Hey all, it's been a couple weeks.

When I first started writing my book, either the very beginning three years ago (shudder) or the actual beginning of the for-real-this-time book this year, I wasn't really planning on writing a "Christian book," whatever that precisely means. I more or less just wanted to write for fun.

But lately my story has, without any real intent on my part, begun to take on some hints: some themes of self-sacrifice, for example.

My book is shaping up to be quite dark indeed, surprising even myself at times. Still, it's not going to be relentlessly bleak, as there will be some hope there. In fact, I have a pretty cool idea to hint at something that, on the surface, is terrifying and grim but in reality is actually very optimistic.

I didn't really have a goal in mind for this thread, but I thought that development was kind of interesting. This might have to do with some personal growth that I feel that I've gone through lately. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Yes I have in my book which i have finished, ( and have yet to start part 2) i initially started with some themes, but I did not intend to write a solely 'christian book" i just wanted to get a simple biblical message across, but i wanted different people to be able to read it. However by the end of the book it had little hints, and messages that not everyone would get.

I guess it happens as you write.

It's interesting that you say the development in your story might have been related to your own personal growth, Zymologist, since that's often happened to me when I'm writing. (Or, rather, developing a story idea, since I don't do much actual writing nowadays. ) I'll be turning over an idea in my head, adding bits and pieces, and then I'll suddenly notice that themes are coming out - completely unintentionally - that are tied to things I've been working through in my spiritual life. Recently, for instance, a lot of my story ideas have had to do with submission and its connections to Biblical gender roles, something I've been pondering lately. And I've often found myself thinking of quotes from a novella I wrote many months back, not because they're great quotes, but because some of the ideas in that novella have turned out to be fairly significant for me spiritually.

This is one of the reasons I want to keep writing. Even if what I produce isn't that good, going through the process of writing is very intellectually and spiritually stimulating for me. It's worth it just for the experience of having to think through ideas and express them decently.

(Of course, this depends on what I'm writing. A silly one-off bit of fanfiction generally doesn't have much effect on my spiritual life.)