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Fiction needs a factual foundation, too, in the truths acted out on each page. This means being true to Judeo-Christian values but also true to human nature -- true to the fears, frustrations, anger, worries, and longings people actually experience over the course of a lifetime and the course of your story plot. Although fiction may not be a “true story” you’ve experienced or heard about, it must be a truth story -- one in which each character speaks or acts like a similar person would in real life.

Sometimes, though, Christian writers believe they have to show a character’s relationship with God in such a positive, upbeat light that non-Christian readers think it’s overly sentimental or downright sappy! Although you’ll probably want to end your fiction on a word of hope, you also need to avoid no-conflict situations or ones no one will believe. That said, however, sentimentalism can pose an opposite problem that’s seldom noted, and yet, often perpetuated in secular stories or novels. As a dictionary explains the word, sentimentalism means an excessive show of emotion not in keeping with the actual feeling or event. You might rightly wonder, for instance, if a shocking scene shows how an intimate relationship really is, or if it presents another TV version of sentimentalism people don’t know to challenge.

To immerse yourself in true drama, just look around. Watch people. Consider the ups and downs in your own life. And, yes, read the Bible, especially Genesis. In that opening book of the truly Living Word, you’ll find the beginnings of almost every interesting story on earth! Those timeless yet timely stories, plots, and settings continue to affect people and countries around the globe and also replay themselves in individual homes. So, if you want trustworthy models for developing your story characters, look at the character development of Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah. If you want to pluck an intriguing plot from the Bible, read about the actions, reactions, consequences, and outcome or resolution that occurred when Abraham took Sarah’s advice and took her maid! See what happened before and after Ishmael was born and, later, Isaac. See if similar sagas continue in contemporary stories worth telling today.

Want to improve your fiction writing? Read, read, read lots of Bible stories. Read good novels too. Then, make and follow A Writing Plan.

If you would like a professional opinion of your story or one-on-one assistance with your fiction plot, check out the Critique Service.