- Thread starter
- #21
Based on your response I’m definitely going to use you to review! You ask good questions.Some things to consider!
"Is it wrong"
Wrong is subjective. If you feel uncomfortable with something that you are doing, than you need to define what you believe is right or wrong. From this conversation, I have deduced that you are part of the Christian faith. Therefore, I set this before you (tentatively, since I know religion is a sensitive topic and we shouldn't delve too deeply on personal beliefs on this forum): The Christian Bible says to live by faith. Do you feel that writing this story for public consumption is in line with your faith? That is the question I believe you should ask yourself here. Random people are going to say any written story is wrong or right for inconsistent reasons. What do you believe? If you are part of the faith, pray about it, study texts about it, talk with people of your faith about it. They will give you different answers too, but they may also help you figure out the right questions to ask yourself and discover the answers you really need. Here, it almost sounds like you are seeking approval or permission, which is not really ours to give.
"to write graphic, gory, sexually explicit Christian dark fantasy that is Bible-based?"
I strongly believe this kind of thing already exists in the world. Christian Horror and Christian Erotica are very probably genres. Seek out these stories--books, movies, games. See what you think about them. You are correct in that the Christian Bible has these things in it. It doesn't get talk about often.
On that note, a useful part of a writer's journey is to define their purpose. For example, a while back I defined my purpose as "To create a sense of community among people and a light for someone to hold onto in their darkness." So then, I think you are at least beginning to hash out your purpose. Is it to "Bring to light things that are often forgotten [in the Christian bible]?" Or is there more to it?
Lastly!
From my studies, Job is a fictional character--never actually existed, but I think versions of the story existed before it was included in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh). It served as a lesson or warning more than history. In that sense, it is really up to you what you want to do with it! However, if you were to write a dark fantasy about, say, the Three Wise Men--I mean, you'd have it set as a fantasy so we are already taking into account that it may take deviations from the original text. But from there, you also need to define for yourself how close you want to be to the original text. In fantasy writing, it's kinda anything goes as long as there is magical/mythical essence.
Honestly I don’t share much about my writing “style”. It’s hard to describe. As a person who believes in God and that He has a son named “Jesus” and there is the entity referred to as the Holy Spirit, I’ve been led to start writing a book every time I get a nudge from the Holy Spirit on certain topics.
My Dutch Christian reformed lifelong church goer parents HATED my 70-book series saying there is no way God could have inspired them with the language you use.
They never said shit but they said “oh shoot” instead
For my purpose I’ll let the public decide. It’s like Noah’s ark: he was told to build a crazy thing and it changed the world. I’m not saying my books will change the world like that but I do believe they will be used to reach an audience the church and religion can’t, but should, be reaching.
I’m fully recovered from addictions to cocaine and porn and the flashbacks I share in both the 70-book series and the Ziva series reflect such. Most church members don’t want to hear or read about that aspect of humanity but once again they should because that is an overlooked underutilized section of society.
Enough preaching sorry. Let me get to your website and let’s do business.