1. Hannah says:

    Amen! 🙂

  2. Bethany J. says:

    Great thoughts!! I don’t feel called to share particular messages through my stories, but I often find messages in them as I flesh them out.

  3. Julie D says:

    Please tell me the homosexuality reference for HTTYD is a joke. But the idea of stories with messages is not just a Christian thing–look at Cameron’s Avatar for a secular film that most people would call preachy.

    • Shannon:

      Dean DeBlois, director of How to Train Your Dragon 2, explained the insertion of homosexuality into a kids’ film this way: “I think it’s nice. It’s progressive, it’s honest, and it feels good, so we wanted to keep it.”

      Julie D:

      Please tell me the homosexuality reference for HTTYD is a joke.

      (Nods gravely) It’s no joke. Here at SpecFaith in June I wrote an expose at Three-Second Comment Defeats Entire Storyline of ‘Dragon 2’.

      BIG HOLLYWOOD, Cal.—A remark uttered over the space of approximately three seconds by a tangential, comedic-relief character in the Dreamworks animated epic How to Train Your Dragon 2, which released Friday, June 13 in the U.S., has overthrown each and every theme that comprises the remaining 101 minutes, 57 seconds of the film.

      Observers over the weekend noted that Dragon 2’s soaring tributes to chaste young-adult romance, lifelong romantic commitment between two mature central characters who delight in beauty and their differences, and a tragic showcase of self-sacrificial love were all blasted to death by a voice actor’s single ad-libbed comical line that made it into the film.

       

    • Here’s the line: “This is why I never married. This and one other reason.”

      It’s pretty innocuous, and left to myself I would never have interpreted it as a reference to homosexuality. In fact, if you just watch the movie and pay no attention to the commentary, you’ll find no homosexuality in it.

      But if you do listen to the commentary, you’ll find that what they intended by that line is, to quote the director again, “Gobber’s coming out in this movie.”

       

  4. Julie D says:

    I’ve had a long day, so can we try that again, shooting straight? *returns after checking site.?*  As if the world wasn’t messed up enough…

  5. notleia says:

    So then, let’s skip the “you do it too, neener-neener” and start a conversation on how to incorporate “agenda” (it seems to need scare quotes) without it being crappy. Or just forgettable.

  6. dmdutcher says:

    Because we have all of three messages.

    1. Come to Jesus.

    2. Abortion is bad.

    3. Hey you! Navy SEAL! You need to marry this woman, pronto!

    We used to have four, but…

    4, New Age is bad!

    …seems to have dropped off a cliff recently.

    Seriously, it’s not so much message but the lack of variety.

    • notleia says:

      LOLZ. Have a thumb.

      It’s a sad/funny thought that it just might be possible to sum up the thematics of all Christian fiction in roughly two categories: 1) come to Jesus and herd as many as possible along with you; 2) Here is this single narrative of family friendliness we would like to press upon you.

  7. Becky says:

    I don’t think it’s possible not to have messages in the stories we write. Every author, whether knowingly or unknowingly, imparts some of his/her worldview into his/her writing.

    Problems arise when we become so obsessed with the message that we forget the story. I believe if we focus on writing a truly great story the message will come along naturally.

What do you think?