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Friday, June 25, 2010

Keeping it Clean - Edit/Update

I'm home - but I wrote this on Tuesday.

Something I should’ve mentioned in my post about Keeping it Clean (because you’re a teen) is that as a Christian - or another religion that has rules - it can be very difficult to go against the values of your character, and yourself.


If you are Christian, and your character is not, then I’m back to the fact that just because you write it, doesn’t mean you’re doing it.

If you’re a Christian, and so is your character, I’m still back to the fact that just because you write it, doesn’t mean you’re doing it. However, if you’ve established that your character is Christian and has Christian values, I would advise you to only go against those values only if it is essential to the plot.

If you’re not a Christian, and your character is, please research the religion enough that you know what is ‘okay’ and what is a ‘no-no’.

If you’re not a Christian, and your character is not, you don’t have anything to worry about. However, like I said, please only write stuff that is important to the plot. Otherwise, your readers are going to get tired of reading stuff that isn’t going to effect the story at all.

Hope this helped, sorry I didn’t add this.

And my internet is really acting up - the wifi doesn’t like me today. Grr I don’t like it either. Take that, wifi!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yea! Hanna is back! Hope you had a nice vacay.

I thought this post was interesting, even though I don't belong to any particular denomination. It reminded me of a Stephanie Meyer, who is a practicing Mormon. Though her characters are not explicitly Mormons, you can see how her faith inspired her, whether intentionally or not, in her themes.For example, her Faith emphasizes the importance of families and communities. Because Bella comes from a broken home its not surprising that one of Bella's story goals is to be apart of Edward's family. I guess you could argue that this has to do with Bella's obsessive love for Edward, but throughout the books Bella expresses her admiration for the Cullens loyalty to each other. Also, the books seem to assert that "clans" are important for both power and happiness. The doggies, the voltair (idk how to spell it, to lazy to google it), the cullens, the newborns. There is no single hero or villain. Everything is a collaborative effort.

Mormon's also believe that after death, the spirits will one day be resurrected and reunite with their bodies. This may account for Meyer's somewhat obtuse attitude of death. For the most part, death is not seen as a terrifying obstacle to the characters. Most are more frightened by the prospect of being separated by their love ones, which is how most of the vampires come to be. Personally, I am bothered by the philosophical implication of another man choosing everlasting life on earth for another person. It seems so selfish...

I guess that's it for now.

Again, I'm glad your back Hanna!

Hanna said...

@JP It was wonderful! Video/pictures most likely to come!

Yes - I totally agree with you. I think, in some ways, I have a hard time writing something that is 'against my religious beliefs' because I am such a strong believer in my religion (save for the fact that they are against gay ppl - I've never understood that. God loves all of His children). But I think Stephenie also included a bit of her belief of abstinence until marriage - which I love - between Bella and Edward. Although Bella doesn't want to take that path, she does because Edward wants to. Which is an example of why I wear a ring everyday that says "True Love Waits".

Thanks, JP!

Anonymous said...

My family raised me with Christan values and believing in God, going to Sunday school and everything... But I don't find that I have a hard time writing against my principles. Like you said, I know I am never going to do some of the things my characters do, but somethings cannot be controlled. If the character I've created would do or react in such a morally wrong way I can't change who they are just because I don't agree with what they are doing.
I can understand where you are coming from though. For the past year or so I've been going through that 'phase' where you begin to question everything you thought you knew to be true. So my values have probably been lowered drastically...
I like this posty though(why on Earth do I call these things posty's...), it makes sense.