@ethan-leonard Hi! I think I can help give advice on a few of these points, but fair warning these are topics I love to talk about and I’m going to start rambling XD
First things first:
PRAY – I know that when you put your story, your writing and creative process into God’s hands, He’ll answer that prayer. He’s given us creativity and a passion for writing for a purpose, and if we surrender that to Him I don’t believe He’s going to let that go to waste. My own writing didn’t truly start to take off and develop until I gave it up to Him, which was honestly easier said than done. As I grew in my faith and started including Him more in that process, my characters, plot and theme have all really developed and become so much more deep and meaningful, and that’s all thanks to God and His work in my faith. I will say, be prepared because you don’t know where He’ll lead you – my writing has taken difficult turns, but if anything that’s helped me to include Him even more and just lean on Him and trust that he’ll use it to convey the messages that He wants it to (because there’s some things I’m writing about now that I just wouldn’t even dare to write on my own.)
Ok so to answer some of your questions:
2. I know some people tend to be more plot driven than character driven, but even in plot driven stories, you need great characters. For example, LotR is very plot driven imo, but it’s characters are still interesting and well rounded. You can have a story with the best plot ever, but if it’s characters are stereotypical, flat, or uninteresting, the plot will fall through. On the flip side, you can have a story with an incredibly basic plot, but if the characters are really good, the story will be rich and engaging. Now, personally, I’m more character oriented, so a lot of my plot tends to be driven by my characters and what makes them tick. But I’ve found that my plot has become richer as my characters have grown – especially as I’ve started to nail down their interactions with other characters.
So, with your soldier, really start digging into his core values, his fears, wants, needs, etc. Does he have family back home? Does he have a wife or girlfriend? Are there any particular soldiers in his squad that he really likes or dislikes – say, if he has a friend he dearly loves, he might want to save him or her over the other soldiers…but would that be right to do? Does he value life? If so, whose life does he value more – his, or his soldiers? Does he struggle with fear? Hate? If you’re wanting to really explore faith in this story, then is he a believer at this point, and if not, what does he need to lose in order to be driven to Christ (this could be a lie he believes in, or something he’s placed his trust in, maybe even something physical like a possession, weapon, etc.) These values and relationships are going to be driving his decisions throughout the story, and they might start cluing you into more emotionally powerful and meaningful plot points.
Because that’s one thing – sometimes I’m tempted to go the “easy” way when it comes to plotting, but often times it’s the hard, emotionally devastating, disturbing plot points that really get your point across.
3. Yeah, that’s a tough one. I will say, I think it’s not so much a question of keeping a book “‘Christian” as it is trying to glorify God through your writing. So I doubt you can glorify God through including actual swear words, but I think you can describe the actions without actually saying the words – “she swore viciously” “He cursed under his breath,” etc.
I think that “cussed” sounds harsher, than “swore” or “cursed” tbh, so that might be helpful to keep in mind
4. I guess it depends on what you mean by “cold blooded killer.” I’m assuming you’re referring to the MC? So, does your MC enjoy killing people? Does he hate his enemies and enjoy seeing them dead? That’s obviously sinful and horrible, but that doesn’t mean that he can’t be redeemed! Has he become numb to killing because of the horrors he’s seen? Does he not like killing, but knows it’s something he must do to protect his squad? I think those are reasonable and to be expected in war. I guess it depends on how you portray it. I think the main thing to watch out for is portraying the act of killing as “cool.” You can portray sin or horrible events without glorifying them, and I think that’s one of the differences between secular and God-glorifying fiction. Even if your MC is in the wrong, you can show through the narrative the effects his actions have , and show the damage they cause both to him and others. I think it’s also important to show the weight of all this death he’s surrounded by. Taking a life isn’t a small matter, even in war, and so your MC will be probably be really suffering throughout this ordeal. He might start becoming numb to it, but that doesn’t mean it’ll never affect him – there’s a reason so many soldiers come home with PTSD. I think you’ve got some really interesting opportunities to explore some incredibly sticky situations here, and I would pray about how to portray them! It’s not the presence of dark situations that’s the problem, but rather your motive for including them, their place in the story, and the message they help portray.
Hope this helps!
*laughs as one fey*
