Blogger: Mary Keeley
Location: Books & Such Illinois Office
So much is going on in the world today. As a child, I know I was oblivious; yet I can’t help but think that life in my grandmother’s day after WWII, which I referred to in my Wednesday post, was simpler and more stable. (Don’t hesitate to correct me if I’m wrong.)
Writers have no shortage of topics. There are old standards like relationships, romance, sports, history, and so on. But additional topics affecting our lives have surfaced fairly recently. Here are just a few that quickly come to mind: lack of the church’s relevance to the younger generation, the debt crisis, health care, attacks on the family, redefining marriage, legislation to marginalize values in our country, high unemployment rate, rising Middle East tensions.
It behooves all of us as Christians to communicate redemptive perspectives on these topics. I encourage you to continually inform yourself on what takes place in the world that affects our everyday lives. It will help you to convey relevantly and effectively redemptive messages. These recent topics provide an abundance of issues and story potential for contemporary fiction and nonfiction writers. That should get your writing juices flowing!
The concerns produced by these newer topics are common to all of us. That means regardless of the genre you write, fresh writing material awaits you.
Many of the timely topics of today prompt story ideas of hardship and looming crisis. Unfortunately, that’s the way it is. But keep in mind that today’s contemporary story will someday be historical. For the sake of posterity, we need stories written against the backdrop of these current topics. Stories that provide a redemptive message. Stories that honor faithful obedience and show steadfastness in our faith come what may.
In what ways do your thoughts about these timely topics stir your writing juices?
Cynthia Herron
“Attacks on the family” and “redefining marriage…”
As a writer of contemporary Christian romance, I’m discovering how skewed society’s perception of marital views/values/what constitutes “a family” has become. I’m not the moral police, but as a Christian, there are intrinsic, deep-core beliefs that I must adhere to–those which are scriptural. I’m not closed-minded; I’m a blood-bought child of the King. I didn’t write the manual of Life. He did, and I choose to reflect this in my work.
Thank you, Mary, for such great topics this entire week!
Cheryl Malandrinos
What a superb way to round out the week, Mary. While reading this post, I started thinking it doesn’t apply much to me because I don’t write contemporary fiction, but your comment about how those books will one day be historical is so true.
Perhaps, as a writer, I’m choosing to show how faith is just as important now as it was when this country was founded. As you mentioned, this seems to be less relevant to the younger generation, and if we can offer examples of characters whose faith is an integral part of who they are, it will get this generation thinking.
Lee Abbott
I am fascinated how ancient Scriptures speak to our current crises (think Deut 28:12: “You will lend to many nations but borrow from none”). My challenge is to bring a Biblical perspective to our contemporary culture with, as you aptly phrased it, a relevant redemptive message–not a lecture, not a put-down, not an essay on the good ol’ days, but an appealing invitation to grace. I want distressed people to understand how “God’s mercies are new every morning.”
Thank you, Mary, for a thought-provoking series.
Mary Keeley
Should the Lord tarry, I wonder how future generations will react to books written against our current backdrop, written by actual eye-witnesses. Hopefully, these books will renew their commitment to stand firm in their faith in the midst of their own backdrop.
Kate Barker
Mary,
I don’t think you are wrong about life after WWII, but I do think it might have depended on who you were and where you lived. I do not think Japanese people, who had been rounded up and sent to internment camps, had a very easy or simple time re-building their lives after they had been stripped of all their possessions. Nor do I think African-Americans lived a very “stable” or simple life in the South. (Consider the rise of the KKK opposing the civil rights movement.) I can’t imagine what it must have been like in Europe, England or even in the new country of Israel.
We all have those “happy” places and times in our lives… and we long for them, but our experiences aren’t universal. And that’s what makes writing so appealing. We can “imagine” what our character’s life must be like at any moment in time, and in any setting we choose. And we can control the outcome!
Happy Friday, and happy weekend!
Peter DeHaan
Mary,
I wonder if by writing with these recent topics in mind if we could end up limiting ourselves.
The interest in a particular hot topic could have come and gone before we get the book written and/or find a publisher. Or if the book is published, will it look prematurely dated when the next new area of interest arises?
Janet Ann Collins
I guess I’m old, because I remember growing up after WWII and some of the safe atmosphere was simply because we didn’t know about a lot that was happening, including the things Kate mentioned. I was shocked to learn about racial discrimination in the early 60s, but it had been going on all along. Back then the majority of Americans went to church regularly, but I doubt that there were many more real Christians than there are today. A lot of them just went because everyone they knew did so, and even if they intellectually agreed with Christian theology there are probably as many people today who actually have Jesus as their Boss (aka Lord) as there were then.
Mary Keeley
Points well taken, Kate, Peter, and Janet. And you brought up timely topics from the past that are great story ideas. I would love to read an interesting, redemptive story set against the backdrop of current timely topics too. Some of the current topics aren’t going to go away any time soon.
Lynn Dean
What a wonderful post! Just getting to it this morning after a few days away on business.
As a historical fiction writer, I am finding myself drawn lately to Depression/Dust Bowl era stories. (Think of “The Waltons”…but with a twist.) The lessons we learned then are timeless and certainly apply now because GOD is timeless and applies now. 🙂
Erica
Right on, Cynthia!
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