Incorporating Multiple Religions Into Your Writing Diversity
Okay, let’s talk about diversity this week, but not what you normally think about. Let’s talk about religious diversity in your work. (In the interest of honesty, this one also was inspired by a panel I was on during Multiverse.)
Writers often err in one of two ways when it comes to writing protagonists (and antagonists) with a personal faith life — either only writing their own because that’s the only one they know well enough to write (or to be propagandistic) or they avoid religion in their stories altogether because they’ve been taught that it’s something you don’t discuss at Thanksgiving.
I disagree. I think a character’s inner POV and faith life can bring a new dimension to them.
But let’s see what our roundtable panel of writers thinks.
How does your own faith background or lack of one influence your writing?
Danielle Procter Piper: I was raised Catholic, so one of my characters has that background also. But I don’t use it as an opportunity to “invite” people into that belief system. In fact, that character struggles with what he was taught and what he now knows as an adult. He’s very good at encouraging his adopted daughter to find her own path…if she has spiritual inclinations at all.
Mari Hersh-Tudor: I was raised a strict Roman Catholic-mass in Latin and a narrow worldview. The more exposure to Weird Sh!t People Do When Someone Dies ™️ that I get, the more I absorb about how various cultures and religions treat adversity.
https://seanhtaylor.blogspot.com/2024/11/incorporating-multiple-religions-into.html
