 Spiritual: February 12, 2025 Issue [#12977] |
This week: Writing Your Faith Edited by: Kit  
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Do your religious/spiritual views affect your writing? To what extent do you feel that your morals and standards influence your creative output?
This week's Spiritual Newsletter is all about faith and the arts.
Kit |
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Do your religious/spiritual views affect your writing? I have asked myself this question recently, and I am not entirely certain on the answer.
I don’t write many items in the spiritual or religious genres. If you have ever stopped by my portfolio you will have found some, but I do not tend to feel qualified to write such items. I believe in God, and I have had some religious experiences, but I don’t go to church, and I lack thorough knowledge of the Bible or other religious texts. I enjoy reading other people’s items of faith. I have a contest with monthly prompts for people of any and all faiths – "Share Your Faith" [13+], this month’s prompt is Fate – but when I see other faith-based contests on the site I shy away from them. Perhaps I shouldn’t. Perhaps I should confidently share my views. It’d certainly be a learning experience. It’s just… what if I’m seen as not good enough a believer?
I’m not as firm and unquestioning in my faith as many people. I do question, and doubt, and search. The one thing that I keep on coming back to is that there is a God, a Creator, and I have the general sense that we ought to be good and kind to one another, and to the world around us. I look at the beauty in nature, and question why it has to be that life feeds upon life. Because the world is full of wonder. When I sit by the loch and I spot a heron watching the water, or a couple of deer between the trees, I want to be like a Disney princess who draws them to me, rather than hunt them. I marvel at the bonds that can exist between human and animal, from the ways that we live with dogs, and cats, and horses to how even a tiny hamster can fall asleep, safe and secure, in a child's hand. That’s what it’s all about to me. Looking after each other, and looking after what’s around us, from people, to trees, to other lifeforms, because we’re all in this together on this planet, and we only have the one Earth, and let’s make it the very best place to be.
This does shine through in my blogging. I don’t blog as often as I should – not anymore – but that is the one place where I feel truly free to express myself. It is set to only be seen by people on Writing.Com, and not many members ever stop by, so I feel as safe and secure as anyone can be on the Internet. It’s where I pour out my thoughts and emotions, my joys and frustrations. My hypocrisies, too. Like most people I am filled with contradictions, and my actions and opinions do not always align. I have good intentions, and always seem to fall short. That’s the person you’ll find in my blog.
What about my fictional works, though? In fiction, your characters can be whoever you want them to be. I guess my morals do make their way into my fiction, to a greater or lesser extent. After all, what makes a hero depends on what the writer believes to be heroic, and what makes the “bad guy” bad depends on what the writer considers to be bad. That said, one of the joys of writing fiction is to explore different angles and different viewpoints, and what it is to be someone you are not. I find it excellent fun to explore different character traits and have stories about fairies and vampires, the light and the dark.
I’m still me, though, whatever I write, and I refuse to write anything that goes against the very core of my beliefs. You won’t find in my portfolio any items containing torture, animal abuse, and various other horrors. You won’t find me being sexist, racist, homophobic or transphobic. I have much respect for veterans, but the items I have written to honour them usually talk about the damaging nature of war, and how society should do better at looking after those who have stepped up to defend it.
My morals and standards could be seen as separate to my faith – after all, you do not need to have a faith to have morals and standards – but I personally think that mine are connected. I believe that it’s important to be as good as kind as I can be, and believe that God wants us to be as good and kind as we can be. It could be that I am projecting my own beliefs on my idea of who and what God is, but most faiths have at their roots a desire for a better world in which we live in peace and harmony. Even if we fail to live up to that right now, it’s a desire that unites us.
In the end, then, I guess that my religious/spiritual beliefs do affect my writing. They’re a part of who I am, and who I am shines through in my creative endeavours.
What about you? Do your beliefs affect your creative output?
Kit
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Some items you might enjoy, or that may inspire you:
| | Share Your Faith (13+)
Are you spiritual? Religious? Or not at all? Can you incorporate this into your writing?
#2204562 by Kit |
| | The Bradbury (E)
If you write 52 short stories, one of them's bound to be great... right? Let's find out!
#2277001 by Jeff  |
And don't forget:
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The Spiritual Newsletter Team welcomes any and all thoughts and feedback, questions and suggestions, so please don't hesitate to write in! 
Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Spiritual Newsletter Team
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