For example, the main issues my MCs will grapple with are:
- Doubt and Faith (those two kind of go together)
- Where is God when I'm hurting?
- Dealing with mean Christians
By the last one, I mean that one (or more) of my characters has been hurt by Christians in the past, and part of the story will involve learning to deal with that.
There's going to be a nice scene with a stained glass window - I'm excited about that.
So, anyone? Themes?
(Keep in mind this isn't for plot summaries - plot summaries go on the Christian Lit thread. thanks!)
----------
2008 - Finding the Words (epic fail)
2009 - Doxology (I can do this!)
35,561 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 08 20
Overall theme = Stand firm and know that the Lord is who he says he is despite what we experiance
----------Amendment One -2009
"A word after a word/after a word is power" - Margaret Atwood
20,854 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 09 28
Looking past your own hurts to help others.
----------5,641 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 09 45
The final step between knowing something in your head, and believing it in your heart.
----------2009 working title:
Dream Witness
41,383 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 10 34
I have a few... but I don't know what my overall theme of the book is in general. I know it'll have Christian ideas cause my MC is a strong Christian and everything, but I still don't know if it will be labeled a Christian novel or not. Oh well. Here are some things she and other friend will be dealing with (I think):
- God can and will use you no matter what sort of situation are you in
- Use the talents you have to worship God
- Loving your enemies
- Standing up for what you believe in
- Trusting that God has a plan for your life
- He's always there
So... stuff like that basically. It'll be fun
----------Emily
You never have to change anything you got up in the middle of the night to write. - Saul Bellow, a Canadian writer
NANOWRIMO '08: White As Snow- 51,720 words
NANOWRIMO '09: Drama!- ?????
24,242 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 11 56
Matthew 6:34
Trusting your life into God's hands and not worrying about it or doubting him. A lot of faith is in involved too.
7,242 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 12 57
My main theme will be centered around the MC (it's a 1st person view). It's a dark night of the soul story. Some of the things in it are as follows:
-----------Growing up in the church.
-Hypocrisy within the church.
-Blind faith vs. informed faith.
-Philosophical difficulties with atheism/agnosticism.
-Problem of Evil (for both Christianity and atheism).
-Historical truth of Christianity.
-Beauty and peace within the church.
-Peace with God.
"Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial."
-G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
31,925 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 13 12
Alright, there are a couple:
1) Doubt in the face of adversity
----------2) Faith & Obedience even when you feel like your heart is dying
3) Accepting the Bad with the Good
4) Understand that we can never understand God completely
5) Faith in his plan
40,838 / 50,000
oct. 27, 2009 - 15 44
Trusting God in your weakness
----------2009 -- A Hero Over His Head
2008 -- {sat out}
2007 -- {sat out}
2006 -- Power in the Blood (won)
2005 -- CUL8R (lost)
2004 -- {sat out}
2003 -- Nowhere Man (won)
2002 -- Soulmates (won)
2,418 / 50,000
oct. 28, 2009 - 07 11
My main themes are:
- unlimited, unselfish love despite hard times and people
----------- the empowerment provided by belief
- trust
- faith as lived
50,010 / 50,000
oct. 29, 2009 - 07 40
Hmmm... not entirely sure yet... but so far it would be
-understanding that God's power is above our fears -- He is stronger than anything we might fear
- His path for us doesn't always follow our path
and yeah... still coming up with the rest.
----------~*Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem,
by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer:
Don't excite love, don't stir it up,
until the time is ripe—and you're ready*~
38,529 / 50,000
oct. 29, 2009 - 14 05
Hi all,
My theme has taken a while to emerge, but here it is in a nutshell:
True love lies in entering another person's skin to seek understanding, and to love even (and especially) those radically different from ourselves.
Jesus is, of course, the ultimate example of this -- God becoming human and experiencing all of our weaknesses, sorrows, and pains, which are so alien to the perfect happiness that is the nature of God.
My main character is Malachi, a guardian angel, who thus has a unique perspective on both God and man, and who must learn to love (even if he cannot understand) both the human and the divine.
Paul aka NovelNo4
2005: Shielded in My Armor (completed ahead of schedule)
2009: In Splendor Before His Face (not yet begun)
47,101 / 50,000
oct. 29, 2009 - 16 21
Themes... I don't do well with themes, I can't pin them down. Especially considering that this particular story hasn't been written yet.
But I suppose the main thing will be discerning between right and wrong, true and false, God's plan and what you want, and understanding/eliminating the gray areas. So, being discerning.
I don't know if this would be considered a 'theme' but my MC will be called to be a missionary by the end. So I guess you could say, discovering and obeying God's plan for your life.
Others may or may not include:
Staying true to your resolve when you have no other Christians around for support...
Avoiding temptation.
Learning to love others because God loves them, even if they hate you.
So yeah, I'm not sure. I'll probably know better what themes there are when I've written it.
----------Of course I'm mad, it's the only thing that keeps me sane!
42,155 / 50,000
oct. 29, 2009 - 20 46
I guess my overall theme is discovering what God's call is.. my main character struggles for a while to find what God is calling him for and even when he seems to have found it he has doubts.
5,174 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2009 - 11 09
For my novel, I explore the incarnation of Jesus and his humanity in a world based on the fantasy worlds of Dunegons and Dragons and how that relates to the soteriology of the world.
In other words: if God incarnates as a human to save humanity in a world where humans share the planet with other humaniod species, ie elves, orcs, and dwarves, would God then need to incarnate again as an elf in order to save the elves.
35,374 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2009 - 12 21
Archon_Husky - that's a cool theme! I'd be interested in reading that! C.S. Lewis explores some similar issues in his Space Trilogy...have you read those?
My main theme, currently, is
-true value lies beneath the stereotype
And could also be worded by the verse - "Man looks at the outwards appearance but the LORD looks at the heart."
For some reason my themes like to state themselves as Bible verses, even in my non-religious books! Must be all that Scripture memory I did when I was a kid...
----------15,745 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2009 - 14 46
The moral corruption of today versus the moral principals of yesteryear.
40,815 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2009 - 18 49
A lot of these themes are good to contemplate outside of NaNo! Shows that Christianity-related topics are pretty much an endless well.
Have no idea what mine is, but it'll probably end up being something like continuing to seek after God amidst chaos and distraction (something I certainly have not pinned down in actuality, especially as a college student).
Happy trails on this first day of writing, everyone!
----------"Don't think about what you're writing. The writing should tell you what you're thinking."
15,581 / 50,000
oct. 31, 2009 - 19 14
OK, so I KNOW I responded to this thread yesterday or the day before, and yet it didn't show up. Lame.
I don't really work in themes, really. I prefer to find out what God is doing and just put it in a novel. I am finding that my NaNovel does have 3, overall themes at the moment:
1) 2 Corinthians 5: 16-17, maybe 18 (I really like the Message version of this)
Because of this decision we don't evaluate people by what they have or how they look. We looked at the Messiah that way once and got it all wrong, as you know. We certainly don't look at him that way anymore. Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other.
2) Forgiveness. Learning to forgive others and ourselves the way God forgives us, allowing the slate to be wiped clean and the sin to be forgotten.
and
3) Learning to accept God's grace without attaching strings.
----------NaNoWriMo2009: Son of the Father (first attempt!)
50,010 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 05 37
3) Learning to accept God's grace without attaching strings.
That one sounds like an awesome and powerful one... goodness knows it's a difficult thing to do. I'm actually going to be covering that in the book I'm writing for Christian young women... though that's not my nanonovel lol
----------~*Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem,
by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer:
Don't excite love, don't stir it up,
until the time is ripe—and you're ready*~
43,057 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 06 39
- lost faith and finding it again
----------- love thy brother as thy self
and the rest I'm letting the characters tell me :)
Nanowrimo 2007- "The Lost Are Never Far" Amirapress.com
Nanowrimo 2008- "The Devil's Scream" Lyrical Press
Check out my author site freewebs.com/theremustbmore/
4,100 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 09 23
I'm not writing a Christian novel, but I have written Christian short stories in the past. My themes have been:
- Proverbs 14:12 "There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
- Proverbs 20:13 "Love not sleep, lest ye come to poverty."
- Ephesians 6:12 "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against... spiritual wickedness in high places."
Ultimately, my theme for each of those stories is this: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." When you think about it, Christianity can be a theme unto itself.
----------"Whoever claims to be noble must conduct himself nobly."
2,443 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 12 26
My main theme is forgiveness. My MC believes she has forgiven everyone in her past, but faces what true forgiveness is when an abusive person from her past resurfaces.
2,298 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 12 37
mine is a couple of things
laying down career and what you think you plan is for your life,
coming out of egypt, (worldly living)
learning to persevere under trial and having courage against peer pressure.
questions about faith and doubt..
40,815 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 14 42
God knows (literally, God knows) that I've attached enough strings to His grace in the past--I second that theme.
Also, TheTabster--did you morph into butter? 'Cause you're on a roll! Keep it up--over 10% of the way there!
--Mike
----------"Don't think about what you're writing. The writing should tell you what you're thinking."
40,815 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 14 49
I think this is a very solid theme as well, joanney--I often have to wonder what true forgiveness is all about myself, and I believe a lot of people could relate to that too.
The church I'm a part of has a great college ministry that talks often about finding yourself/God's call for you with the career choice and things like that--another applicable theme.
Good luck, everyone! One day down, 29 to go (is that all?)
--Mike
----------"Don't think about what you're writing. The writing should tell you what you're thinking."
50,010 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 16 15
CrazyCardinal - I'm actually behind on my personal goal... I want at least 15k by time I go to bed tonight... we'll see if I reach that or not.
----------~*Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem,
by the gazelles, yes, by all the wild deer:
Don't excite love, don't stir it up,
until the time is ripe—and you're ready*~
21,684 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 19 09
Anyone else having serious issues with the website? This is my first year so I'm not sure if that's normal...
anyway, the theme for my current novel is the power of God's love and His grace. It focuses a lot on the salvation story and the growth of a new Christian, since my MC starts out as an unbeliever.
----------4,243 / 50,000
nov. 1, 2009 - 23 07
My overall theme is dealing with grief. My main character loses both her mother and sister in a car accident and she falls into a path of destruction and at her worst she has an encounter with an angel who helps her get back on the path that God wants her to be on.
50,132 / 50,000
nov. 2, 2009 - 01 02
In thinking about my satire-tastic novel, I see two main themes emerging.
1) Exploring the purpose of humans on this planet;
2) Exploring how theological belief statements truly impact life.
It should be fun, though I have a feeling it'll be a little a-typical.
0 / 50,000
nov. 2, 2009 - 01 46
That in spite of everything, we are loved.