6:50 PM
@GabeWillard Heya, i'm looking over your question. Feel like a stream-of-consciousness session as i work?
You wrote: I think the idea carries over to other types of writing: nonfiction, critical review, modern fiction, science fiction, and virtually anything else you could name.
That's definitely true, but there's a million different ways the idea can carry over, and they can be vastly different - at very least, between fiction and nonfiction.
Orson Scott Card has written about how people read his "nonreligious" work - the Ender series, Treason, some others - and went "You're mormon, right?".
Because his beliefs filtered through right into his writing, his worldview, his story cosmology.
OTOH, he's also got books about religion, about Mormon characters, or with clear Mormon connections - Homecoming is an SF-retelling of the book of Mormon; Alvin Maker is explicitly based on the life of John Smith; there's another book, Saints, which is simple historical fiction about Mormons.
and on the other hand, he's drawn a ton of fire for being very anti-gay - particularly in opinion pieces he writes, which are entirely nonfiction. and most people attribute that to his religion as well.
So... when you're asking "How do I let in religion without being preachy..."
Do you mean "how do I write about religious characters?"
Do you mean "how do I draw inspiration for my worldbuilding from my religion?"
Do you mean "how do i express opinion informed by my beliefs but without being preachy?"
These are very different questions.
Some focus on "things to avoid."
Some focus on "how to draw inspiration," which is positive and active.
What do you mean by incorporating your beliefs?
Do you mean you want those beliefs to be 'true' or partially true in your book?
Do you mean you want to draw inspiration from those beliefs?
Do you have a message or a theme that ties to your beliefs, but you don't want to be preachy about getting it across?
Do you have something existing that you want to make sure isn't preachy? Or are you starting from scratch, and looking for an element to bring in that won't feel preachy to you, and having trouble finding one?
Another good way to tackle this is to use examples. Do the following strike you as examples of "incorporating belief into writing"? Which are good examples; which are bad ones?
* Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy
* Any of the Orson Scott Card books I mentioned
* Speigelman's Holocaust comic, Maus
* Chick tracts
* The Sol Weintraub arc in Simmons' _Hyperion_
