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Thursday Technicalities: Sub-Plots

Publishing Journey

Introduction

Today, we’re talking about sub plots. Last week, we talked about plot complexity, so this is the perfect point to discuss sub plots as the two often work together. To start, I’ll define sub plot. Sub plots are the plots taking place while the main plot is still moving forward. They’re extra layers, if you will.

Differentiating Between a Plot and Sub Plot

First, we need to know the difference between plots and sub plots. Sub plots are smaller plots within the larger, overarching story goal. They often resolve through the course of the novel or may even happen mostly in the background. Plots, on the other hand, are the main stories of a novel. The book must have the plot at least or it won’t be a story.

Examples

This concept can be a bit abstract, so let’s look at a few examples.

Way of Kings

In Way of Kings, the main plot lines are focused on Dalinar’s struggle to understand the strange visions he receives, Shallan’s quest to steal a fabrial (magical device) to replace one her family broke and now owes to a nasty group of thugs, and Kaladin’s struggle to survive battle after battle as a bridge carrier while unprotected from enemy fire. Those are the main plots in the story, at least to start.

But Sanderson also introduces many sub plots. For example, there is a plot to kill Jasnah, the woman Shallan is both learning from and attempting to steal a fabrial from. Dalinar and his sons are attempting to navigate both infighting between various nobles involved in their fight against the invading Parshendi and to figure out how to win the war for territory they are engaged in. Kaladin discovers he has abilities he didn’t know were still possible to possess and in his struggle to survive, he turns his focus on turning his bridge crew into a force to be reckoned with. Then there are the interludes about characters seemingly unconnected to the main story, which introduces still more sub plots. None of these are the main plots of the story, but they’re all strong features and play into the main plots.

Stephen Leeds Novellas

A simpler example would be Sanderson’s Stephen Leeds Novellas. Each book has a new case for the impressive Stephen Leeds and his many “aspects”. But Sanderson adds layers by giving the books the same underlying sub plot. He’s looking for someone in his past, and time is running out as his aspects go rogue one at a time, dying off as his mind is unable to cope with them all. The girl from his past might have answers, and so he searches. It takes a back seat to his cases, but as the last book approaches, that sub plot morphs into a plot and becomes the focus of the final book.

Using Sub Plots

Hopefully the examples have helped you to understand the difference between plot and sub plot. Now let’s discuss how and where to use them.

First, the size of the story determines whether you can have a lot of sub plots. A short story, for example, probably doesn’t have the room for much addition in the area of sub plot. You add dimension in other ways when you have a 10K word limit, but you don’t spend time discussing events unrelated to the main story in a strong way. For novellas, you can comfortably fit one or two to add complexity. In a novel with a thousand pages like Way of Kings, you can fit quite a few if you do it well.

Second, all sub plots should connect to the main plot whether the sub plot belongs to a main or secondary character. The connection may not be obvious at first when the sub plot is part of a longer book or if it spans several books. Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives are one great example of ways to use sub plots to leave readers guessing at the larger plot’s conclusion or to introduce surprising twists in the story.

There are many ways to incorporate sub plots, and the best method for you depends on your book. To know where to introduce them and how to develop them, you need to know where the story is headed and what the best points for the sub plots to intersect the main plot are. This is why I’m such a big advocate for doing at least basic plotting. You need a foundation to work from if you want your novels and series to have the type of complex plot that can surprise, hold attention, and convert casual readers to avid fans.

Conclusion

At this point, you should have enough information to start working out your story’s sub plots. Does it have them? Are they underdeveloped or not brought into play in the right moments? If your story is already complete in a rough draft form, go back and look for sub plots and any issues with them. If your story isn’t done or is still in the ideas stage, make sure you think about this while planning and writing. It will add life to the story in the most unexpected ways.

Sunday Stories – Set-Apart Living Pt. 1

Ariel Paiement

Introduction

One of the things I’ve been thinking about—and have been finding God poking at me about recently—is the idea of being set apart to Him. All too often in life, it’s easy to become so busy and so focused on our goals that we, as Christians, crowd God out. Even though the activities themselves may not be wrong, in and of themselves, if they’re putting God in second place or causing us to “fit” God in, then they’re getting in the way of a life that is holy (or set apart) before God. This will be a two-part series since I know there’s a lot of information here. This week, we’ll focus on the definition of set-apart living, why it matters, and what it isn’t. Next week, we’ll talk about how we can practically live a set-apart life according to Scripture as Christians in an increasingly hostile world.

How Do I Define Set-Apart Living?

It’s important to note here that, while set-apart living is often discussed in the arena of sexual purity or encouraging kids not to do drugs and drink, that is not all there is to it or even the main focus that we should have in discussing the subject. Sometimes some speakers or pastors will talk about it in a broader sense. Here I’m going to talk about it in the broader definition. I define set-apart living as living a life that is focused entirely on God. Set-apart living or living a holy life is living within the world but not being of the world. A person living this sort of life is going to look markedly different in their daily lives from someone who is not living set-apart to God. They won’t do, say, or listen to the same things as the world around them does. To those who do not see them frequently, the difference in their way of living may not be, immediately, clear. To those who see them every day, however, it is obvious that they are not the same and that the difference can only be attributed to a close, personal walk with God, not mere religion or personality.

What Does It Matter?

These days, not many appreciate a man or woman who has wholly given themselves to God. People who do so are often called radicals or, worse yet, cult leaders. I know a few good Christian leaders that have been accused of that. It has usually been on the grounds that they’ve chosen to live a life that exemplifies high standards of purity that “no one can expect to achieve” or that they preach a lifestyle that can be lived without knowing sin in God’s power.

And yet, these radicals and “cult leaders” do manage to achieve these standards by the grace of God. They are not perfect, and they do sin. However, they are not living in a lifestyle that encourages or fosters it, and they have removed the hindrances that might cause them to stumble in their walk with God or stagnate in the same. As such, the work He has done through their ministries is nothing short of astounding in most cases.

It has been my observation that many Christian leaders wish they’d see this success, but they rob themselves of it because they focus on everything they’re doing for God but forgo a focus on the One they’re doing it for. They talk well, but they do not practice the principles laid out for those wishing to see God move in their lives. They do not seek to utterly remove self from the equation so that in every way they may exemplify Christ, and so they meet with mediocre success.

Even in the church, it’s common to get weird looks from people if you choose to live entirely set apart to God. You don’t have to live like a monk in a monastery to get those looks, by the way. Things as simple as refusing to make fun of someone, not engaging in gossip, or refusing to watch, listen to, or read even certain “Christian” things are enough in many cases. 

Given the Reasons to Bother

So, in a world that doesn’t value any semblance of godly living and with a church that is increasingly following suite, what’s the point? Why bother with this at all instead of just going with the rest of the world and much of the church in deciding that holy, godly living is impossible and entirely unnecessary?

The obvious reason, to me, is that we are to seek God’s approval, not men’s applause (Gal. 1:10). We are bought with a price, according to 1 Corinthians 6:20, and we are no longer our own but His. If we are truly His, then, there ought to be a desire within us to live a life pleasing to Him and to be in fellowship with Him, not with the world. This does not mean, of course, that we never fall or that we never choose sin over God. We, like the Israelites, sin time and again. But a Christian who is living in the Spirit and not according to the flesh is able to feed themselves in the Word and is convicted by God of that sin. A Christian living carnally or in the flesh is unable to feed themselves in the Word and needs to be rebuked for failing to follow even the most obvious of commands (See 1 and 2 Corinthians for an example of a church in this state). The Bible has a great deal to say to Christians about living in the Spirit instead of the flesh, and it is clear that we, even as His children, have the choice to live in sin. But a believer who is rooted in Him and exemplifies Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians, in Ephesians 1:16-23, will not live in sin forever. The fellowship they have known is broken when they live in sin, and those who have known that fellowship feel its loss keenly. They, then can continue in sin only if they sear their conscience and grieve the Spirit.

This then leads to the other reason which, though not our main focus as Christians, is no less important to our lives than the first was. The second reason that set-apart living matters is because it brings life more abundant. It brings a life that, while it is not always free of hardship and persecution, is filled with peace, joy, and fulfillment as you walk with Him. So, the only reason we need for why this matters is that He saved us to Himself and asks it of us, He also promises us blessings and more, beyond the already immense kindness he showed in saving our souls from damnation.

If we are His, adopted into His family through grace, then we are no more the servants of sin but are instead the servants of God. This matters because true Christians can never be content living in known sin without searing their conscience and grieving the Holy Spirit. Paul warns us not to do this very clearly in Ephesians 4:30. It brings grief to God’s heart when we choose the world’s way after all He did to free us from that into a better way in Him. We are, therefore, called on to live lives set apart to God even as we live in the midst of a wicked, corrupt world, and so we then must sin if we put anything before Him. 

There is no sin we can do that is greater than robbing God of His rightful place and His glory in our lives. To do so is to deny the Creator His rights and our God His temple (1 Cor. 3:10-23). The other sins that we often focus on in the church, such as sexual immorality, drunkenness, addictions to drugs, and other “big ticket” sins, are (though clearly wrong and denounced in Scripture) merely the outgrowth of a life that is not given over to God. It is a life that is putting self and flesh on the throne, not God and Spirit.

These sins have no place in the Spirit-filled Christian life. If seen, other Christians, living in the Spirit, are instructed to go to them in love and rebuke the behavior so that they may turn around before they face the fullness of God’s corrective power in their lives (1 Cor. 5). These Christian brothers and sisters who are rebuked may not return immediately, but those who are truly His will return.

When they do, we are to greet those who do return not as though they are unbelievers but as brothers (2 Cor. 2:5-11; James 5:19-20). So then, choosing to live a life to ourselves, in any area, is to refuse our Lord His rightful place, and to worship anything (self, things, or people) above God is idolatry. As such, living a life set-apart to Him matters for these reasons: we are called to it, we are bought with a price and are not our own, we cannot be wholly blessed if we do not live in Him, and we sin if we place anything above Him in our lives.

What Set Apart Living Is Not

We’ve talked about what set-apart living is and why it matters, but I would be remiss if I didn’t touch on what set-apart living isn’t. Often, the object to holiness or set apartness is that it might lead—or must lead in the minds of some—to austere, monk-like living. While not everyone has this objection and some are honest enough to admit they simply prefer living their way instead of God’s way, many of us who started out more like the Corinthian believers and have had to be brought into this set-apart living by God’s firm but loving hand went through the fears that we would lose friends, might have to give up everything to go sit in a cave somewhere to read our Bibles all day, or might need to become monks. While these fears are blown out of proportion a bit, some people really do have these concerns. Some of us have sat there and thought, “Set apart living is impossible because there’s no way I can spend five or six hours a day just reading and praying.” 

The fact of the matter is that isn’t what set-apart living is. Many of the men and women we see in both segments of Christianity lived lives that, while centered on God, involved regular jobs and living in a society that didn’t want them there because they were considered “radical”. God calls on us to live in the Spirit, to be transformed into His likeness, and not to be conformed to the world. He does not say “Dress in sackcloth, eat nothing but the simplest food you can find, and never do anything but read your Bible and pray.”

The Heart of the Issue

While some people genuinely are unsure of what it means to live a set-apart life and are worried they won’t be able to do so and live life too, the real issue is all too often not what we will or will not have to give up in particular. Instead, many who object to set-apart living object because they realize that a set apart life means dying to self. They’re okay with giving up things they think would be good things to give up to show how good they are as people. Some of them may even genuinely believe that giving up things while still living for themselves is living a life that’s “good enough”. But while these people may look good on the outside, if you start talking to many of them about areas of life they don’t want to give up but that are not in line with the Bible, the responses are rarely good. They can range from “Well, that’s not really necessary for today” to “I don’t think God cares” to “That’s one of those outdated things that only old-fashioned or holier-than-thou types do.” This is, of course, by no means a complete list of excuses we as human beings can come up with for why we don’t need to remove the things God has told us to remove. My own excuses usually have been along the lines of “Well, it’s not that bad” or “I’m not doing this really bad thing, so this one little compromise isn’t really a problem”. But they all boiled down to “I want to do this, and I don’t care if God cares or not.”

Living a set apart life will mean giving up the self-focused life and suffering ridicule for the things we choose to omit to make our focus our King instead of ourselves. That much is a guarantee. And too often, we have no desire to put God in charge because we’ll lose friends, activities, or things that we want more than close friendship with our Lord.

Conclusion

What a sad state of affairs when even some who claim the name “Christian” prioritize friends, things, and their own pursuits over the One who died one of the worst deaths known to man to rescue our souls from eternal damnation. He did all of that so we could have eternal fellowship with Him! At times, I daresay, we have all been guilty of doing this, but it should be the exception, not the rule, friends. Could we deliver any more sound a slap to the face of God than to accept His grace but then refuse to give anything of ourselves in a spirit of love, duty, and gratitude to our Savior? More and more of late, God has been showing me that He is not just Savior. He is also Lord and Master, titles which demand our respect and our devotion, not just a vague sense of gratitude for what He did with zero inclination to live as He has required.

Thursday Technicalities: Plot Complexity

Publishing Advice

Introduction

Today we move away from our discussions on character to discussing plot. A good plot is one that is both character driven and intricate, but many new authors (and even some who have been at it for a while) struggle in this area. Often, writers are unsure how to deepen plot, make it interesting, and keep it from becoming predictable. Today, our discussion will focus on the idea of intricacy and complexity in plot, but in future weeks, we will also discuss how writers can make plot less predictable, up the stakes, increase tension, and make things matter more in relation to the characters. We will also discuss sub plots and how you can properly use them to add dimension to the book and to keep life in every page. Let’s get started on today’s discussion, shall we?

The Importance of Complexity and Intricacy in Plot

While characters are the lifeblood of a good story, plot is the foundation. If you don’t have an interesting plot, the story will still end up collapsing or falling short. You need both elements to make the story go well. It is true that you can have a somewhat generic plot (as is often the case in many romance novels) and manage to make the book somewhat memorable if only because the characters are memorable. However, if you want a truly exceptional novel, the plot needs to be just as exceptional as the characters.

This makes complexity and intricacy in a plot integral parts of any story that an author wants to polish until it shines. I don’t mean that it has to be the level of complex or intricate you see in many murder mysteries or thrillers, though it could certainly become that complex depending on your genre. What I mean is that there should be many layers to the plot. It should not be simplistic, nor should the layers clash in such a way that there is no subtlety to them at all. Crafting fiction is an art, and it must be done with balance and artistry to be done beautifully. 

There is a great deal of variety in how this goal might be accomplished when it comes to writing. You’ve probably heard that there’s no one way to do things as a writer. This is very true in most areas, with the exception, in some instances, of grammar-related issues. But there are just as many wrong ways (or ways that do not work) to do things. Therefore, our goal is to know some of the key tools that will help us to do the right things so that we can succeed.

Giving Plot Complexity and Intricacy

One of the first, and simplest, ways to add complexity to plot is to ensure that nothing is too easy for your hero. Make sure that your protagonist can’t get what they want easily. This could mean they have an internal conflict that’s preventing them from having one thing if they go after the second thing they want equally, or it could mean that some external force gets in the way. But what other options are there for adding much-needed complexity besides this first, obvious one?

Obstacle Difficulty Mounts

The obstacles that show up in their way should be increasingly difficult to surmount. What do I mean by this? Well, take Trader Prince of Aleshtain for example. In my current work-in-progress, the goal of both main characters is ultimately freedom. But one thing after another stands in the way. For Rhubhian, the female lead, she has the entire Aleshtainian system, which has enslaved her in the way. Then she has Eras, the male protagonist, and her own feelings in the way of what she perceives as freedom. Even once she has a chance to live free, she isn’t able to live with the brand of freedom she’s won back for herself because she has lost the other thing–love–that she now realizes she wanted more than her “freedom”. 

For Eras, he finds that duty, his father, the priesthood in his kingdom, and financial straits keep him from gaining his freedom. Then, in a desperate bid for freedom, he signs a contract with his father–the king–that takes an incredibly risky gamble with his future while allowing him at least the chance to win it. But even here he meets obstacles as the pieces he was relying on to allow him his victory prove to be against him instead. The two of them face problem after problem, some due to intentional intervention from outside forces and enemies and some due to simple misfortune and life getting in the way.

But that’s what keeps the story moving. The goal is always just out of reach or, at their worst moments, seems impossible to achieve. In a very real way, failure is always on the table for these two, and while it may or may not be how things end for these characters, it should always be something you consider an option.

Multiple Plot Lines

Another way you can add complexity is with the introduction of several plot lines. Each main character has their own thread to follow in the tapestry that is your story. Sometimes those threads will tangle with other threads along the way, and at times, a character may even have multiple threads at once as they pursue multiple goals. But either way, however many threads you have, if you are able to successfully bring them all together, you can create a plot that is complex and seemingly genius or effortless to any who don’t see the hard work that went into it.

Subplots

Finally, you can introduce subplots. We’ll discuss these in more detail later on, but essentially these are the other threads in the story that run beneath the overarching story goal or plot. So, in the case of my earlier example, freedom for the two main characters is the overarching story goal, but the attempt to keep Rhubhian safe from others in the castle would be a sub plot for Eras. It adds complexity, but it is only an underlying thread in the larger tapestry and the goals both are ultimately striving to achieve. The goal is not to keep Rhubhian safe and a slave for the rest of her life. The goal is her freedom. Keeping her safe is just a necessary journey or sub-goal along the way.

Weaving It All Together

In the end, the best method to add complexity and intricacy to a plot is to have several threads all running throughout the story. Some may be immediately obvious in their connections while others may be less so, but in the end, you have to bring them all together. 

One example of this is Pathway of the Moon, a piece I wrote about a year ago and am in the process of editing. In this story, the book has two distinct storylines for much of the book: that of the assassin-vigilante, Leo Ryalin, and that of High Imperial Knight, Alrian Haridan. These two interact under various aliases throughout the course of the book without ever realizing who the other is until, finally, circumstances, an investigation into the assassin on Haridan’s part, and the connecting link–a maid Ryalin rescued–end up bringing Haridan to an Aha kind of moment.

Examples

But the two have entirely separate story lines for much of it and only hear about the other’s story line when they happen to hear rumors or are directly investigating, in the case of Haridan. The clues pile up, and while the reader knows that Ryalin is the assassin, they begin to realize there’s far more to him than just that as Haridan’s investigation uncovers threads of his ties to other happenings in the kingdom, which were seemingly unrelated.

Another example, which is far more masterful at tying things together than my own work is, would be Brandon Sanderson’s Stormlight Archives. If ever you want to see a master of plot and character in action, you should read Sanderson. As an author and editor, I can imagine (and in some cases know all too well) how much work goes into making the kind of sweeping plot lines, intricate connections, and unexpected twists Sanderson utilizes work properly. If this is an area you’re trying to improve, read this series. I say that as someone who learned most of what she knows about plot intricacy and characterization from simply reading and observing this master in action via his own work.

The Concept in Action

Practically speaking, this is an exercise in imagination, logic, and creativity. You can find some initial connections quite easily by considering your characters, your major plot lines, and your locations. Donald Maas, in his Writing the Breakout Novel, suggests that you write them down and start pairing a character with one item each off the other lists. Some connections aren’t going to make any sense, but often you’ll find ones that do that you never anticipated would work. Write those ones down to keep. Make notes on them. Use them. It will make the novel better and far more complex if you can find a way to weave all of the key connections you’ve made together.

Conclusion

Good plot, like good character, is something you must develop. It takes time and planning. Some books may require much more formal planning than others, but all will require some degree of planning or else a great deal of revision if you want your plot to shine like it can. While the effort may to some seem an unworthy use of time, I can promise you that this is an area you don’t want to skip. It’s an area that Donald Maas focuses on heavily in his book because, as a literary agent, he rejected thousands of manuscripts due to issues with plot. It pays to pay attention to and to develop soundly the plot for any book you’re endeavoring to write. Don’t ignore this crucial piece of crafting a novel.

Author Interview: Kandi J. Wyatt

Today, I have Kandi J. Wyatt with me. Another of the authors in the anthology, Glimpses of Time and Magic, Kandi is the author of “Apprentice of Amadan Dubh”. Thanks for being here, Kandi! Let’s jump right in.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’ve been married to my knight in shining armor for almost twenty-eight years. We have five children between the ages of eighteen and thirty-one. I wear many hats. When I’m not wife and mom, I’m teacher, author, photographer’s assistant, and artist. To say the least, my days are very busy. 

What kind of fantasy do you write, and what got you into it?

I write mostly middle grade to transitional young adult fantasy with dragons. In 2009, on a family vacation we drove past a sign for Three Mile Canyon and envisioned a dragon breathing fire down a boxed canyon. I put that together with a conversation with my daughter and the world of Dragon Courage was born.
I really don’t know why dragons are in my stories, but they seem to pop up whether I want them to or not! My husband introduced me to dragon stories. My kids, though, handed me books and said, “Mom, you have to read this!” Those became some of my favorite books, and they have dragons. So maybe it’s a way of recreating that feeling I had when I read Dragon Rider or Cora and the Nurse Dragon.

What genres do you read, and do you write the same ones?

I read more genres than I write. Some of the genres I read are science fiction, fantasy (all kinds), westerns, action/adventure, historical fiction, and pretty much anything that has good characters and decent plot. As far as writing, I mainly write fantasy, but I do have a historical fiction, The One Who Sees Me, and wrote one short science fiction piece.

What are some of the things you like to do to relax?

Relax, what is that? Some people claim I don’t have time for it, but in reality, writing and my art is relaxing. Most evenings are dedicated to family time. We’ll watch anime that’s been vetted by our twenty-three year old or play games. Drawing is also relaxing.

Can you tell us about your current work-in-progress?

Well, like most authors, I have a couple of projects in the works. I just sent the one manuscript off to the editor. It’s in the Dragon Courage world and will be released on November 3. At first it was supposed to be a novella, but it’s turned into a full-fledged book. Those who know the Dragon Courage world will be excited to see Mere and Jareem back and in action. Those new to the series should have no problem jumping in. I’ve had three beta readers take a look, and they were able to understand the action and characters.

Then I have one I’m working on a first draft. The Tilted Planet series will be multiple books based on a planet that has had a catastrophe knock it off its normal axis. Tilted Planet: Monarchs follows the lives of several of the rulers of Muintir, a realm in the habitable daylight areas of the planet. Hest is a stable hand at a local inn in the northern dusk lands. A stranger comes along and purchases Hest’s apprenticeship. Thinking he’s been sold, Hest follows along with the warrior. Along the way, he uncovers the misunderstanding and agrees to stay as the apprentice. He uncovers plots on the king’s life, rescues the princess, and finds his life completely changed when he befriends a silver dragon. The first three books focus on Hest. Books 4-5 focus on the princess he rescued, who becomes queen, and Book 6 is the story of their daughter. Book 7 will be the first king of Muintir. I’m currently working on book 6.

If you’ve published (self-published or traditionally published), can you tell us a little about the experience?

In 2015, I attended a writer’s conference. One of the presenters stated that her publisher was accepting submissions. I went home, took a leap of faith, and submitted Dragon’s Future. Eight weeks later, it was accepted! You can see the video of the whole process on my youtube channel. Then on April 30, 2016, I received notice that the publishing company was going out of business at the end of May. I was given the opportunity to self-publish if I wished.

That month of May was one of my busiest months ever! I had three Dragon Courage books that were already published and a fourth that was scheduled for publication that summer, as well as The One Who Sees Me. I was struggling to get those four books up for self-published and working on editing and proofing book 4 of the Dragon Courage series. Since then, I’ve published a total of twelve books, and have three stories in different anthologies.

What were your inspirations for writing?

I write for my kids. When I first wrote the Dragon Courage series, they were little—early elementary and junior high. Now, I write for my students. My husband has been the inspiration of many stories. He’ll ask the ‘what if…’ questions that get me going.

Who got you into writing when you first started?

I loved writing as a kid. In high school I attended my first writers conference. It was designed for high school students, and my English teacher nominated me to go two years in a row! Then I became a mom and life was too hectic to write, until 2006 when I was down sick and read Timothy Zahn’s Dragon and Soldier. At the back of the book was a questionnaire for kids to help them write. I took a couple of the questions and wrote Journey from Skioria.

Was there anyone who came alongside you at any point when you were struggling in your writing journey and made a real difference? If so, who and why?

A couple of stories come to mind on this. In April, 2016, the week before I received the news of the publishing company going out of business, I had two students come up to me at separate times. The first said, “You should write a story about a girl, some horses…and the ocean.” The pause was because she’d lost her dad to a boating accident that year. What she didn’t know is I had a book planned about girls and horses and a unicorn. The second was a boy who said I should write a story about Sasquatch. These were the perfect encouragement I needed to make it through the next month to move into self-publishing.

Two years later, I was struggling to write An Unexpected Escapade, the story of the girls, unicorn, horses, and the ocean. I couldn’t get the words out. Part of it was my own struggling through that student’s grief. Not only had she lost her dad, she also lost her mom to a heart attack—all in under a year! At the time when I was trying to write, I discovered Realm Makers, a group for Christians who write speculative fiction. They have a group message for sprints. Heather Halverstadt was the key to helping me get words on paper and finish out An Unexpected Escapade.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors and writers just starting on the writing journey?

Write! Yep, keep writing. Perfect your craft, but finish a draft. Then finish another. Each draft finished is one step closer to publication.

What is one thing you wish someone had told you before you started writing?

It’s possible! I never dreamed of being published—let alone having fifteen books published with a sixteenth in process and another eight waiting for their turn. 

What’s your favorite book, and who’s your favorite literary character? Why?

Favorite book? I’d say that’s a really tough question. I have so many! Take a look at my blog and check out the Books List. You’ll find my favorites there. Suffice it to say H. L. Burke, Cornelia Funke, Timothy Zahn, Davis Bunn, Marc Secchia, and Kara Jaynes are authors I’ll read anything they write.

Literary character: That’d be Sorrel from Dragon Rider by Cornelia Funke. I love her irascible temperament. The best way to enjoy Sorrel is through the audio book narrated by Brendan Fraser. Sorrel became the inspiration for one of my characters in An Unexpected Exploit.

Conclusion

That’s it for today’s interview! Thanks again for being with us, Kandi. If anyone wants to know more about Kandi, you can find her at the following locations on the web:

Facebook

Amazon

Website

Want your own copy of Glimpses of Time and Magic? Get the paperback now! The ebook will be out on the 28th, but it is available for pre-order as well if you are interested in that.

Thursday Technicalities: Motivation

Introduction

The last few weeks, we’ve been discussing characterization. So far, we’ve discussed internal conflict, acting out of character, and secondary characters. Today’s focus will be motivation.

We all have reasons we do the things we do. Those reasons may or may not relate to whatever internal or external conflict going on, but they will drive our responses to every aspect of life. Our characters should be no different. Even if our readers don’t get to see every motive our characters have, the motives should be there. You, at least, need to know them, particularly if the character is a main character.

What is Motivation?

Motivation differs from internal conflict in that internal conflict is wanting two opposing things while motives are the answers to why you want what you do. No one is ever without a why behind their desires, thoughts, and actions, even if they themselves have no idea what that motive is at the time.

Why Motivation Needs to Be In Your Work

Why does motivation need to be in your story even if your readers don’t ever notice it? Simply put, because your readers notice when it isn’t there. They might not always recognize it when it’s just an undercurrent to the character’s actions, but if it isn’t there, they’re going to notice. They’ll spend energy, in many cases, wondering what those motives are. If you’re going to reveal them during the character arc, this may be fine so long as you’ve written the character in a way that makes it clear to the reader they have a hidden agenda. If not, you’re going to have a problem. Readers who don’t drop the book due to feeling that the characters are flat may leave at the end of the book feeling dissatisfied without even knowing why. As such, motivations need to exist in your characters even when they’re only undercurrents.

Developing Motivations

I’ve told you how important motivations are, but now some of you may be wondering, “How do I develop them in my characters?” Some of us may be lucky because our characters show up in our heads with their own personalities and motivations already at least partially there, and our jobs become straightforward: find a way to put that on the page. But for many, that’s not the case.

My suggestion, regardless of which you are, is to start with their internal conflicts. Figure out why they want those two opposing things. From there, expand out to what drives them as a person. What are the goals they have that may motivate them to act? What strongly held beliefs do they have that drive them to draw lines on what they will and will not do? What matters most to them and why does it matter?

Strengthening Motivations

Once you’ve developed motivation, the next step is to strengthen those motivations. Make sure it really matters to the character. The danger here is that the things they want and the reasons they want them might not matter enough. If they don’t, then these motivations won’t work well as motivations because as soon as it’s easier to cave or to head another direction, the character will. So take a good look at the reasons behind the actions they’re going to take and ask how you can make those reasons matter so much that changing motivations would require a major turning point (at least for the core motivations that will drive core actions).

For example… In my current WIP, Trader Prince of Aleshtain, the male lead wants his freedom more than anything else. But the reasons why he wants his freedom are more powerful than the desire itself. He wants his freedom because he’s trying to flee his father’s oppressive thumb, escape assassination because those behind the throne don’t want him to take his rightful place on it, and find a way to be able to marry the woman he loves. The actions he takes striving for his freedom are motivated by a desire for freedom, but the desire itself is motivated by even deeper convictions and needs. Those convictions and needs matter so much, and come to matter even more in the course of the book, that staying and doing his duty becomes practically impossible. In my character’s case, his internal conflict is tied up in this motivation of wanting freedom and the further motivations behind that because, as the Crown Prince, he also feels strongly bound by duty to stay and try to lead the country even though it doesn’t want him or the kind of king he would be. But in your character’s case, you don’t have to necessarily tie their motives entirely to the internal conflict. There should be motivations behind the two opposing forces in their internal conflict, certainly, but the motivations that mostly drive their actions do not have to be solely tied to said internal conflict.

Conclusion

I hope you’ve seen how key motivations are to your work. Even if readers don’t notice them consciously, the motivations need to be there for your story to work. Take some time to look at your characters. Are their motivations clear to you? Are they clear in the text (with the exception of any motives you’re intentionally hiding for a later reveal)? Have you made them matter enough? If the answer to those questions is no or maybe not, then you’ve got work you can do to improve the story. So do it! It will only make the story stronger.

Author Interview: James Quinlan Meservy

Hey all! We’ve got James Quinlan Meservy here with us today to share about his experience as one of the authors in our new anthology, Glimpses of Time and Magic, which will be releasing at the end of this month. Since James has been with us on the blog before, I gave him a new set of questions to answer just to keep things fresh. Thanks for taking the time to be here, James!

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

(JQM)

I am James Quinlan Meservy,

Fantasy Author Extraordinaire,

Creator of Creatures,

Embellisher of Events

And Firebrand

“Stories That Kindle Imagination”

I have a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology, with an emphasis in Archaeology, and minors in Russian and Geology from Utah State University.  Unlike many of my fellow authors, I was not a fan of books as a kid.  I was more of a TV, movie, and video game kid, who learned to love to read as a senior in high school, and learned to love writing in my late twenties, early thirties.  It was long, gradual process to teach myself to love to turn my dreams into stories.

Glimpses is a historical fantasy anthology, so have you ever written this genre before, and if so, what got you into it?

(JQM)

You know, I actually have written some historic fantasy before.   My novella, The Viscount of Sternboard, A Realm of the Light Novella, is a Titanic story set in my fantasy realm, The Realm of the Light, which is a parallel realm to our own. 

What was the inspiration for your short story?

(JQM)

My story included in Glimpses of Time & Magic is Excal’Byr, A Realm of the Light Short Story.  It was inspired by my love of Arthurian Lore and Camelot. 

What was the most difficult part of writing the story?

(JQM)

Bleen, I don’t think any part of this story was difficult.  I have been thinking of how to fit Camelot and Excalibur into the Realm of the Light for several years.  So when I started writing, it just flowed out.  So, I guess the only real difficulty I had with this story was to find the time to write it out.

What was the easiest part of writing it?

(JQM)

The writing of it. The story flowed out of my mind and into words with ease.

Can you tell us about what you’re working on now with the anthology drawing close to its release date?

(JQM)

The Cross of Roses, A Fantasy Thriller from the Realm of the Light.

The Cross of Roses takes place some three or four years after the end of The United, and is about a serial killing priest who uses magic to murder the unrepentant sinners in his congregation.  This one is NOT a YA story, though I do keep the content fairly clean, which in this case means no sexually explicit scenes, limited vulgarity, and limited gore.

Who was most helpful on your journey with your short story in Glimpses?

(JQM)

The most helpful person with Excal-Byr?  Well, that’s easy.  My editor, Dorcia Beland.  She is a fantastic editor, and helped me fix a few problems that came up in the writing.  Second to her is my wife, who is always willing to talk out a story with me.

What advice would you give to aspiring authors and writers who are considering anthologies?

(JQM)

Read anthologies and short stories.  Get a feel for how they flow, how they fit into a writer’s larger literary world.

Second to that is to write.

What is the most difficult part of being involved in anthologies for you?

(JQM)

Most difficult part?  Probably getting all the contributing authors to agree about price, sales objections, marketing strategies, and the overall goal of the anthology.

What do you like best about being involved in anthologies?

(JQM)

Being part of Glimpses of Time & Magic really pushed me to write Excal’Byr, a story that was lingering in the back of my head for a long time, but I never committed to paper.  Writing out that story was probably my favorite part.  The second is meeting, working with, and making friends with new authors.

What part of working with the group of authors in Glimpses was your favorite?

(JQM)

Meeting new authors.  Glimpses was the first time I ever worked with Joshua Reid and Michaela Baker, two very talented authors whom I look forward to working with in the future.

Find Out More About James Quinlan Meservy

If you guys are interested in learning more about James, you can find him on Amazon. He has several other full-length novels and a few children’s books available there. You can also find him on Facebook.

Thursday Technicalities: Secondary Characters

Publishing Advice

Introduction

Last week, we talked about character dimensions or aspects, and this week, we’re moving on to talking about secondary characters. Secondary characters are often ignored or not given the focus they should be given simply because they are secondary, but good fiction will develop these characters too. Let’s talk about what part your secondary characters play and why they’re so important that they too need as much development as the main characters.

Roles of Secondary Characters

When it comes to secondary characters, we often view them as supporting cast members to our lead roles, the main characters. While it is true that they’re going to be supporting characters, if they’re going to do their jobs to the best of their abilities, their roles need to be defined and their characters developed.

So what are their roles? Well, secondary characters predominantly provide either support or opposition to our protagonists and antagonists. But if they’re going to do that, they’re also going to need to take on more specific roles in the story. The ones who show up for any length of time should be fulfilling multiple purposes or roles along the way in helping or hindering the protagonist and antagonists. And, interestingly enough, it isn’t always necessary that these secondary characters be intentionally working to help or hinder. Some secondary characters may do both at different times simply in the process of living their own lives and pursuing their own goals.

Developing Secondary Characters

As you work with your secondary characters, my recommendation to you is that you develop them the same way you develop your protagonists or antagonists. Take the time to carefully craft them and to give them their own goals, internal conflicts, and dreams. Some writers avoid this because they’re worried the secondary characters will steal the show. This is rarely the case. If this is starting to occur, it’s usually due to having chosen the wrong protagonist/antagonist or having underdeveloped either of those two. But if those two issues aren’t present, then usually a well-developed secondary character can help rather than hinder your plot’s advancement and richness.

So when you’re developing the secondary characters, the key things to focus on are internal conflict, motivations, and storylines. They should have their own development in all of the areas just as the protagonist and antagonist do. In order for their storylines to add to the conflict in the main storyline, their subplots cannot be undeveloped. The things they want and the story arcs they’re going to travel through will all impact the main story if you’ve woven the two together well.

How to Weave the Storylines Together

But now you might be asking… How do I weave the two together so that they flow into each other properly? This one is a little bit difficult to achieve at times, but here’s one really great way to do it. Take the characters you have, list out a few locations, and write down the key plot points for the main plot and any subplots that will impact that plot. Then start connecting a character with a plot point and a location. Sometimes, the connections will make zero sense, but if something is working, make notes on how they all interconnect. I think you’ll start to find that your subplots for secondary characters intersect and enhance the main plot in ways you never would’ve imagined. Try to find at least three or four ways that your secondary characters can interact with the main plot while following the arc of their sub plot.

Too Many Cast Members

The last thing I’ll note here is that you can have an issue with too many secondary characters. Usually, a story doesn’t require twenty secondary characters. Even in my most complex series where I have two plot lines going on at the same time, I have maybe five to seven secondary characters who play any significant role in the story. The rest show up only as needed. Those that show up when needed are given the illusion of being real, but not much development is done with them because they’re only there for a scene.

The problems that usually lead to too many cast members are not using your characters to their fullest, having too many directions, or giving screen time to those who don’t need it. Most of the time, the issue is that an author hasn’t used their characters to the fullest of their potential. For example, in Trader Prince of Aleshtain (my current WIP), I initially had the MC’s best friend separate from the MC’s mentor figure/voice of reason. But the mentor figure only showed up in one or two scenes, and after he departed the stage, another supporting character takes on that role. I only needed the mentor figure to give good advice toward the beginning of the book. So in the newer version of the draft, that mentor figure has been blended with the best friend. Now, the best friend offers the needed sage advice while also encouraging the MC to do what he knows is right. I didn’t need that second character to act as a mentor figure at all because I had the MC’s best friend and could easily combine the roles.

Additionally, pulling in too many directions can weaken your use of character and your story by extension. If you give so much screen time to a character meant to be a supporting cast member that they end up hijacking the main character and the plot line, your story can end up pulled in too many directions. The best solution for this is to remind yourself of the story’s focus then go back and trim out any scenes with that secondary character that aren’t useful to advancing the main plot, helping one of the main characters, or hindering their journey. While a secondary character should be as developed as a main character, they don’t get the same amount of screen time as a main character. Instead, their development is shown in more concise ways during interactions that the reader has with them while they are in some way advancing or hindering another character or heightening the conflict.

Conclusion

Developing your secondary characters is extremely important. Failing to do so means that you have failed to use them to their greatest potential in building your story and your plot. Don’t lose the richness and the additional complexity that a well-developed secondary character can bring to your tale. Be careful to keep their time on the stage balanced so they don’t steal the spotlight, but don’t be afraid to give them their own goals, hopes, and dreams. Let them live and breathe on the page too.

Sunday Stories: Christianity and Racism

New Blog Schedule

Introduction

Right up front, I’ll warn you this post is going to be long. To answer the questions I’m going to discuss here thoroughly, I’ll need you to bear with me. The argument I’m going to present takes some set up, and so I hope you’ll stick with me as I go through the necessary background information to get to the argument and the answer to the questions I’m going to present. Furthermore, for those who may be liberals in my audience, understand up front that I do not support racism in any way, shape, or form. I’m about to go through why. I’m hoping you’ll track with me on this one, though, because I’m about to go through the moral, historical, and ideological grounds that lead to racism. I’ve spoken to various liberals about why they believe what they do regarding racism, and I often hear good reasons with very, very inconsistent and bad logic. It’s entirely possible to be right and be completely inconsistent in your viewpoints, and that’s where most liberals I’ve spoken to are at. We’ll dive into why in this article, but please read with an open mind.

Why We Need to Discuss This in the Church and With Our Kids

I genuinely believe that the ideologies that most of our culture has bought into from a moral standpoint and from a worldview standpoint have led to the problems we are seeing today. If you look at history and where other countries who have adopted America’s current philosophies as pushed by the radical far left movement, the end result has always been the breakdown of all three areas of authority that God put into place: State (human government), church, and family. It happened in Russia, Nazi Germany, Italy under Mussolini, Cuba, Venezuela, China, North Korea, Prussia, and many other places in both geographical and historical locations. Right now, our country’s liberals are praising those like Stalin and Mussolini. Mussolini’s reign of terror was short-lived compared to some dictators, but in twenty-one years of power, he killed two-thousand political opponents and an estimated 430,000 people total died under his regime. Stalin was responsible for killing an estimated twenty million or more, according to many historians. Stanford historian, Norman Naimark, considers Stalin’s mass murders to be genocide and states that Stalin and Hitler have more in common than many of us in modern day culture seem to believe. These are the men we’re seeing the Democrat party praising or aspiring to be like. They want the same system of government that these men wanted and used. They’re repeating the same trends that past dictators did. Arguably, so are some of the far right radicals in office as well. Both are incredibly dangerous.

But if we don’t educate ourselves on history, we don’t see the trends. We ignore those who lived for many years in countries who have done all the same things we’re now doing thanks to the liberal, progressive agenda, and even though they express the fear they feel over seeing us doing what their governments did on the intentional path to dictatorships and communism, we scoff as if somehow they’re nutcases. If we don’t know what those who believed what we’re now espousing and hailing as forward thinking had to say about their goals with their philosophies, the things that were inseparable in their minds from their theories, and the ways in which those who followed after their founders chose to apply them, we’re going to be very easily led astray. Our young people are already being misled and taught lies. They’re swallowing it because we’re not teaching them any differently. They’re swallowing it, and we’re playing into the hands of our enemies. Outright communists in our country have the confidence to tell those of us who fight back: “Good job finding all of the links between communism and what we’re doing here. You’ve done your research. But it won’t matter. We’re going to win because we have your children.”

This isn’t something out of a crazy conspiracy novel. I wish it were! If it were, I could laugh it off and roll my eyes at the crazy people who believe this. But when you examine the history, the evidence, and what’s going on right now in our country, you can no longer dismiss what is happening. There is a very real battle going on, folks. And while it’s tempting to look at the rioting and looting around us and say that’s the battle, the battle goes far beyond that. It is a battle of ideologies, and right now, those who are prevailing hold a distinctly anti-God, anti-American, and anti-freedom perspective. We’re going to discuss why any of that matters.

Who Is This Mainly Geared Towards?

I would be remiss, at this point, if I didn’t say something about who this is geared towards. To some of you in my audience, you’re already yawning and rolling your eyes or becoming extremely incensed, if you even made it this far. Some might be considering saying a few nasty things because they think I’m insane at this point. That’s a risk I knew I’d be taking if I chose to speak out on this issue. But I’m going to do it anyway because this is so incredibly important for the Church to consider and understand.

To some of you, it might even sound like a wonderful thing to destroy every principle our country stands on. I am not naive enough to believe that every liberal individual out there is simply unaware of what’s going on, the agenda that the Democrat platform is truly pushing behind the scenes, or the implications of what they believe. I have to give those in the liberal camp credit: not all of them are being misled. Some of them are doing the misleading.

If you haven’t figured it out by now, my main focus here is on Christians no matter what side of the fence they’re on politically. Those who are believers, who have given their lives to Christ, and who have chosen to–in some way, at least–live for Him. Those who are non-religious, only believe when it’s convenient, or who are merely religious as opposed to living out the natural results of a heart fully surrendered to its Creator and King? You are all welcome. It is not my intent to tell you not to read on or to tell you that you aren’t welcome to read what I have to say here. But my focus is on my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ because the trends I see in the Church today both horrify and devastate me. At times, it can feel as if I’m on an island and am the only one in the Church who is seeing the horrific direction that Christ’s Bride, who is to be unspotted by the world, has taken. I know I’m not, but I also know that fewer and fewer Christians, regardless of what they think politically, are a) really redeemed sinners who are living in the Spirit of God and b) walking with God in a relationship with Him once they are redeemed. We have conformed to the world around us instead of being transformed into the likeness of Christ through the renewing of our minds in the Word of God.

Probably Stepping on Toes

I’m likely making some people very angry right now, but here’s the thing… Those of us on the conservative side have historically chosen to give up, not stand up, and to just stand aside as those who hate our country’s founding principles keep taking ground from us. If no one is willing to tell the truth, we will become a country living in deceit, lies, and misdirection (more so than we already are). Some who have been misguided will someday wake up and see what’s happened, and they’ll wonder how everything good they truly thought they were fighting for could’ve been destroyed. I pity those individuals, and I pray we never end up there. But if the Church and those who know where the philosophies being taught by a society running to destruction will end don’t choose to stand up? We will end up where every other country doing what we are has ended up: ruined, without the equality for all that the radicals claimed they wanted, and wondering how we lost our freedoms so quickly.

Most people on the opposite side of the political spectrum from me will boo even literal quotes, which reveal uncomfortable truths, from people they hail as heroes. I’ve watched it happen. I have watched as various conservative blacks around the country have tried to warn their community about the facts. I’ve watched as those people, who have a heart for their communities and want to end the Democratic party’s manipulation of their communities, have been silenced, booed even before they’ve done anything but give statistics, and told they’re not “truly Black” if their opinion doesn’t fit the Democrat party’s narrative. Really? Really, guys? Could this behavior be any more childish and willfully blind? And lest you think I somehow believe just the Black liberals do this? It’s been done to me by white liberals who presume they can speak for the whole Black community because they’re “allies”. I’m the enemy because I listed stats or because I dared to ask them to provide proof on any specific area that there’s a real instance of racism going on. Some of you may be preparing to retaliate against the things I’ve already said or will consider it by the time I’m through here.

Further than that, I don’t even have to say these individuals are wrong or even try to start an argument. Expressing an opinion or asking a question is enough to get the name-calling, booing, and hate flowing. I ask a legitimate question in an attempt to understand what another community I’m not part of is going through, and what I get from other white people (who also are outside the community I’m trying to understand) is, you’re a racist because you bothered asking and don’t just automatically assume they’re right on everything. Sometimes those from the community jump on the bandwagon with the white individual who already started the name calling, mockery, and disrespect. Those who do often complain that I can’t understand because I don’t know what I don’t know, but they do. The complaints boil down to, you’re a racist, and I know that because I’m a minority, you’re not, and as such, I have special knowledge you don’t. (This isn’t to say that no one outside the minority community is racist and rightfully called out on it, of course. There are definitely instances where an individual from a minority rightfully calls out racist behavior as it is. But these days, simply asking a question is racist, and the individuals I’m referring to above are the sorts who propose to judge the motive behind the question even when none is actually given. How they can do that is beyond me. I mean, I know I don’t have that particular superpower, but apparently some special human beings of other colors do, so…)

Now, granted that’s not everyone’s attitude. But the vast majority of people making a lot of noise and fuss and pulling the race card on things that have become increasingly more ridiculous think this way. Those of you who are non-Christians probably don’t see the big deal. But while I do hope that this article will be a good learning point for you guys in seeing why the Biblical worldview will always take the strongest possible stance against an attitude of racism possible, my goal in writing this article is mainly to address my fellow Christians: liberal or conservative.

A Wake-Up Call

Guys, we need to wake up and start getting back to the God of the Bible and what He has to say. No two ways about it… If we don’t do this, we are going to keep losing our children to a socialist/communist agenda that seeks to destroy any belief in God, seeks to destroy God’s people, and seeks to destroy liberty. That’s why this is important.

Right now, the church is not meeting the culture with a strong Biblical stance on the issue of racism. We’re instead pandering to the culture, refusing to talk about it at all, or are wishy-washy on it. If we do any of those three things in response to this, we’re giving the culture the opportunity to inform our children’s viewpoints on because we have not first shown them the Biblical point of view. We will lose them to a culture that says racism is wrong with zero legitimate reason, from a non-Biblical, evolutionary point of view, to say that it is.

Nothing in evolution requires that we think that somehow we are the only race that has escaped the evolutionary hierarchy. Saying otherwise is to contradict everything in the theory, as it has changed remarkably little since Darwin and his immediate predecessors first developed it. If we want our children to believe in something that has no inherent reason to respect the sanctity of human life, no foundation for any sound or consistent morals beyond whatever society or the individual chooses for themselves, and zero reason for any concern for those around them… If we want our children to walk away from God because we have given them a view of Him that is so utterly decrepit and unholy, so utterly without answers to the issues they’re seeing around them every day, then going silent on the issues around us and on what God has to say is the way to do it.

I don’t yet have kids to train up in the way they should go. But someday I will, and I don’t want to live in a country where I have no freedom to do what God has called me to do without fear. America’s greatest strength has been in its promise of liberty and the protection of rights for everyone. Granted, there have been times where we as a nation didn’t uphold those ideals like we should have. But we’ve always had groups who stood up and fought rightfully through our legal system, peaceful protests, and petitions to make a difference and to stop injustice. That’s an amazing thing, but if we start in the home by teaching our children a Christ-centered viewpoint that respects even those who as individuals have proven undeserving of it, that loves even the most unloveable, and that speaks truth even when it is unpopular to do so, we’re going to start seeing a return to the values in our Constitution. We’re going to lose fewer of our children to the world’s lies, and we’re going to raise kids who are able to change the world around them for the better because they have a God-sized vision for change and for reaching the hearts of men for their King.

While I don’t have kids to raise yet, if I want to be able to raise them safely and in freedom without the fear of the government taking them away, refusing me the right to raise them in the fear and admonish of the Lord, or trying to brainwash them while silencing me as the parent, I need to be doing my part to defend those liberties now before it’s too late. Right now, I might not have kids, but I do have a voice, and I can use it to try to reach even just one or two others who can catch the vision for a church and, yes, a country, that is once again God-centered, God-focused, and multi-generational in its view toward the future. It isn’t too late for us, especially for those of us in my age range who don’t have kids yet and don’t have to lose them to a world that will destroy them and everything truly morally good and upright in them.

So let’s start addressing the issues in today’s culture from a Biblical worldview. Today, I’m starting with the one most in our faces right now: race and the issue of racism.

The Question for Consideration

Why is racism and racist behavior or thinking wrong? Liberals and Democrats would scream from the tops of mountains and to anyone who will listen that anyone who dares have such a mentality is one of the most disgusting, wicked human beings out there. Ironic considering their worldview often gives no yardstick by which to measure morality and thus offers them no leg to stand on to say anyone is more wicked than another for any given behavior. But I’ll save that for later on in this discussion.

The fact of the matter is that right now we’re hearing society’s loudest voices shout down anyone who dissents against their view on racism and we’re hearing countless voices, conservative or liberal, denouncing racists and racism behavior. But if we’re going to do that, shouldn’t we know what we’re standing against and why we’re doing so? As Christians, it’s imperative that we exercise discernment and understand why we do (or do not) agree with a given philosophy or belief so that we can ensure every word, deed, and thought is in line with Scripture.

So let’s take a look at why the biggest supporters of anti-racism will be those who are true believers following God’s Word and living in the Spirit. Let’s also examine where this concept of racism really sprang up from, why it did so, and why you must have a Christian worldview (at the very least on this issue) to have any validity in saying racism is wrong.

A Question of Morals

There are many places I could start on this discussion, but I’m going to start with morals because I don’t believe any discussion on this topic can be meaningful if your morals are not grounded firmly in truth. The issue of racism is a moral one, whether we want to admit it or not. I think most of us can agree that it isn’t political, even if others want to say it is. If it were simply political, there would be no outcry on the grounds of certain behaviors being right or wrong.

But here’s the problem that you run into, then, if you recognize it’s a moral issue but you refuse to acknowledge God or His Word as the solution. Many people will say something along the lines of “we don’t need God to know the difference between right and wrong.” Now, I’m not trying to make light of these people or mock them, but that is the statement of a fool according to the Bible (Psalm 14:1) as a fool doesn’t acknowledge that there is a God or a need for one. But why is it so important that there is in fact a God, and specifically a God like the Bible presents, if we are to have any basis for morality?

Change as the Reason

The answer? Change. Human beings are subject to change. Once upon a time, the Germans (or at least large groups of them) thought it was fine, maybe even morally praise-worthy, to round up and slaughter Jews, Blacks, and other minorities like animals simply because they were “less evolved” and “not a part of the superior race”, which was exactly how Hitler justified what he was doing. Once upon a time, rich white plantation owners justified one of the most horrific forms of abuse known to man in the form of American slavery, and while no one up North likes to admit it, most people North and South didn’t care much one way or another.

No one but a select group of very loud abolitionists, who rightfully found the practice reprehensible, spoke up against it. While some might have personally believed it wasn’t a good thing, most simply ignored it if it didn’t affect them or viewed it as necessary. And few, if any, on either side even viewed the Africans (or other slaves from say Ireland who were under the guise of “indentured servants” and were treated as poorly or worse than the Africans due to how cheap they could be acquired) as human beings or people. Thus, they came up with insane compromises like treating them as 2/3rds of a person under the law in some cases and like property in others.

Once upon a time, Darwin stated that the natives of South America were savages and hardly human if they were in fact human at all, and those who followed in his footsteps on the matter of evolution agreed. They made inherent dehumanization of those who didn’t act or look like them a major part of their theory. Darwin himself justified this by saying that it was simply one more example of evolution in action, just as the Galapagos finches were to his mind examples of evolution in practice. Therefore, he said, those savages (referring to the non-white tribal people of South America and later to African slaves) were closer to being apes than he and those from England or Western Civilization were, and he saw no problem with treating them as less than human.

These examples are only a few of the instances where humans set their own moral standards of right and wrong without God and His Word in the picture. But what happened? Do we still believe those mindsets are acceptable? No! We don’t. Even though we still have evolution around, and even though there is absolutely nothing in the evolutionary theory or the science supposedly behind it that would give us reason to say that we shouldn’t behave just like the other animals around us (since we are, after all, simply more evolved animals ourselves), we still view these actions and thoughts as disgusting. Liberals and conservatives alike would decry these behaviors. Few think they’re acceptable in any way. Why? Because society changed its mind. We don’t live in a society that thinks this is still okay.

The Breakdown of Morality

Okay, but clearly we still can have some moral compass without God, right? Wrong. Anyone who is going to argue that one thing is wrong and another is right must argue it with a rooted belief in the God of the Bible. They won’t admit it, of course, and they make their own arguments logically fallacious because they don’t believe in God, but evolution or any viewpoint with an unchanging, perfectly holy God must then be unable to declare anything moral or immoral. There is no set standard because we as humans, who change our minds constantly, are the only ones who can decree what is right and wrong. If there’s no yardstick to measure by, then if society decided tomorrow that it’s acceptable to kill every, let’s say, white liberal man in a given country, we can’t say it’s wrong. Because society said it was fine.

You also can’t say that Hitler was wrong because the majority of his society agreed with him. Had he won, most of Europe wouldn’t have found anything wrong with what he did either because the victors write the history books and put their own spin on it. That area of Europe would’ve adopted the same mentality because with no moral code higher than ourselves, why would we declare it wrong so long as everyone around us says it’s right?

If I could ask for a show of hands right now for who feels comfortable with that conclusion, I doubt many would raise their hands. But here’s the problem. If you don’t believe in an unchangeable, holy God who gave us His moral code, which can never change, then you’re left with only one option: humans must decide what is moral good or moral evil on their own. Whether society does it or you say a single individual does so for themselves, there will be problems with either.

Deep down, most of us can admit there are just certain things like murder, hating your fellow man on basis of skin color, or taking/destroying another’s property that are simply wrong. But why? Have we stopped to ask that question? For someone with a Christian worldview, the answer is easy. God says murder, hatred (murder in the heart, according to Scripture), and destruction or theft are all sin. He punishes them, and they are clearly labeled as outpourings of a sin nature, which goes beyond a simple issue with a specific sin and is ultimately what will condemn us without Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross and His blood applied to us. But if you don’t believe that God exists, what is your basis? Society said so? You said so? Last I checked, we’ve already proven both are subject to change and that both can be wrong, so how can you condemn someone who thinks differently than you if that’s the case? What if they’re right and you’re wrong?

In the end, then, all things must be named acceptable so long as either a) they are acceptable to a large enough crowd of people or b) the individual has decided it’s right for them. Neither is a good solution. Both lead to all kinds of issues, and inevitably, as we’re seeing all over in America today with the looting, rioting, senseless killings, and outcries for a false justice to be meted out on an entire group of people who in most cases neither descended from slavers nor have done anything truly racist or wrong. Both options that leave God out of the equation result in a breakdown of morality.

No True Morality Without A Holy God

There are no two ways about it. You can split hairs all you want. But if you are going to be logical about it, you can’t say everyone is human and deserves respect as such (that’s a Biblical concept, not a progressive, evolutionary idea), you can’t say that we should do unto others as we want done unto us (that’s also a Biblical concept, not a progressive evolutionary idea), and you can’t say in any honest way that we can discern right from wrong (because that’s a Bible idea and a conscience thing, which animals and evolution have no room for, and it’s not a progressive evolutionary idea).

If you’re going to be logical and honest about where a viewpoint without God leads in the matter of morality, you must then say that the only reason you think something is right or wrong is because it isn’t to your taste. It isn’t truly right or wrong because there’s no such thing if you aren’t reasoning from a measuring stick that doesn’t change. Right and wrong are determined by society or by the individual, so the fact that you don’t find it tasteful doesn’t mean they’re morally wrong for doing it. Your opinion is no more valid than someone else’s if there’s nothing behind it except your own ideas of what’s right and wrong. Those ideas are all in your head. They’re as made up by you as a fictional world is by a writer. Unless there is a God who holds us to an unchangeable standard and is Himself above all else with the authority to declare what is right and what is not, unless there is a holy, just God who will never pass judgment in error or change the standards up, you cannot have morality.

The Mindset that Justified Slavery

Slavery of the sort American plantation owners and British upper class citizens practiced has been around for nearly as long as mankind has existed. You can go all the way back to the Romans, Ancient Egypt, and certainly Ancient Babylon or Assyria even further back than the first two. You’ll find it, and it didn’t discriminate in color when it came to the wickedness of treating another human being like property. Many times, these slaves were “spoils” of war.

But by the time history gets around to Colonial America and Britain previous to their anti-slavery policies, we see something start to happen that wasn’t as common if it was found at all. British and American traders began to take slaves on their forays into Africa, South America, and the Indies. They had other slaves, of course, in the case of convicts from Britain who were sent to work on penal colonies or Irish political prisoners in other cases. But there were rules governing how these individuals were to be treated, even if they were mistreated in many situations, and they weren’t viewed as non-humans. So why is it, then, that Africans and natives of places like South America or the Indies weren’t afforded the same privilege?

The answer lies in the mindsets springing up around the world and in the combination of both the old world view of the native inhabitants of the new world and the emergence of evolution via Charles Darwin and those who followed in his footsteps. Now, I know full well that those who support evolution (meaning most liberals and even some Christians) will say, we don’t follow Darwin, and we know better because science has advanced. But Darwin was not simply a product of the prevailing discriminatory attitude Western civilization had for anything that wasn’t Western. He certainly had that mentality, and it’s obvious in his writings, but what is equally transparent is that Darwin was happy to state that his views on evolution informed his thinking on treatment of and status of the natives and Africans he encountered.

He not only viewed the natives as savages, but he also states many times things such as “one could hardly believe they were human” or that they were “far inferior to the English colonists”. He viewed them as “primitive beings” and didn’t see them as human. He had zero issue with slavery, not because it was widely accepted at the time, but because he believed natural selection dictated that it was fine and that the eventual extermination of the “savages” was inevitable due to natural selection. Darwin even compared the natives of South America that the crew took back to England and their transformation into “complete and voluntary Europeans” as well as many other situations he observed in the native lifestyles to the natural selection he found in the finches on the Galapagos islands, which he viewed as evidence for evolution.

Using the Mindset and Philosophy to Justify Unspeakable Acts

So then, when his teachings are observed, it is clear that, at the very least, Darwin applied evolutionary principles to the human race and used it to create a distinction between a European and a native in South America. While it should be admitted that Darwin himself, on a humanitarian scale, didn’t agree with the heinous mistreatment of the natives despite his belief that they were, at the least, not the superior race, his beliefs and the logical conclusion of them were adopted by many who followed after.

This led to disastrous events and unspeakable mistreatment levied at those “less superior” races. Most notably, history gives us Hitler, Stalin, and the American version of slavery. Darwin would likely have been horrified by Hitler and Stalin. What he would’ve thought of slavery in America is less certain since he himself did not find any moral issues with it during his time, and it was no less hideous then. But there is no escaping the facts. The European mindset of Western superiority blended with evolutionary philosophies as Darwin and others developed it set the stage for justification of some of the worst acts known to man. And for those who are willing to be honest and consistent in their beliefs, we still see it causing issues today.

The Liberal Arguments Against Racism: Substantiated or Not?

From a liberal perspective with God out of the equation, the arguments, as I briefly noted earlier, run something along the lines of saying all of us are human regardless of skin color, no one is superior to another on that grounds, and we should all treat each other the way we want to be treated. Further, some would say, we don’t need God to know right from wrong, and we don’t hold to Darwin’s teachings on this matter because science has advanced enough to let us know that was wrong. Some would say that science has proven Darwin’s teachings and that it isn’t a religion or faith-based thing but is instead that Darwin discovered a scientific fact and was later proven right. In some cases, I’ve heard from liberal acquaintances and friends that whether we have any purpose on the Earth or not, and whether we were created by God or evolved for no particular reason at all, should have no bearing on how we treat each other.

These are real responses I’ve gotten when I’ve asked liberals why they think racism is so bad when God is taken out of the equation. I asked because I didn’t want to get the answers wrong, misrepresent their viewpoints, or unfairly accuse them of saying things they wouldn’t ever say. (And… Well, I asked because I was genuinely curious too. Never have heard a good answer–or really any answer at all–backed by sound logic from a liberal who believes in evolution wholeheartedly, and I was curious if anyone had some answers. We seem to take it for granted that this issue is wrong, but while I have reasons why it’s wrong from my perspective, I didn’t have any idea what a non-Christian liberal thought. Now I do!)

So, let’s break this down. I agree with them on the first three points. Let’s start with those since it’s a point of common ground. While they are correct to state we’re all human regardless of color, that no one is superior to another based on skin color, and that we should treat others as we want to be treated, what is the reasoning point for this? I’ve heard zero good explanations of the grounds for these statements from any liberal who removes God from the equation. This is entirely due to the discussion on morality I gave above. Evolution doesn’t give them any ground to claim this because evolution says, hey, we’re all random chance, products of natural selection, and more evolved animals. A viewpoint like that results in the following logical conclusions:

  1. Nothing actually matters that much because it’s all random chance and there’s not much to live for except, depending on who you ask, furthering the survival of the human race. But what’s the purpose for it? Why bother if there’s no reward or benefit in it? I’m going to die eventually, and so will my children. So why not live in whatever way most pleases me? I have zero reason, from this viewpoint, to care what happens to other people around me unless I happen to have some sort of emotional concern for them because they’re friends or family. We see exactly this attitude in those who are stealing, looting, rioting, and burning the homes or businesses of individuals who haven’t done anything wrong. It is entirely a me-focused mentality, and why shouldn’t it be if it benefits your survival and your needs? At best, you might be concerned about the survival of those around you simply because they’re central to your preferred existence or because you have feelings of affection toward them. But any altruism that doesn’t in some way benefit us? Evolution gives us no reason for that. It’s a good thing from a Christian point of view to serve others and to be self-sacrificing. From an evolutionary perspective, who cares? We’re random chance and animals anyway, so why bother to act like we’re not?
  2. We’re all animals. Animals don’t care who gets hurt when they do something. One monkey who dukes it out with another over a female doesn’t care if it kills the other male who lost. One group of lions who fight another over turf doesn’t feel remorse over killing their own kind. So if we’re no different than animals, what do we care if we kill someone else? There’s nothing special about us, no inherent aspect that goes beyond simple matter or neurons firing in the brain. Just like animals, we simply live and work off emotions, the drive to survive, and the drive to reproduce. We don’t have a soul or something called a conscience because animals don’t possess it, and if we’re animals, neither can we. We’re capable of more thought than a dog, say, but at the base of it all, we’re still just highly-advanced animals. Therefore, it doesn’t matter if what I do hurts someone else. I’m just acting on my instinct to survive and on my baser instincts to fight when challenged. If I happen to have the pack mentality some animals possess, great. If not and I’m more of a loner type of animal that will attack anything that comes onto its territory, eh, who cares? Whichever of us is superior will win, and natural selection will have strengthened the winner’s group by weeding out the losing party, who was too weak to make it anyway.
  3. Nothing can actually be morally right or wrong if you’re going to be both logical and honest. We went over this one before in detail, but if there’s no standard that’s unchanging outside of societal pressures or our own changeable, fickle natures, then we can’t have morality. So an honest evolutionist would also have to say that, while some things might not be their preference, it’s all okay because, really, it’s all about what you or what your society wants to do.
  4. I have a right to be prideful and think I’m better than everyone not like me if I’m the superior race. After all, survival of the fittest dictates that whoever is best equipped for survival survives. They weren’t fit for survival or aren’t currently and are in the process of dying out, so it’s only natural that my expansion and my upward movement on the evolutionary totem pole may result in their diminishment or perhaps even their complete destruction, and there’s nothing wrong with that because it’s just natural selection/survival of the fittest at work. I haven’t done anything wrong in helping it along either because that’s just naturally what the superior race does as it expands in its quest to survive. (This, by the way, is exactly what Darwin believed and found integral to his evolutionary theories. His contemporaries Herbert Spencer and Thomas Malthus saw this in his theories, though Darwin himself spoke of it rarely and mostly contained it to his personal writings, and they ran with it. From this viewpoint came the idea of laizzes-faire capitalism, or in layman’s terms, unrestrained capitalism. Spencer applied survival of the fittest to economics, and unrestrained capitalism during the Industrial Revolution was the result, much to our detriment in America today. This “social Darwinism” was used down through history to justify many horrific acts of racism, imperialism, eugenics, and social inequality. —History.com)

There are, of course, other issues that evolution can lead to in terms of thinking. But these are the ones relevant to our discussion here. You can see that, if you think through what evolution actually says and apply it logically with no rose-tinted glasses and without any inconsistencies or conflict of your beliefs, you must come to a conclusion that is at best untenable to most but, in reality, is repugnant and horrifying to nearly everyone. To those who object that evolution is science, not faith, and doesn’t have anything to do with what religion you choose to hold… Believing evolution is true is as much a belief as believing that you are a good person or believing that one person would be a better president than another. Furthermore, it is in fact as much faith-based as believing there is a God and has fewer answers with more logical holes and fallacies than any belief in a Creator. We all hold beliefs, and evolution is one of them that people hold by faith since, though we teach it as fact in school, the very scientists who once thought it true have admitted they have no idea how it happened, have been unable to repeat it or observe it–something absolutely necessary to make something scientific fact per the scientific method–and do not know how they might prove it to be true beyond the simple belief that it must be true because how else could we come to be? If that is not enough, their “scientific fact” has ignored the clear display of intelligent, intentional design in everything from the plants around us to the very eyes we use to see those plants. Intelligent, intentional design requires an intelligent origin! We would never look at a car and say, Wow, how amazing that particles randomly smashed together to create parts, which randomly organized and evolved into this vehicle that I am going to drive. That’s ridiculous. We know when we look at that car that someone had to create the design that others would then build. How much more inane is it to say that the incredible work we see in the way our own bodies function, in the way the world around us functions so well together in nature, is somehow the result of random chance? We have brains, and those brains, if they weren’t taught to believe the philosophies we’ve been fed since birth, if they weren’t insistent on denying any Creator’s existence, would never reasonably come to the conclusion that we’re no different than animals, that the world is random chance, and that such intentional design could randomly evolve somehow in a way we can’t even replicate.

To be clear, only the truly crazed individual or someone with no love on any level within their darkened heart could say the things I have just laid out. I’ve not yet met an evolutionist or a liberal evolutionist who was willing to say these things because they’re too inpalatable and disgusting to beings with a moral compass in the form of a God-given conscience. No matter how insistently they refuse to acknowledge God or His law, they still use it in determining how they should interact with their fellow man even when their worldview gives them zero reason to turn to love, kindness, and respect for those not like them. Unfortunately, that crazed individual or person without any love at all in their hearts would be more honest about the conclusions they must draw from their evolutionary belief than any other evolutionistic liberal who chooses not to acknowledge these things and instead reasons from a Christian moral system while denying the very God who gave it. Is it any wonder our world is so messed up on moral good and evil?

The Conclusion on the Matter? Substantiated or Not?

So then, we see that while liberals are correct to argue that we are all human regardless of color, that we should do unto other as we want done to us, and that we shouldn’t hate someone based on something like skin color, they have rendered their own argument invalid and unsupported by removing God from the equation. Another similarly godless individual might well look at them and say, “That’s nice and all, but you have yet to give me anything that makes your opinion better than mine. So I think genocide is okay, and that’s what I’m sticking to.” Another similarly godless person would argue just as validly that racism, hatred, murder, and mass slaughter is all perfectly acceptable because a liberal arguing these things from their worldview invalidates their own message, even if it is in fact the right one. That liberal has nothing to point to that demands respect for human life, the sanctity of that life, or the importance of behaving with love towards those different than us. They can shout about it all they want, but they don’t have any valid reason not to look at the individual who thinks killing others unlike them is okay and say: “That’s not my preference, but you do you, I guess.” They can’t argue from any moral ground because their viewpoint removes morals entirely from the equation, so if they’re going to try to reason from a moral perspective, they have to use God’s Word and His law to reason against the wrong belief that killing an entire people group (or anyone, for that matter) is okay.

In response to their last two points, I point back to our discussions on morality and to what modern evolution still has to say about the human race. The fact that we call someone of a different color than us another race in the first place is evidence to just how deep evolution’s roots go in the issue of racism. Had science truly developed, we wouldn’t use that terminology. Even though science may clearly show that our DNA doesn’t differ by much at all (certainly not enough to make us separate species), we’re still wrongly dividing people up by race and using Darwin’s system even as we argue that racism is bad. If science has developed so much, we would see evolutionists firmly disputing Darwin’s claims on the whole because they were motivated and rooted in racist opinions and even those views which are not tainted by it are questionable as we cannot repeat them, and we would not call the issue of hating those of other colors in our population racism at all. Rather, we would more accurately call it discrimination (which to be fair many do, but they use it interchangeably with racism). We would call it that because we would recognize what so many liberals don’t seem to: hatred of another on the basis of color or any other factor is not restricted to only those in one group or “race”. If it were, you wouldn’t see BLM reps calling for whites who haven’t participated in active racism, haven’t owned slaves, and (in so many cases) have only immigrant ancestors who never once owned a slave and were often equally discriminated against in the North.

So, on all points, their argument’s basis renders itself logically and reasonably invalid. Does this mean we should discard everything they’re saying? No! So let’s take a look at that next.

Racism in light of the Bible

When it comes to a proper view of the wickedness of racism, the Christian man or woman rooted in God and His Word can confidently say it is wrong, and when asked why, we can give a logical, sound reason for it! Granted, liberals and others who refuse to acknowledge the existence of an all powerful, entirely holy, unchanging God will say this isn’t valid. But as we’ve already proven, they’re going to take a stance on it that, while lighter than the one I believe we as Christians should be taking, is still entirely rooted in Scripture whilst they deny the God that makes their argument at all valid or accurate. Let’s review why we can make a valid, logical, and substantiated claim that racism is wicked from a Biblical worldview.

  1. The Bible doesn’t recognize any “race” but the human race. It has plenty of nations and tribes or peoples, as they’re sometimes called, but race does not enter the equation. Anyone who says that a person who looks different them on the grounds of skin color or appearance is a different race? They’re patently wrong and ignoring the fact that God didn’t make more than one human race. He made Adam and Eve as the father and mother of the human race, and we all descend from them. (Genesis 3:20)
  2. Christ was inclusive of people of all colors, tribes, and nations. In Jewish society, outsiders (or Gentiles) were looked down on. People like the Ethiopian eunuch that Philip spoke to and baptized in Acts would be considered lesser than a Jew. Worse than that, anyone who was of mixed Jewish and Gentile heritage was hated or despised more than a Gentile would be. And yet, Jesus came to die for all peoples, tribes, and nations. He didn’t die for just Jews, and He makes that clear time and again, even though the Jews didn’t get it. More than that, lest anyone miss that point, Paul and other men inspired by the Holy Spirit wrote to the Jews and Gentiles both and reminded them that Christ died for men of all types, not just for their group and no other. (Acts 10:34-43; Acts 15:7-11; John 4:1-41; Romans 3:21-30)
  3. The Bible is very clear we should do unto others as we would have done unto us (the same argument liberals use while denying that it was God that said it!), and so if we would not want our friends in another color group to attack us, enslave us, hurt us, or deride us simply because of what color we are, then we’d better not do it to them. (Matthew 7:12)

These are all very good reasons why we shouldn’t have a mentality that divides people into other races just because they’re not the same color as we are. But there are some even bigger problems with a Christian who endorses anything like the American or British versions of slavery or who has a racist mentality. So here are some clear sins we’d be committing if we did approve of racism.

  1. The sin of hatred. Jesus calls hatred committing murder in our hearts. It is the inward attitude or heart problem that may, in some cases lead to committing the physical act of murder, and the Bible takes it very, very seriously. A Christian who commits this act of inward murder in the mind and heart is a Christian who is not obeying the command to love those around them. So in hating someone else because of skin color, we would then be committing sins of both commission (hating when we’re told not to) and omission (failing to love when we’re told to). (Matthew 5:21-26)
  2. The sin of pride. Proverbs has all kinds of things to say about this, all of them negative! Most notably are the verses where God says he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble or the point in Proverbs where Solomon through God’s inspiration writes that there is more hope of a fool than a man wise in his own eyes. God hates pride. Pride was the sin that ultimately got Satan kicked out of heaven along with all the angels who joined him in it. It’s deadly, it’s destructive, and it’s ugly. In the case of discriminating against another because of their skin color, pride yet again rears its ugly head as the individual doing the discrimination is literally saying, I’m better than you because I’m part of this group and not your group. It says, you don’t deserve to be treated with respect and dignity or with love and kindness because you are beneath me. What a wicked attitude to have! (Psalm 10:4; Psalm 138:6; Proverbs 11:12; Proverbs 8:13; Proverbs 16:5; Proverbs 26:12; Isaiah 14: 12-15; Daniel 5:20; Obadiah 1:3; Mark 7:20-23; Luke 14:11)
  3. The sin of blasphemy. When I first saw this connected to racism, I admit I was a bit confused. How is being racist blasphemous against God? Blasphemy is when we talk about God in an irreverent or sacrilegious way. When we look at another human being in disgust, we are in essence telling the world and God that He got it wrong. We’re maligning His character, if you want to think of it that way, because we’re looking at the amazing creativity God had in creating us with so many variations and beautiful differences in appearance and saying, God, if I were you, I wouldn’t have done it like this. We’re now turning our pride on God and saying, I could’ve done it better than You did, so let me tell you how it should’ve been done. What a dangerous place to be! Even if we don’t recognize it as such, looking at another of God’s creatures with such contempt and disgust solely on the grounds of color and appearance they were given from birth, which they had no control over, requires us then to make a statement on God’s design. Because if the human beings we hate for being black, white, red, yellow, or any other skin color under the sun had no control over how they were made, then our statement of poor design can only reflect upon the designer, not the work of art. God’s design was always for us to dwell in peace with Him and our fellow men. Sin has broken that fellowship and peace between all parties, but we are still called to live peaceably with all men as much as lies within us (Romans 12:18). While no specific Bible verse is going to tell you it’s blasphemy, an attitude that says God got it wrong denies the very nature of God, His plan, and His Word, all of which is blasphemy for a believer to say.

So we see that there are three very insidious sins involved in the actions and attitudes of a person who is truly racist. Those attitudes of hate, blasphemy, and pride are all sins, and they should be addressed as such.

Conclusion

When next you’re speaking to a non-Christian on the topic of racism, I challenge you to present it from this light. This is an opportunity to take a stand against sin. In this case, while the world may hate us and shame us for not condoning more sin in response to individuals’ sins already committed (by which I refer to the growing push to punish/demand restitution from all whites across the board, even if they genuinely have done nothing wrong, under the belief that they are at fault for everything wrong with the Black community as a result of their ancestry), we still have an incredible opportunity to stand up and speak out. We can stop applauding the wrong philosophies of the world around us while still affirming that God has called His people to love those around us, even if they hate us and spitefully abuse us. We can stop applauding an attitude of hatred on both sides while still affirming that racism is wicked and wrong.

But more than that, this provides an amazing opportunity to challenge an unbeliever to reconsider their views on God. As we’ve seen, the belief in evolution has contributed in so many ways to an worldview that logically would promote racism and offers those who already desire to engage in that heinous attitude an excuse to do so without guilt. So this is an opportunity to both find common ground and also challenge them. You can agree with them that racism is wrong, but then ask them why they think so. Ask them what the reasoning behind this is. Listen to them. Be thoughtful, respectful, and considerate. But push for answers. It’s always okay to keep asking “But why” or to say “But if you believe this, then why don’t you believe this is/isn’t okay?”.

These questions will probably make people mad, even if you ask it as kindly and gently as possible. I’ve been told many times that reasoning in this way and asking the question “Why is racism wrong” after having done so makes my question invalid and undeserving of an answer. But despite what the culture might wish to say or insist on, they’re valid questions to ask and do deserve an answer. The culture around us demands an answer of us. Why can we not also ask an answer of them, especially when we do it far more kindly and gently than they often have? There is a double standard, and if we play by their rules instead of using the brains and the tools God gave us to combat philosophies that are stealing our young people and deceiving those around us, we’re going to lose. Stop playing by their rules! They don’t want to be held to their own standards of reasoning, but they should be, and it’s time we started to do so respectfully but firmly.

In many cases, these questions can open the door for you to witness to people who otherwise never would’ve considered listening to a Christian, as well. If you’re able to have an honest conversation, help them to understand you aren’t approaching them in pride (if that’s not true, it’s better you don’t approach them at all), and point out the problems with their perspectives, the chances are much greater that they’ll be open to hearing you out, and in the process, God can use you to work on their hearts. He can’t do that if you’re rude, combative, and entirely un-Christian even as you may be factually correct.

Most importantly, pray. Pray for those that God gives you chances to be a light to. Ask Him to work on their hearts. It is not for us to save, only to take every opportunity God brings to us to be the salt and the light to a dying, lost world. Let’s do that by taking the truth to that dying, lost world in love and refusing to let go of them. They may scream, they may rage, they may call us names or refuse to listen. Perhaps when you ask if you can pray for them, they will say no. Pray anyway. Ultimately, while we need to understand the truths I’ve gone through above, and we need to have an answer to give for the hope that is in us and the things that we believe, prayer is our greatest weapon. We can speak the truth in love until we’re blue in the face, but if God does not change the hearts to receive that truth, then we will still see no fruit. So while we’re doing the active part God has called us to play, let’s not forget that prayer is also an action and must not be ignored.

I hope this has been an encouragement and, perhaps even, an eye-opener for those of you who are believers. We do have answers for the lost, dying world around us. We do have answers for our young people if we will only live the way we are asking them to. If we will address our culture’s false claims and Satan’s lures on our young people with Scripture and guide them to see the beauty in a life surrendered totally to God, we are going to lose far fewer of them to the temporary pleasures of sin and the world’s system.

Furthermore, at times, those around us who are condemning us so roundly for what we believe are actually in agreement with us without even knowing it. This includes both children who have already begun to reject our message in favor of what they are hearing at school, from peers, or from society as well as others around us who are part of that society and culture. We can find incredible opportunities to use that common ground, where it may exist, as a way to be the light God may use to open their eyes. This is not to say we should conform to the world or create common ground by compromising on Scripture. That is unacceptable if we are to live a set-apart life, holy in the eyes of God. However, if that agreement or common ground already exists beforehand when you are simply following what Scripture says, take advantage of that to show them the why behind what they’re claiming to believe. Most probably have no idea that the moral values they hold have Scriptural backing but no backing in the socially acceptable, evolutionary viewpoint of today’s society.

But even if we’re not able to stand on any common ground in our witnessing to individuals around us, we still can rest secure in the fact that we have a sovereign God who is still on the throne and that our God has not asked us to do the impossible but only to go to those around us with the hand of love extended and the truth on our lips. It’s time for us to reclaim the Church for God, to see a revival like we see in history’s pages happen today, and to stop letting the culture inform us on how we can be Christians in name without offending anyone by being Christians in reality. We please God, not man. He has given us the answers to a morally bankrupt society if we will only stand on those truths, exemplify them in our lives, and pass them along to the next generation. God help us all, in whatever stage of life we may be in, to do our part in achieving that God-focused goal in our life.

Thursday Technicalities: Acting out of Character

Publishing Journey

Introduction

First off, I apologize this wasn’t out last Thursday! I was having a bit of a hectic week, and I wasn’t able to get around to the post. Hopefully that won’t become a regular thing. Now, last time on Thursday Technicalities, we talked about the idea of internal conflict in a character. Today, we’re going to discuss what Donald Maas calls “character dimensions” and what I’d simply call aspects of a character that make them feel real. Maas used less words than I did, obviously, but initially, when reading through the exercise on this, I struggled with his terminology because I didn’t quite grasp what a “dimension” was. But this is a very important piece of developing your character, so let’s go ahead and dive into it!

What are character dimensions?

Character dimensions, simply put, are the various aspects of your character that make them who they are. For example, if your character is characterized by kindness and warmth, then those are character aspects or dimensions. Dimensions of your character make them multi-faceted and more realistic to the reader. They give us as readers some baseline for what a character will do or not do.

Why it’s important to establish these in your novel

Aside from just making a character feel well-rounded, character dimensions actually give you opportunities for growth, character arcs, and conflict. For example, say I have a character who’s generally non-violent. Let’s just say that they’re a healer and can’t stand the idea of harming another person. If I throw that character into a situation where they have no choice but to fight or die, that’s going to create a whole lot of internal conflict. We need these dimensions or aspects in our characters, regardless of who they are or what they stand for, because without them, we lose the richness our writing can have. But it’s also going to force them to act out of character, and this goes into the next important discussion point.

Acting out of character

Now we get to the portion of this discussion that I pulled the title from. If your character always acts exactly in accordance with their usual dimensions/aspects, they’re going to get boring fast, and they won’t seem like real people. All of us, when pushed to a certain point, will do things that would ordinarily go against the our grain. Sometimes that’s good. Sometimes it’s not, and it creates more trouble for us.

Your characters should be no different. While they may have some aspects that they’ll never compromise on (for example, someone who has an aspect to them where they will die for what they believe probably isn’t going to suddenly wake up one day and realize they no longer believe that thing or are no longer willing to die for it), they’re always going to have something that will push them out of their comfort zone in a way that results in doing something that isn’t in line with their usual character aspects.

This doesn’t have to be anything highly important all the time either. I have a character I’m working with in my current WIP that is used to being good at everything and avoids anything he knows he’s not good at unless it’s necessary to do those things. There’s a scene where he sits down to paint with the girl he’s protecting. That’s extremely unusual for him. He’s bad at it, and he goes further by admitting he’s no good at it even though he’s not fond of admitting weakness or ineptitude. But his decision to do it anyway, even when he doesn’t need to, leads to a bonding moment between the two. In and of itself, the decision to sit down and paint seems like no big deal, but it’s what’s behind the action that goes against his grain that makes it a big deal.

Adding points to your novel that force your character to do something that’s opposite of their usual defining traits brings this kind of life and realism to even the most fantastical of stories. This is why people are able to say of some fantasy books that they’re more realistic than some realistic fiction out there. It’s because the characters feel like real people experiencing real world struggles even though they’re on some other planet, have green skin, and use a lot of strange expressions. There’s an element of humanity and depth to them that resonates with us as readers, and an author who does the work to incorporate this will have a book that can do that.

Conclusion

Hopefully you’ve already got a few ideas going for areas to utilize this tool in your toolbox. If not, I encourage you to sit down and really start thinking about this. Jot down some defining traits or characteristics of at least your main character(s), and then find the opposite of that and see if you can’t come up with some points in your novel where that character might have to act in accordance with the opposite trait, not their defining ones.

Author’s Interview: Michaela Baker

We’ve got an interview with Michaela Baker today! She’s the author of short story “Maiden of Embers” in our anthology Glimpses of Time and Magic. Thanks for being here, Michaela! Let’s jump into the questions.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. 

My name is Michaela, and I’m a pharmacy technician who loves the world of fantasy. 

What kind of fantasy do you write, and what got you into it?

I like to write both regular fantasy and historical fantasy. 

What genres do you read, and do you write the same ones?

 I like to read fiction, dystopian, and fantasy, but I only write in Fantasy. I tried writing dystopian but didn’t get the hang of it. 

What are some of the things you like to do to relax?

I like to relax by listening to music, reading books, singing and play with my pup Kenai. 

Can you tell us about your current work in progress?

Wow, I have so many I’m not sure which to choose, haha! Well, I will tell you about my most recently finished novel that I am still editing. Dragons of Egypt is about a promising young high school journalist who taken, along with all his school mates, to Egypt by a deranged magician who works as Pharaoh’s right hand. Now, Eldwin must team up with the people of Egypt to run off their imposter of a Pharaoh and find a way to return him along with his school mates. 

If you are published, can you tell us about your experience?

Glimpses of Time and Magic is my first published work and I must say the experience has been exhilarating. Parties, running promo’s telling people to buy the book once it’s official.  

What were your inspirations for writing?

My inspirations have always been my sister and a few of my favorite authors. We didn’t have the privilege to be raised under the same household, so we kept looking for outlets for us to get into together. Needless to say, we have created several and will keep creating worlds together.

Who got you into writing?

I told my sister about an idea for a story, and she stole and ran off with it. So I began writing to see if I could finish it before her and then we started to compete with other ideas, then we would role play scenes she was having trouble with and then I branched off into my own stories. 

Was there anyone who came alongside you at any point when you were struggling in your writing journey and made a real difference? If so, who and why?

My sister Kelli Buffin has been by my side through it all, and I will forever be grateful. 

What advice would you give to aspiring authors and writers just starting on the writing journey?

If you love what you do, then do it to the best of your ability. Also, choose a Genre you love. I forget who said it but there is a saying that goes, “Write what you love.” In other words, if you don’t love what you are writing then you won’t give it the time and effort it deserves. 

What is one thing you wish someone had told you before you started on the writing journey?

What you write will affect you. You will go on many journeys of your own creation, make friends and then say goodbye to them. Writing is like a family or getting a new pet. Your characters will be there for a lifetime. Make sure they are worth the effort before you start your journey with them. Once you bring them to life you will never want to let them go. 

What’s your favorite book, and who’s your favorite literary character? Why?

My favorite book is the Dragon of Starlight series by Bryan Davis and Sword of the Dragon by Scot Appleton. I love the way they describe their world and how Bryan tells one story through two different characters so that you get an idea of the timeline through both eyes. I must admit, I have adopted this style for Dragons of Egypt. 

Conclusion

Thanks again for being here, Michaela! I enjoyed doing this, and I hope all of you reading this have learned a bit about this author and had fun with us. Until next time!