Looking for a little advice

Thinking... Are you planning to have him read the Gospels and/or Paul's Damascus experience and suddenly "get it?" Or, say, Moses and the burning bush?

I'd go for a Damascus Road scene, myself. Not necessarily hearing The Voice--that can be dreadfully saccharine. But sensing the power behind the story, and sending out feelers to that unknown Power. And the Power touches the MC, akin to opening the Third Eye.

Or are you thinking of a Hound of Heaven progression? CS Lewis describes his conversion like that: he studied and argued and every time he paused in his activities, the Presence was right there, giving him no peace or rest till he surrendered. (That's not syrup--it's pretty much how my conversion happened. Not fun, I assure you. )

PM me if you want to brainstorm more.

Judg said:

I am in the process of writing the most crucial part of my WIP. A little context: This is a fantasy, set in an alternate world originally settled by a few covens from 17th century Britain. A couple of them smuggled Bibles into their new world. Now, several centuries later, the main character is studying one of these. He is a prominent wizard in their system, similar to a bishop. I've set up rather carefully why his mind would be open to considering seriously what he's reading. And he does, in fact, convert. He has never met a Christian or heard of a church in his life.

Now this is tricky stuff. I don't want it to be preachy or saccharine or formulaic. Up until this point in the book, I doubt if very many people would have realized it's a Christian book at all just from reading the text, although his fascination with the "Sky God" might tip some people off. I want it to be powerful, credible, interesting, etc.

What would you do? (I'm about half way through, so I obviously have some ideas on this, but I'm certainly open to suggestions.)

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well, God's word says, faith comes by hearing and hearing the world of God. And Jesus is the word made flesh. and there are people in the world who never met a christian before, but read the word of God and got saved. There are all kinds of ways you could do it. A small whisper, a visitation by the Lord, a changing of his heart, a talking donkey? God works in strange ways.

But if it was me, I would have a simple changing of the heart. He suddenly understands all of what Jesus did, as if God Himself pulled back a curtain. His heart changes as Jesus recreates him. the people around him call him crazy, but he keeps telling them what Jesus did and who he is. Honestly, I think this is more powerful than any miracle. But it's up to you.

kim




kim

I started a slightly similar story about five years ago (and abandoned it). So I have been down somewhat similar terrain. So I do have some advice.


Before I give my advice, I wanna say your idea is far better than mine. And it has potential for being downright profound. One of the fundamental characteristics about the entire Judeo-Christian segment of human history is that it's a brand of religion driven primarily by a written book as opposed to an erupting volcano or a pretty amulet or the imbibement of drugs. This fact is so simple that it's sadly quite easy for us Christians to miss how truly profound it ultimately is. It was a BOOK that changed the world. WRITTEN WORDS. It started with two stone tablets chiseled by the finger of God. And then the writings of Moses. And then the Torah. And then the New Testament. Everything points back to written words. Words are everything, and as a writer, words are the materials (bricks and mortar) you will use to build a story.

As for my advice on your story, I wanna give you an example from "Tarzan" and then I'll make my point from there.

The original story of "Tarzan" as written by Burroughs had ridiculous plot holes in that you should be mindful of while trying to write your tale. One plot hole was Tarzan's ability to speak English. He was raised by apes, and never saw a human being other than his parents who were killed when he was just an infant. So he never even heard a human voice, and certainly never heard English spoken (except as a tiny tiny baby). But he later found some English story books in the scraps from his former human life (the wreckage of his parents' airplane I believe) and by teaching himself to read these story books he taught himself HOW TO SPEAK English. And so when Jane and the others found him as an adult, he spoke English.

Hogwash.

While it might be remotely possible that he could have somehow--through some amazing gift of linguistic genius--learned to READ (in total silence) those English books, there's no way he would have learned to PRONOUCE them without someone constantly speaking actual English to him for years at a time.

Here's my advice:

If this wizard character of yours has never HEARD people discuss Christianity, then it would stand to reason that he--like Tarzan-would be getting all his information exclusively from this book (the Bible) and I assuming it's only going to be a King James translation, or else a Geneva translation (no New American Standard, and certainly no New International Version). So there's no way he could/should speak in contemporary strains of "Christianese." I have no doubt that via the Holy Spirit he will get a grasp of some rather profound spiritual concepts. But outside of the social context of contemporary Western Christianity he will in no way ever ever ever be able to know the following:

1) The Trinity - Not once does that 7-letter word appear anywhere in the Bible. The concept is Biblically valid, but he can't possibly ever hear/read that word anywhere in this world you are crafting. So he should never speak it (unless he gets his hands on ANOTHER document that mentions the Trinity--the Satanic Trinity, perhaps??-- and then he has a Eureka! moment where he pieces it together himself).

2) Vicarious - Also not in the Bible. Although, admittedly, the word DOES exist in the English language outside the context of the Christian religion. So it might be possible (again, via the Holy Spirit) for him to make the association between that word and Christ's sacrifice.



Maybe you can make your wizard a high-ranking scholar in his world with an acute adeptness at words. Maybe that's the hook he needs to be able to decipher what's happening in the words of this Bible thing he found.

Now that I've pointed to the words that are NOT in the Bible, how about the ones that ARE.




The word "Warfare" is found in the Bible, both OT and NT. In OT it's always only literal human warfare. In NT it's always only the spiritual kind.

The word "Atonement" is significant. In the OT it refers to the physical lid on top of the gold box that was the Ark of the Covenant. But in the NT it refers to the profound concept of erasing our sins. This might start off as something of particular interest to your character when he first starts with the Bible because the Ark of the Covenant is an obviously ritual-focused thing for him to be reading about, involving blood and incense. But then he will find that the rituals in the Bible are not centered upon spells and incantations to secure harm against and control of other people. Instead those rituals are appeals for the forgiveness of sins. Does the word "sin" even exist in your wizard's world?

The word "Covenant" is also a real kicker.

What's more, on top of the gold atonement cover sit two golden Cherubim. Would your wizard even know what Cherubim are? And it has been speculated by some Bible scholars that if it's true that Satan is indeed a fallen angel, then he is probably from the species of angel known as Cherubim (possibly the most powerful of all angels, more powerful than Seraphim or any other types). The two Cherubim on top of the atonement cover are quite possibly in a kneeling position. This is also something of significance: angels who kneel before God, powerful Cherubim (like Satan) who kneel before God. In your wizard's world, is there such a thing as kneeling before any god? Is there such a person as Satan to your wizard's people? And would the Satan that your wizard has been taught about ever kneel to anyone in his world?


Here's an interesting word: "Propitiation." That word appears only in the NT. It is (thankfully) found in the KJV, but only three times (four time in the NASB). And quite oddly, it NEVER appears at all in the NIV. So if it's a KJV your wizard has, then he CAN get his hands on that word. But will he know what it means? Will he have to dig around before discovering its true meaning?


Also, the 4 Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) were written with four different audiences in mind. Mark is the most Gentile-friendly of the four, where as Matthew requires you have some background in Jewish culture and customs. John is the most esoteric with high-end theology all throughout and Luke is very scientifically-minded (he was a physician, so he gets more medically-oriented, giving precise medical details of Jesus' healings) and he's also very female-friendly (he was open to using the accounts of women, whereas the other three Gospel writers evidently had no desire to listen to very much, if any, of the female points-of-view while writing their versions).

The Book of Acts has more than one very interesting brush with witchcraft. For him to read about those instances might be very enlightening.

The Book of Revelations mentions punishments for those who practiced witch caft.


And getting back to angels: are there angels in your world? The Harry Potter books have familiars (Harry's familiar is his owl). And when you get down to it: a familiar is really a type of demon, conveniently disguised as a regular earthly creature, who aids a witch in the crafting of spells. Are there demons in your world? Do witches and wizards have familiars in your world? Are those familiars really demons in disguise? Do the witches and wizards of your world KNOW what their pet cats and pet owls REALLY are? Does your main character have a familiar? And does this familiar know what's going on with this Bible thing that the wizard got his hands on? The Bible mentions familiar spirits (although the Bible doesn't clarify what that means). Is the discovery of the word "familiar" in the Bible also something that will be a dawning revelation to him?



Getting back to Satan. In the Book of Revelations, there is one verse that is utterly loaded: Revelations 12: 7-9. Here we read about Michael and the war in heaven,

And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

In this section we read that the Dragon has many names: he is simultaneously called "that old serpent" and "the Devil" and "Satan" all in one verse. So there is no mistaking who he is!!!! And the fact that he is called "that old Serpent" is used as evidence by most scholars when they claim that the serpent in the Garden of Eden is one-and-the-same with this Satan character. So once again, perhaps your wizard can do some detective work and piece all of this together himself.



I like what Kim said above: just the Bible can do it (with the Holy Spirit on your shoudler).

My feeling is, your character needs to start off his character arc as a "successful" wizard, well-respected in his world. And yet in spite of all his success he senses something isn't quite "right" with the world he lives in. Something inside nags at him. There MUST be more. And then when he finds this Bible he starts to slowly unravel what that missing something is.

One way to avoid sentimentality to some degree might be to give your character some dread over what he's coming to believe. He might not have Lewis's cultural prejudices, but he would still know that once he decides to do something about his new belief, everyone would think he's crazy and there would probably be enormous repurcussions in his life.

I think the number one reason people who come to believe the Bible either take a long time to do anything about it or just never follow Christ at all is because they know how utterly uncomfortable their lives will be if they change their minds. They don't always admit that, sometimes using very flimsy excuses instead, but that's most people's major hang-up. It's like a guy in a romance who knows he loves the girl but won't admit it because he's afraid to get trapped or that he's wrong.

Anyway, it sounds like a fun plot and just the fact that you WANT to avoid the sappy, preachy stuff will probably help a lot more than you know! Good luck.

And here's something to add to my statement about the WRITTEN word of God changing the world.

Jesus is the LIVING word of God. He is the fulfilment of the Law (of the written word).

The very first book of the OT starts off "In the beginning ..."

And then .......

The Gospel of John starts off "In the beginning was the word." Whenever God deliberately echoes something in his written word twice like that, we need to pay attention to it. "In the beginning." Twice. Two times. Exact same words.

Pay. Attention. To. Such. Poetic. Echoing.

If your wizard is a man gifted in words, he will pick up on this whole "in the beginning" thing. If he is into words, then he will take seriously the Biblical assertion that a person (Jesus) is also capable of being a "word," or better yet, that he is THE "word."

All the many words that he spent years memorizing from his spells and incantations are nothing compared to THIS word.




Here's another sugestion:

Perhaps the world of wizards is one where intelligence and glibness of tongue are not only prized, but are also essential for survival. You can't memorize pages and pages of spells and incantation if you have a reading disability. You can't speak spells out loud if you have a speech impediment. Anyone incapable of working magic due to such disabilities would be a second-class citizen. But Jesus is the only Word you need. And he doesn't turn people away if they aren't astute intellectuals. Instead he accepts ALL men (and women). Rather than being burdened by the need to keep up with so many books of secret dark arts, Jesus liberates us with an easy yoke and a light burden. He keeps it pretty simple, really. But the world of wizardry is one full of complicated memorizations, and shameful disgrace if one fails to keep up with it all.

Hey, Judg, I'm still reading your other posts above. You obviously have a lot of cool ideas on this already.

I'm really a screenwriter myself, and I'm more into writing dramatic comedys than I am into high fantasies and gothic stuff thah what you're doing. But I'm digging your jib and I'm happy to talk more on this.

BTW, I'd read this.

Zondervan. NavPress. (Not sure if they take unagented subs, tho.)

Join ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) and enter their Genesis contest with this next year. (contest is closed already this year.) It's for unpubbed writers only. You have to be a member, but it's the most supportive and welcoming group I've ever encountered. I entered 2 works this year. The crits are definitely worth the entry fee.

And/or go to their annual conference in Sept. in Dallas. I went last year, but can't go this year ($$ issues). You get one agent and one editor 15-min appt, plus agents and editors "host" lunch and dinner tables and you can pitch then too.

And if you remember, I'd be happy to read it.

Dancre, I agree with what you're saying. But I have to lay this out gently, yet compellingly. It would be deadly if it turns into a sermon. I have great respect for sermons. When you walk into a meeting in a church, you expect one, you're open to it, and good things can happen. When you're reading a novel, this is not what you were looking for and readers can feel like they've been baited or duped. This has got to be a major turning point in his life and in the novel, but it still has to be good story-telling and maintain the same voice I've established so far, which is pretty matter-of-fact, even if it's fantasy. I've tried to make it a very realistic fantasy.

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Rmember in Galatians 1:17 where Paul said he went to Arabia? Jesus taught him what he needed to know. Maybe this could happen to your wizard? The Lord apprears to him and suddenly, he understands. I'm not sure what you'd want to do with him after that, but it is possible for him to get saved without someone preaching to him. And I do agree, never get preachy. That's why I said he can have a changing of his heart. Where he was cruel and mean, he becomes loving and kind b/c of Jesus changing his heart. REally pray about this and God will lead you.

kim

Francine Rivers had a character in her "Voice in the Wind" novel (I think it was that one) who wanted to accept Christianity, but was alone and didn't know how. Of course a man appeared and directed him. I think she implied it was an angel.

I don't care for "tricks" in writing. I think it could have been handled in a realistic way. The enormous thread on another board on why Christian novels shouldn't be written addresses this duex ex machina solution to problems, and I agree. Be careful with your miracles!

No great thoughts for you (although this sounds interesting!), but a possible publisher: www.arxpub.com A friend of mine has a couple of books (blatant plug ) through this company if you want an author's perspective.

Sounds like a good plan. This one is pretty small, so I wouldn't expect it to be your first choice anyway. But Emily's happy with them, so I just thought I'd mention.