The Method of Creation

First of all, I have to apologize for my last post. It has a faint hint of bitterness to it which is just lame. Girls, and the association therewith, is a complicated subject for me, filled with high expectations, dashed hopes, and only imaginary success. So, it's hard for me to hear my ecclesiastical leader tell me that I need to subject myself to more of the same; that it is my duty to do so. I am in the wrong for my current lack of initiative, and hopefully, I will be able to regain my. . .nerve.

With that said, I want to talk a little bit about the process of writing stories.

I've been searching for a long time for a solution to the mythology and religion for my current work in progress. I want to include religion in my book, inspirational morals that will help my adoring public go through a cathartic process. However, I want it to be subtle; so much of what I read from religious authors (especially Mormons writing for a Mormon audience) is just blatant preaching, almost painful to read. The worst example of this was a book called Tathea by Anne Perry. . .I'll admit that I quit reading, so maybe I missed out on the book's redeeming qualities, but what I did read (around half), was horrid. The book was supposed to be allegorical in nature, but it was so obvious and clumsily delivered that it came across as some sort of extended sermon, by a really boring orator, disguised as a fantasy.  Anyway, I don't want to fall into that same trap; I don't want to be any sort of talking head or anything in my books.  That's the trick though, isn't it?  To include religion as part of the story, but not to force that religion upon the reader.  Orson Scott Card ran into the same problem with his Ender's Game books.  I love Card, and Ender's Game will probably always be one of the best books that I have ever read, but the main series, Speaker for the Dead, took Ender's character and pretty much killed the series.  It was a bit. . .boring.  I am being overly harsh on Card, who is a magnificent writer, but I had such high expectations after Ender's Game that the rest of the series came across more like, "blah, blah, blah."  It felt like Card set the hook, and then just held us on the line a preached for a while.

Of course, the other problem is to not include any sort of ideals at all, then your writing becomes dark. . .without real redemption. 

This is going in a whole different direction than I intended.  Suffice it to say, I think I found a way to include religion in my book, that will feel authentic, that will still be in line with Biblical mythology (and I use mythology here in the academic sense of the word), but it won't come across as being preachy or anything like that.

I figured out how to do it while I was reading the mythology of the Virgin birth in ancient American cultures.  Namely, I was reading the mythology of Quetzalcoatl, whose name I already understood to be translated as "the feathered serpent."  However, there is another translation that helped me to have one of those magnificent and sudden moments of intense brain activity. . .an epiphany if you will.  Anyway, problem solved.

The moral of the story is, always be ready because inspiration for your writing can come from anywhere!  That is what I was originally going to say before I started ranting on authors and their preaching.  The End.