Creative Writing - Is Your Character Religious - Better Get That Religion Correct

One interesting thing about creative writing is that you can use stereotypes and say things that you can't say in public due to our politically correct world. However, you need to make sure that the stereotypes you use are correct, and in the case of developing a character of a certain religious background, you need to understand that religion so you don't mess it up. There are a couple reasons why this is critical; some of your readers may be of that religion, or a literary critic could be of that religion.

If you mess that up, they will never live it down, and take you to task. Perhaps, it is for this reason that as a writer I have reference books on writing that I keep next my desk. One book I'd like to recommend to you was written by Martin Roth who is a Hollywood screenwriter and he wrote most of the episodes for Hawaii 50; the name of the book is "The Fiction Writers Silent Partner," and it is a book I highly recommend.

We all know the basics such as Hindus don't eat cow meat, and Muslims don't eat pork or drink alcohol. We also know the devout Catholics still eat fish on Fridays, but can you name one single religious activity of a Jehovah's Witness? Well then, you need to learn if you're going to have a character who happens to be a JW. Let's say your character is in the Jehovah's Witness' Pioneer Program, are you aware of the types of activities, that they are involved with? Do you know what type of jobs they're allowed to take and how many hours they are allowed to work?

What if one of your characters comes from an Amish family, can you describe how they grew up, what their family life was like, or how they got along without modern amenities? Or what it was like to ride a bicycle and drive a buggy everywhere around town? Are you seeing what I'm trying to get at, the reality is you need to know if you're going to develop your characters correctly, and if any of your characters have any religious background. Since about 80% of the population does, at some point or another you're going to need to know this information. So please consider this.

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