I too am against using storytelling as a disguised form of preaching, but I think there are far deeper and richer ways that my religion can influence my writing. I think what you believe about people, the world, our place in it and whatever exists beyond physical reality (even if you believe there is nothing) cannot help but shape your story telling. Like, when I read LOTR I don't feel preached at, but I can appreciate the motifs and reflections of Tolkiens faith in his work, and I think it is all the richer for it
I do notice authors faith (or even more their worldview because of their faith) shine through in their books. Just like authors other opinions, convictions and prejudices make their way into the story. I think it would be very hard to root this out completely. (maybe a topic for one of the next videos?)
Definitely difficult to root out completely, as their worldview will in some ways impact the story, character, world etc, but it's when they use it for a vehicle to preach from their soapbox is when I think it needs to go in the bin.
I don’t believe it’s possible for faith and personal ethics to not bleed into a writers story. Even if I don’t explicitly state my faith in a story, I conform the story to the worldview of my faith. I can’t help it. Anything else would feel dishonoring. Being honest about evil and human frailty is important in my worldview, so characters can still be real.
I completely disagree. Ethics can be done as countless writers have characters that are horrible people on purpose, murderers and so on. They make them as real as possible, and each character has their own ethical stance that's radically different from the author's. Sure, there might be some bleed over but you should be able to separate it to make them different from you as an individual. So faith can absolutely be divorced from the story, and conforming a story to your worldview through the lens of your faith means you'll only ever write one kind of story, which seems bland. It's fiction, it's not dishonouring anything.
