“I can’t believe that!” said Alice.
“Can’t you?” the queen said in a pitying tone. “Try again, draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.”
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said. “One can’t believe impossible things.”
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
–Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
In recent years there’s been a lot of talk in the community of Christian inspirational romance writers about increasing the level of realism in our novels. The hipsters are writing “edgy” inspirational romance, pushing boundaries long established for the genre, priding themselves on writing “true-to-life” characters while coming darn close to sneering at authors who feel more comfortable–and who believe they are better serving their readers–when they keep to the more conservative path.
Readers, too, are divided on whether they want more “realism” in their inspirational fiction. Some applaud, for example, the more sensual stories while others are dismayed by what they see as the declining standards of the genre.
I’m a middle-of-the-road inspirational writer, which means some of my readers think I go too far and others, not far enough toward “realism.” I once received a letter from a reader who objected to my Christian heroine having sex (before the story opened) with her fiance. “A good Christian would never do that,” the reader chided. Another time, someone thought my hero’s response to an aggravating situation was too controlled. “Christians are human,” the reader informed me. “And in that situation, even a good Christian would have lost control.”
Why do so many readers expect fictional characters to behave in predictable ways? And why are those people so upset when the characters surprise them? Don’t real people often act out of character? Surely it’s not for the reader to decide which thoughts, speech, or actions constitute character violations for a novel’s protagonists. The sole authority on what is or is not in character for a given character is the author who created that character.
Let’s think about reality for a minute. Some readers are quick to protest that certain romance heroines are too good to be true. But didn’t we see a real-life example of goodness in Mother Theresa? I’ve never come across a romance heroine who was quite that selfless, have you? So why do some readers object that certain heroines are “impossibly” sweet? Also, readers who shake their heads over “ridiculous” plotlines might do well to remember that some pretty strange things have happened in the real world. In 1954, a woman was actually struck by a meteor. And just last month, a (transgendered) man gave birth to a baby girl. If we want to talk about things that are difficult to believe, we might start with real life!
Sometimes I think authors of vampire books and time-travel stories and the like have a less frustrating time of it than the rest of us. Nobody expects their characters and plots to reflect the common perception of reality, although I suppose even they hear from readers who insist that the characters in their made-up worlds would never do this or that.
How much “reality” do you insist on in the romance novels you read? What have you been able to believe, and what couldn’t you swallow? Give examples of books that totally sold you and books that left you muttering that such things could never happen and such people could never exist in the real world.
Not exactly what you asked but I was informed I could not label my manuscript as inspirational although it was heavily involved in Christian concepts and the peace found in a loving God because it had sex in it. It didn’t matter that the couple were married and totally monogamous, apparently Christians aren’t allowed to have spicy sex lives with their mates in print.
by Inez kelley July 21st, 2008 at 7:21 amYour focus on vampires and paranormal has caught my attention since my sister in law just borrowed a stack of Sherrilyn Kenyon for beach reading. SK’s Dark Hunter books pretty much sold me on paranormal. While what I liked best was almost all of the heroines are average women - not ‘impossibly beautiful’, etc., the things that happen in the books seem - well, normal. A plausible parallel world … such as while the heroine is trying to solve the mystery/ find the bad guy, she’s still going to work every day because she has to pay the rent.
On the other hand, I’ve given up Laurell K. Hamilton books, mainly the Anita Blake series. Not because the world doesn’t seem plausible, but because of the dramatic shift in the main character’s thoughts and actions. Without a life-changing moment or a severe head injury that caused personality changes, I just don’t understand why a character would do a one-eighty and behave in a manner she had professed to loathe in earlier books of the series.
by Wendy July 21st, 2008 at 7:31 amIn the end, it’s personal what one reader can suspend her disbelief for and another can’t. For example, Romance novels which are blurbed and publicized as being sizzling hot and little else, I can’t. They make me think, “Big whoopty-do, a guy like that will dump the Heroine as soon as her boobs go South.” And, honestly, what kind of father would a vampire make with all that late-night roaming and blood dripping, ruining the new carpet?
I have to believe a Romance novel couple are capable of Happily Ever After, if they were real.
As far as the reader objecting to Christians having good sex even in marriage, well, those of us who are Christians know the truth on that one. Maybe what really bothered her is that it was on the printed page. For Christians, sex is a sacred part of marriage and, therefore, private. And again, while one Christian would never talk about sex because of the privacy issue, I feel perfectly comfortable talking about it like this right here.
It’s all in where they draw the line.
by Kimber An July 21st, 2008 at 8:13 am(Grinning at Kimber An’s Vampire Daddy)
Yep, having sex is BAD.
And since it is the only natural way
to have children,
having children is BAD too.
My poor Mom had six.
I pray for her every day.
Seriously,
I come from the farm.
We talked animal sex
at the breakfast table.
It was appropriate meal conversation.
If the animals weren’t doing it,
there were no babies
and we wouldn’t eat.
I had a vested interest
in their sex lives.
I think our books are bound
to disappoint someone.
We’re trying to match
expectations in reader’s brain.
Almost impossible to do.
I stick to writing the best story I can
by Kimber Chin July 21st, 2008 at 8:32 amand if readers like it,
great.
If they don’t,
well, they might like the next one.
I admit as a Christian I’m toward the realism camp, but I’m 22 and only became a Christian at age 18 after a freshman year at a party school, SO….
I find the world to be an ugly fallen place and I don’t want to sugar-coat that. But I want to show it in a way that I can sleep at night. (I’m not about to break out Bible verses, I think this explanation kinda covers it.)
On the flip side, while I used to be someone who harangued the soppier Christian romance because of the necessity of third-act converstion and the sugar-coating and the no-sex between married people example above…. I can definitely understand the need for it in the broad sweep of the marketplace and I certainly am not going to snort at anybody who prefers it to the edgier stuff. Actually, more power to them for it.
(As a related note, I find it a lot easier to read edgier books than to watch, say, edgier movies. Images stick with you in a way that words often don’t, at least they don’t for me but I don’t visualize much when I read.)
That wasn’t what you asked at ALL, Brenda, so ’scuse me, but this is a topic near and dear as I am a writer who is Christian though not a Christian writer.
by Jess July 21st, 2008 at 8:39 amI’ll accept a lot. I don’t like “rules” but I understand labels. Just as a romance by definition has the HEA, and a detective had darn well better solve the murder in a mystery, if the ubiquitous “someone” says Christian literature can’t show sex, I would accpet it as a label, whether or not I agreed with it.
I’ve stopped reading authors I used to devour when the started following the paranormal mania. I also avoid ‘inspirational’ because I’m not into that, either. But while I might be reluctant to seek out new authors (to me) in that genre, that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t be willing to try. It’s just that since we have all these labels, I’ll gravitate toward books I think I’m more likely to enjoy. Because I don’t want to be thinking “no way,” or “how silly” as I read.
That being said, if an author can make me believe in the story, I’ll accept a lot. Granted, it’s a tougher sell if the writer’s premise goes against my personal beliefs, but give me a character I can care about, and if her conflict relates to her faith, I might accept it. As my high school
by Terry Odell July 21st, 2008 at 8:52 amEnglish teacher used to write on papers: IBT. That meant, “I’ll buy that,” which meant you’d made him accept something he might or might not have agreed with, but you wrote it so it suited the story.
Perfect people don’t need God.
I have to admit, I don’t read inspy anymore because the sugar gave me a stomach ache.
I want to read about deeply flawed people who find God, who aren’t “saved” with bright lights and singing angels and drop everything remotely sinful in their lives-but people who still struggle continuously and find themselves in such strong arms of grace that it ever so slowly transforms their lives.
I want to read about the fictional equivalent of DIVINE NOBODIES.
by Eva Gale July 21st, 2008 at 9:26 amI didn’t intend to spark a discussion on sex and Christian romance novels, but since that’s the way these comments are going, I’ll jump in and say:
1. Conservative Christians do not believe sex is nasty. It’s just something that belongs inside marriage. In THAT context, Christians believe God wants them to ENJOY sex and have it OFTEN in order to cement the marriage bond and to satisfy both partners so they don’t go out looking for what they’re not getting at home.
2. The reason you don’t see sex in Christian romance novels is that there is (currently) NO market for that. People pick up Christian romance novels because they want to read a faith story and also because they DON’T want to read sex scenes. Trust me. I hear from many, many readers who begin their letters and e-mails with, “I’m so glad I found the Love Inspired books! It’s so refreshing to read a good love story without all the sex scenes.” These people are not sexually repressed. They just don’t like “watching” two strangers go at it. (Neither do I. I skip sex scenes in secular romance novels because they don’t titillate me. I know very well what sex is and how it works, thank you. Let’s get on with the romance story!)
by Brenda Coulter July 21st, 2008 at 9:30 amLOL Brenda.
“The reason you don’t see sex in Christian romance novels is that there is (currently) NO market for that. People pick up Christian romance novels because they want to read a faith story and also because they DON’T want to read sex scenes. Trust me. I hear from many, many readers who begin their letters and e-mails with, “I’m so glad I found the Love Inspired books! It’s so refreshing to read a good love story without all the sex scenes.” These people are not sexually repressed. They just don’t like “watching” two strangers go at it. (Neither do I. I skip sex scenes in secular romance novels because they don’t titillate me. I know very well what sex is and how it works, thank you. Let’s get on with the romance story!)”
Exactly why I stopped haranguing those types of books. And I skip the sex scenes in secular books too - I don’t mind them being there, it’s true to the story, I just don’t necessarily need to read them. (Fine, I lose out on a character nuance or something if the author has done her job right, but that’s a whol ‘nother blog post, isn’t it?)
But that’s the key - it’s true to the story, to the characters. I want to read about real people, and as Eva so kindly put it, perfect people don’t need God. (I would play with it and say, perfect people don’t have conflict, and we all know what that means in a story.)
To get somewhat back on topic, I thought of how-far-will-I-believe, though not a romance.
I tried to read Kushiel’s Dart because I was told the world-building and characters were amazing. I couldn’t do it. I just could not believe that Phedre could enjoy pain so much (esp with her pleasure). I actually made it a decent way into the book, skimming the sex scenes, but I finally broke when… Phedre got a tattoo, and practically orgasmed when the tattoo artist started. See, I have a tattoo in the same place, and it just did NOT work for me. Maybe I’d have stopped reading sooner had I been actually reading the sex scenes, I don’t know, but that I couldn’t disbelieve. I know the whole point is Kushiel’s Dart makes her able to enjoy that, but I couldn’t suspend any more.
by Jess July 21st, 2008 at 9:51 am1. Know your audience!
by dew July 21st, 2008 at 11:04 am2. Lots of people pick boogers, should it be included in romances since it’s realism?
I’m working on an inspirational book right now which includes a couple of premarital makeout scenes, and the heroine’s concerns about sex. I don’t think it’s all that explicit, but it’s also pretty honest–I think. So many of us are marrying later in life, even Christian women, and the sex issue is something we have to deal with in dating. I don’t think what I’m writing is all that edgy, just truthful. Once she does get married, though, I’m not going into a bedroom play-by-play! As a Christian woman (albeit, one who was very unfaithful during her 20’s), I know that I am accountable to God for what I write, and while I know He is all in favor of sex, I don’t think he wants me to write for titillation. Besides, my mom will read this stuff
I haven’t read too many inspys that I thought were too sweetness and light–Christian women can be pretty sweet, really. If you want a good inspy heroine who is not too saccharine, you could try Tracey Bateman’s Claire series. She has very believeable reactions to her husband’s divorce and remarriage. The inspys I have a hard time believing are the ones where the heroine supposedly has this great spiritual life, yet we never see her in church, or studying her Bible,or even thinking much on a spiritual level. Prayers, also, should not just be asking God for help–unless your character is spiritually immature. I also have a problem with drinking in these books….but then, my congregation is tee-totaling!
As far as romance in general goes, I can pretty much suspend my disbelief so long as I like the characters and the story is interesting. But I draw the line at too much graphic sex, too much graphic violence, horrible things involving children, that kind of thing. I have also stopped reading books because I firmly believed the heroine would be dead if she really drank that much at one sitting, and one because the swearing was excessive. The one that stands out, however was a book in which the heroine actively pursued a married man. I was not opposed to this, so long as she later realized that this was wrong, and eventually made a better decision. But the whole thing was played so positively, as if I were supposed to want this woman to achieve her goal, that I ended up tossing the book in the trash.
Well, I should think of a pithy way to wrap this up, but my son just came in smelly, sans diaper, so back to the truly believable world
by Leah July 21st, 2008 at 11:13 amdew-
Who is the Inspy market writing for then?
1. unsaved women-in hopes to bring them to salvation?
2. saved women who want an impossible standard to live up to becuase they don’t already have enough of that in their lives?
3. women who just want a ‘clean’ romance to read. Perhaps they pick up the book looking for hope to get though one of their days, maybe they want a reaffirmation? And if this is the case-why the white hot fire of Religion defending it? (becuase it’s more, that’s why)
Inspirationals are supposed to inspire. Who are they trying to inspire then?
My trek into writing erotica started when I found out that most of Robin Schone’s letter writers were Christian women. So are they (Christian erotica readers/writers) the equivilant of booger pickers?
I’m going to regret this, I know.
by Eva Gale July 21st, 2008 at 11:19 amThe thing is, every reader brings her own experience to the table when she picks up a book, and something that might have come directly from the author’s experience/observation might still ring false for the reader if she herself has never witnessed it.
In the past few months I’ve had comments about both an ethnic character seeming stereotyped and a young child sounding too “old” — and yet I’d carefully modeled both characters on actual human beings.
Thankfully, I’ve also had readers remark about how real those characters felt, which just goes to prove, as with everything else, it’s all subjective.
As for the “real” Christian thing…well, in my experience real people do things contrary to the highest standards of their faith or profession or whatever all the time. It’s called being human, and human beings are fallible. They stumble, they make mistakes, they’re not always above temptation. They’re also capable of redemption and growth, which makes for a far more interesting story, IMO, than — as others have already pointed out — one about someone with no growing to do.
Readers don’t have to agree with a character’s actions, or approve of them, but it does make me shake my head to hear a reader say a character would never do something because of their professed faith (or any other aspect of their character). Kinda makes me wonder what sort of world those people are living in, ya know?
by Karen Templeton July 21st, 2008 at 11:27 amOh–thought of a couple of other things! I like Heather Graham’s ghost books, but the fact that they are always so stressed that they forget to eat and everyone tells them how thin they are getting….Ok, maybe that’s envy
Also, I’ve not found a book that gives a realistic picture of life as a dr’s wife…the debt, the pager, the debt, the pager, the….but then, I guess there’s no escapism in that!
by Leah July 21st, 2008 at 11:47 amI’ve never read an inspirational romance before but I like realism. Sandra Brown once wrote a category novel featuring a very sensual relationship between a pastor and a nude model. It was hot.
Not all Christians are perfect, or were perfect before they accepted God. In any kind of book, I want characters I can relate to.
by Jill Sorenson July 21st, 2008 at 11:59 amYou know, Eva, I can see where a Christian woman can kinda be on the fence about erotica. The Bible talks about sex, after all, and “marriage is honorable and the bed undefiled,” so if this helps yr sex life, is there a problem? Also, unlike porn, there aren’t real people involved, so you’re not supporting real people doing really bad things (adultery, fornication), to support really bad choices–like a drug addiction. If you or yr spouse make up your own erotica, is it different than using something another person has written? What about sex manuals? Does it fit in with “…whatsoever is right, whatsoever is pure….? ” (Phil 4:8)I think it can be hard to know when you’re making an acceptable spiritual choice, or when you’re being reactionary, if that’s the right word.
by Leah July 21st, 2008 at 12:00 pmFor me, I can suspend disbelief on the big things if the details ring true. Also, if the character changes are organic and make sense. For instance: I’ve read about this heroine many times. A woman painted as Mother of the Year, who devotes herself to her child to the exclusion of all else, finds attraction and a mystery to solve and suddenly the child is constantly shuttled to a friendly neighbor. And said child isn’t adversely affected. That kind of thing I just couldn’t buy.
by Robyn July 21st, 2008 at 12:06 pmCan I just say “ditto” to Karen Templeton’s post?
Saying that a “good Christian would never do that” is ridiculous. Christians are human and not perfect in any way. Real life means that Christians make mistakes. The story can focus on how the respond to the mistake and how the grow from it.
I’m with Karen, I just shake my head when people say someone would NEVER do something based on any kind of belief.
by TracyS July 21st, 2008 at 12:25 pmEva wrote, “Inspirationals are supposed to inspire. Who are they trying to inspire then?”
Eva, Christian characters making mistakes and learning from them is what the genre is all about. It’s ridiculous to suggest that the novels depict characters that offer women “an impossible standard to live up to.” If the characters were perfect and led perfect lives, there would be no conflicts and no STORIES to be told.
All kinds of people read Christian romance novels. Some are just curious. Others, even many who don’t espouse conservative, evangelical Christianity, enjoy the sweet (no sex) love stories. But most readers are conservative, evangelical Christians. They read the books because they want to be entertained with stories that do not undermine or ridicule the values they hold dear. They enjoy reading about Christian characters who stumble and fall and get up again and learn from their mistakes. They say the books give them hope and draw them closer to God.
The (Christian) inspirational romance market is HUGE and still growing rapidly. In the past five years, Harlequin alone has QUADRUPLED their monthly offerings of inspirational (Steeple Hill) romances–and readers are still clamoring for more.
by Brenda Coulter July 21st, 2008 at 12:36 pmI wish I could name a specific example, but what I find unbelievable (to me) are sweet romances where the hero and heroine are obviously lusting madly and not having sex for no particular reason I can see except it’s the series’ guideline, or where the heroine is a 28-year-old virgin for no particular reason except to drive the plot. There are all sorts of a reasons a person or a couple might refrain from sex, ranging from religious beliefs, as in an inspirational, to deep wounds from past relationships, to being on the run from bad guys and just not having time until the very end (and I have no problem with the author closing the bedroom door at that point if that fits the tone of the book). But I’ve read a few where the reasons seemed manufactured to shoehorn the book into a particular line of category romances.
by Teresa Noelle Roberts July 21st, 2008 at 12:51 pmThank you, Karen.
Eva, no rotten tomatoes from this quarter.
You know, as a religious (yet sexual) person who saved it for marriage for religious reasons well beyond reasonable expectation, having sex and religion woven heavily into a romance is something I’ve always wanted to read. It just doesn’t exist. So I wrote it.
I don’t blame anyone for wanting no sex in their romance. And I don’t blame anyone for want-ing no religion in their romance. But I got a little tired of sex and religion being at odds with each other, so I wrote the book and then I blogged about it. I know the target audience is narrow, if it exists at all, but I’m betting I’m not the only one who wants to see the juxtaposition of spiritual and sexual in a romance.
I do think, however, that with the subdivisions and sub-sub-subdivisions of taste and levels of heat, that authors/publishers should tag their books. That way, the readers who want a clean ro-mance will get exactly that and not get smacked upside the head with something they weren’t expecting because it wasn’t packaged correctly.
I know I’ve been ambushed with something in a romance I wasn’t expecting and, while I would now not have a cow over it, I did then because it just came out of the blue. I haven’t read that author since because I don’t trust her.
by MoJo July 21st, 2008 at 1:03 pmWow, this is a great discussion. We’re having a similar one on one of my Christian writing loops. And it’s been a bit dicey.
I tend toward realism but not salaciousness. I can handle characters having sex, whether they’re married or not, depending on how that fits with the storyline. The end result has to be Christ’s love and redemption. That might mean someone having pre-marital sex discovers how her actions didn’t mesh with Christian teachings. It also might mean that a married couple express their love in a sensual manner.
Here’s the thing: I don’t need the details.
Also, I think one has to consider whether the story is intended to attract (notice, I didn’t say “save”) the unbeliever or to encourage the believer. Different groups of readers with different needs.
I admit I reach for Love Inspireds when I feel the need for a “clean” read. There’s a place for that, just as there is a place for a grittier story.
There are Christian fiction writers including sex and other “grittier” details in their fiction. They just aren’t being published by CBA publishers for the most part. So there is a market. It’s just not the CBA market.
by PatriciaW July 21st, 2008 at 4:43 pmLots of interesting points here.
If the readers of inspirational romances don’t want sex scenes, then to me that’s reason enough not to include them. I don’t think anyone needs to justify it based on religion or whatever; if we’re trying to sell books, then market demand is always enough of a reason to do or not do something. It’s like back when the sweet Regencies were popular; no sex, no religious excuses. It was just how that subgenre worked.
If there are disagreements among substantial numbers of readers about just how hard the main characters are allowed to hit the ground when they fall [wry smile] then maybe that’s something which could or should be addressed by different lines. Everyone is flawed and is going to make mistakes — and I agree that if they never do then there’s no story — but if some readers want to read about more egregious mistakes than others (premarital sex or whatever) then it’d be helpful if there were some way of splitting those types apart from one another so the readers who feel strongly about it either way can easily find what they want.
About realism, that’s a whole ‘nother issue.
In fact, it’s two separate issues, because I think the kind of “unrealism” inherent in romances about vampires and mages and star travel is completely different from the kind of “unrealism” you get when the protag of a perfectly mundane book behaves in an out of character way.
They both come down to the writer playing by her own rules, though. No matter what genre or subgenre you’re writing, it’s up to the writer to communicate clearly to the reader just what the rules are. How do your vampires work? What can and can’t they do? What are their limitations? What can they do but only rarely or with great difficulty, and what are the consequences? Once you’ve laid down the rules, you need to either follow them or make it very clear that you have this particularly good reason for breaking them, usually involving some fundamental change within the context of the setting.
And it’s the same with more mundane characters. As the reader gets to know your character, they feel like they come to know the “rules” under which that character operates. What are her personal rules? Her values, her morals? What does she think is right or wrong? Which sorts of things on the “wrong” side might be justifiable under certain circumstances, and what are those circumstances? Can she deal with a “lesser of two evil” kind of choice, or will she fall apart in the face of what she considers an impossible dilemma, or will she do an end-run around the situation and manage (if the writer allows it) to solve both situations in a positive way? Or will she try to do an end run and wind up messing up both situations?
Of course characters can act outside of their own usual parameters, but they’d better have a good reason for it. Being established early on as a chaotic, random person can be reason enough, but someone with strong beliefs about right and wrong had better be shown to have a much stronger reason for doing something they’d usually consider to be wrong. When readers complain that a character behaves in an out-of-character way, it’s usually because the writer failed to establish that the situational pressures were strong enough to knock them off their usual path.
Yes, anyone can snap and cuss or hit or hurt or whatever, but the farther out of line it is for that character, the harder the writer has to work to establish that yes, there are reasons why the character did that. The readers might disagree that the pressure was enough to actually justify a negative action — that is, they might think it was still wrong to do whatever it was — but if the writer makes them see that the pressure was strong enough for even a usually very “good” character to succumb and do something they’ll regret after, then that’s good enough.
But that’s really the trick of it — establishing what the rules are, whether they have to do with casting spells or turning into a wolf or just the parameters of attitude and behavior of any character — and then obeying those rules or showing the readers that you have an excellent reason for breaking them, if you do need to break them.
The people who are all, “No Christian (or whatever) person would ever have done that, ever!” are just… yeah. Whatever.
Sometimes you just have to thank people for their feedback and move on. One can also amuse oneself for a few moments speculating about just how lonely it gets up on that particular pedestal.
PS — let’s please not get into Mother Teresa as any kind of perfect ideal. She was not purely sweetness and good with no negative characteristics. She was as human as anyone and had some very strong blind spots, which created some pretty significant flaws in her character. If anything, she’s an excellent example of a very human person with both positive and negative traits.
by Angie July 21st, 2008 at 4:47 pmlet’s please not get into Mother Teresa as any kind of perfect ideal. She was not purely sweetness and good with no negative characteristics.
Oh, don’t worry about me.
I am not Catholic, and all I really know about Mother Theresa is that an awful lot of people believe she was darn close to perfect. That’s why I used her to illustrate my point.
by Brenda Coulter July 21st, 2008 at 5:41 pmBoy, did I open a kettle of fish or what?! Didn’t mean to hijack anything. *slinks back under the lurking rock now*
by Inez Kelley July 21st, 2008 at 7:11 pmThis is a very interesting conversation. I am a Christian who never intended to write inspirational, yet my first published piece was an inspirational short. I did intend to keep my sex scenes behind closed doors for the most part and yet my novella coming out next month is full out there and it’s got a vampire in it to boot. It was a hard thing for met to approach at first, as I am a pastor’s daughter. What will everyone think of me?
However, in my reality there are no vampires and Christians do have sex. I tried to write this story the best way I could without compromising the world I had been given to work with (this one novella is part of a series of 25 each with different authors) and without compromising my beliefs.
In the end I know I am writing fiction. It isn’t reality. I hope people who read my words find both entertainment and an escape from their reality for however brief a time. And I hope they were able to suspend their disbelief in doing so.
by Michelle (MG) July 21st, 2008 at 10:14 pmGreat discussion.
by mary beth July 21st, 2008 at 10:22 pmIf I’m reading a book and something happens that I find totally unbelievable, I think the writer hasn’t done their job. That “suspension of disbelief” thing is important in all the books I read, be they paranormal, historical, erotic or inspirational. Someone earlier said it’s all in the details. I agree. I mean, I KNOW (I think) vampires and empaths aren’t real, but I totally believe Charlaine Harris’s Sookie Stackhouse. I know (I think) that Redeeming Love is a complete work of fiction, and yet, the entire time I read the book, I BELIEVED. I finished a book I loved today, RaeAnne Thayne’s A Soldier’s Secret, and something totally unbelievable happened in it. It was totally unbelievable to me because of my current circumstances. And yet, as unbelievable as that one thing was, Thayne had built this incredible story around these incredible characters, and while I sat there going “NO WAY!” I couldn’t put the book down. That’s great story-telling, and as a reader, that’s what I want, regardless of the realism.
I just wanted to say that I LOVE this paragraph from Eva:
“I want to read about deeply flawed people who find God, who aren’t “saved” with bright lights and singing angels and drop everything remotely sinful in their lives-but people who still struggle continuously and find themselves in such strong arms of grace that it ever so slowly transforms their lives.”
by pacatrue July 22nd, 2008 at 4:05 am