{"id":166,"date":"2013-09-24T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-24T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/blog\/2013\/09\/24\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_24\/"},"modified":"2015-11-25T12:22:17","modified_gmt":"2015-11-25T19:22:17","slug":"tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_24","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/tactical-tuesday-advice-for-self-editing_24\/","title":{"rendered":"Tactical Tuesday: Advice for Self-Editing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\nRealism
\nis important in fiction, especially when we talk about plausibility. For
\nexample, a plot should always be plausible and realistic. In our everyday lives
\nthere are laws and rules that prevent us from presenting a Pollyanna existence
\nfor our characters. Always, a writer should include those rules and conditions
\nand not circumvent them. This gives credibility to our work.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHowever,
\nthere is another type of realism that some authors claim adds credence to a
\nnovel. Cursing and worldly situations are added to Christian fiction by authors
\nin an attempt to add \u201crealism\u201d to a story. In actuality, that realism is a
\ncompromise with the world\u2019s standards. <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhen
\nthis type of realism is touted, the first two questions should be, \u201cWhose
\nrealism are you trying to recreate, and who are you trying to reach?\u201d The
\nhonest truth is that few decisions are made for Christ over a beer in a bar.
\nCompromising with the world to reach the lost does not work.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe
\nChristian reality is that we strive to be like Christ. While Jesus reached out
\nto the lost, our sinless Christ never took part in sin. To compromise with the
\nworld and put into print words that should not be uttered and sights that
\nshould not be seen, an author is telling the world that he or she is not interested
\nin thinking or having others think upon those things that God would have us to
\nput into our minds: \u201cwhatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just,
\nwhatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are
\nof a good report\u2026\u201d<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis
\ndoes not mean that Christians are perfect, that we don\u2019t curse, or that we don\u2019t
\nfind ourselves in situations where we shouldn\u2019t be. No, we all make mistakes,
\nbut we should look at the world\u2019s realism as it truly is: a reason for us to
\nsin or to cause others to stumble into sin.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis
\nalso does not mean that we need to present a Pollyanna world in which everyone
\nis perfect, and that we never take on the issues that Christians (and
\nnon-Christians) face in the world around us.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThat\u2019s
\nnot realism either.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThe
\nChristian author has a daunting task. Christian authors have to be more
\ncreative because they need to show anger without the four-letter words. We need
\nto show love and lust without the sex. We need to show that our characters are
\nnot perfect without taking our readers where God never intends for them go to.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nWhen
\nediting, evaluate your manuscript with these questions in mind: <\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nv 
\nDoes my realism reflect the realism of Christ\u2019s
\nlove and His ability to transform?<\/div>\n
\nv 
\nDoes the realism reflected in my work steer
\nclear of anything that the Lord would not have a reader place into his mind?<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nHappy
\nediting.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Realism is important in fiction, especially when we talk about plausibility. For example, a plot should always be plausible and realistic. In our everyday lives there are laws and rules that prevent us from presenting a Pollyanna existence for our characters. Always, a writer should include those rules and conditions and not circumvent them. This […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[504],"tags":[67,21,141,142],"class_list":["post-166","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-editing-writing-advice","tag-editing","tag-editing-advice","tag-realism","tag-realistic-christian-fiction"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pelicanbookgroup.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}