I’m so excited about this series! I read Coral last year and enjoyed it so much. I agree that Sara Ella did a wonderful balancing light and dark in the book, without either being too heavy.

Loved this so much! And I agree. Thanks, Mariposa.

This is brilliant! Will definitely be incorporating into my stories.

Thank you for this, Mariposa! I like how you used the example of Job. I think this method can make stories more relatable and fresh.

Lovely reminder, Mariposa, especially with NaNoWriMo upon us, luring us to more stress. Thank you!

A beautiful and well-timed article — thank you! I think this is a topic that Christian writers need to talk about more often. I would also add that simply sitting in silence with God is a fantastic way to “rest in God” as well.

Love this! So important and a very astute distinction is made here.
Amen! Amen! And again I say Amen!
Thank you, Mariposa!

Wow, I love that, Zachary! That’s a great question to ask ourselves as writers and Christians.

I’m looking forward to this series. And this introductory post has so many great truths in it already! Thank you. I needed this.

Definitely true! I am part of Kingdom Pen’s Dragon Slayer challenge right now, and that point about your why as a writer is something that I’m experiencing right now, finding it through these articles I’m writing. I would love to submit to you and was really excited to hear that it was open!

I’m studying Job for youth group right now. Thanks for republishing this article!

Beautiful! I’m actually reading and hand-copying Job right now, so most of the verses and stuff were fresh of the burner. 🙂 You also made me laugh so many times and cleared some stuff up for me. Thanks so much for pouring your time and energy into this!

Amen! Mariposa! Very astute and well-written article.
Most people miss a lot of what you pointed out about Job’s internal struggle.
It is interesting when the pivot comes and God reveals His ways are so much higher than man’s reasoning and speculations (Job 38-40:2 & 40:6-41) and Job’s true contrition in 40:3-5 & 42:1-6 comes out. Job 42:7-8 is poetic justice in that the very “friends” who speculatively accused Job, now have to seek God’s favor through Job’s forgiveness of them for their insensitivity.

I agree that we cannot make characters too virtuous, or too vile because we will lose the ability to relate and empathize with them from within our own flawed humanity. God uses broken vessels so that when He does something miraculous through their lives, He receives the glory for it, and justly so.

God does not share worship. He humbles and amazes us with His Gracy and Mercy, and His undeserved Love transforms a heart yielded to His forgiveness.

Readers need relatable characters that are accessible to them emotionally and to some degree in situations.

The character and story arc of “good writing” should appeal to the reader’s more noble desires imprinted upon their conscience by God.*

* They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right. [Romans 2:15 NLT]

I love this. I love Job. I cling to it.

In fact, my love of Job (for a lot of the reasons in this article) is deeply entwined in my current WiP. An important scene (not even scene really, more like paragraph) I have planned for the yet-unwritten denouement involves my main character reading Job start to finish in one sitting. The epigraph – and my signature on the forums here – is Job 32:8. And my main supporting character, serving as foil to my MC, is Ethan Jobeson.

(…too heavy handed on that last one? I promised myself to let it lie and reassess during revisions haha)

Yes, it’s so tempting to make our characters perfect!

Thanks so much for reading! 😊