I’m blessed to have parents who are enthusiastically supportive of my writing career. Of course, this means they want to know what I’m working on, what it’s about, when can they read it…
Now, usually I don’t want to share my writing because it hasn’t been edited and polished yet. In this case, however, I’m scared to tell them because I write fantasy. My parents are not fantasy fans; I wasn’t allowed to read even Narnia until almost middle school, and I remember my dad leaving off in the middle of reading me a story because he was afraid it might have magic in it. It was George Mcdonald’s The Golden Key.
Now that I’m older, I’m allowed more control over my reading, and fantasy is my favorite genre. My parents know this. I’m just not sure they know how much. So, I’m afraid if I share my writing with them, they’ll get upset. I try to be discerning and invite God into my writing process, but my stories do have magic in them. When I was younger, my mom criticized a story of mine because it had a dragon, and as she put it, dragon stories usually have magic. My magic systems are always either ‘other world science’, Holy-Spirit-sourced, or demonic-sourced (if evil, and those systems are clearly shown as evil). Still, in my book synopsis for example, I use the term ‘wizard’, and I know I’d have to explain that one.
Long question short, what do y’all think?
Thank you all for these answers, they’ve given me a lot to think about.
I believe most writers who lean towards fantasy may have a prophetic gift. So it could be that the Holy Spirit is leading you to write fantasy novels to educate readers on the reality of the prophetic and spirit world – the good and bad side.
I am a prophetic seer and have been counseling others, which usually involves explaining what the Lord is revealing to them through dream or visionary symbols such as dragons, or other demonic creatures. If God uses these symbols to show us what’s happening spiritually (like Job 41), then it clearly has to be important.
I think if you can reference scripture when sharing your writing with them, and explain the reality of the spirit world and how your novels will be used as a pulpit to teach believers to overcome that darkness, it may put your parents at ease.
I thought…Surely it is no accident that God gave you to be the daughter of parents who are sensitive about this subject. I think you need to explain them well – if you introduce magic to represent the antagonists it’s normal, but if it’s about the good guys, then they use powers given to them by God, or they perform miracles, not magic. I think this would be good for everyone, and it is in accordance with our beliefs.