us will always give the tiniest of winks to the reader, and are usually not noticed, much.

 

[Rexenm]

That was really comforting. I am not aware of that story, but I am interested in knowing it. Do you think that the perspective of a criminal will ever be represented? I have had thoughts and romances about the idea of basic anarchy, maybe that isn’t the way to go. There is the reasoning that freedom comes at a price. Maybe that price is forgiveness. Who knows.

Though, for the idea of religion in a setting removed from the plight of evil, maybe that isn’t good. What is.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

That was really comforting. I am not aware of that story, but I am interested in knowing it. Do you think that the perspective of a criminal will ever be represented? I have had thoughts and romances about the idea of basic anarchy, maybe that isn’t the way to go. There is the reasoning that freedom comes at a price. Maybe that price is forgiveness. Who knows.

Though, for the idea of religion in a setting removed from the plight of evil, maybe that isn’t good. What is.

Oh, I think the ship sailed on that one a very long time ago, and really it depends a lot on how you define "criminal." Gilgamesh, Genji, Zorro, Robin Hood, the entire cast of Ocean's Eleven and the rest. We love the bad boy, outcast, iconoclast. Sherlock. A Clockwork Orange. I can do this all day, and I haven't even scratched the literary traditions of 80% of the world.

 

[Prince of Spires]

Also, as mentioned, it's all a matter of perspective. You could easily rewrite Lord of the Rings as a terrorist attack on Mordor.

And we do love bad guys sometimes. As a writer at least I find it fun to forget about my own morals and indulge in the darker ideas floating around in my head. Just imagining what how you'd conquer the world or steal the jewels or whatever is great entertainment (Yes, I rarely get bored. I've got on-board entertainment...)