Photo by Taylor Brandon on UnsplashPatriotic Families

I want to see more solid healthy families in fiction of all genres. We need to showcase what we want to see more of in reality. I want to see more healthy strong family dynamics in the real world, so therefore, I want to write more of them. I do still tend to have orphans in my story, but I also try always to have at least one strong family in the story as well. A strong husband as leader of the home, a godly wife, and a strong sibling dynamic. It doesn’t mean they are a flawless family, but it means they love each other despite their differences. It means they are always there for each other, speak the truth in love, challenge each other, and tease each other.

Everyday challenges instead of the Dramatic

I feel like too often the drama and hardship in novels is way more drama than I’ve ever experienced in real life. Like people running from a murderer or something. Have you ever run for your life from someone trying to murder you in your sleep? No, probably not. Most of us haven’t. In fact, most of our lives have probably been fairly mundane and simple compared to the life of our characters. But what if we infused more realistic day to day hardships in our novels that we tend to undermine in novels as if they are suddenly unimportant anymore. It feels like we’ve romanticized so much of the dramatic that we’ve forgotten to see the soft and gentle beauty of everyday living. The hardships of everyday life, of everyday battles with sin, are things we can relate with. So why do we undermine its importance. The importance of living a simple life for the glory of God, of fighting sin, living victors in Christ, seeing the beauty in mundane tasks. These are things I want to do better in my own writing. My characters shouldn’t have to go through something dramatic to inspire us to live a holy and upright life. If we romanticized the beauty in our own life, maybe we would be more willing to write it into our stories, instead of forever seeking a life so dramatic and unrealistic that we never find peace in the life we’ve been given.

Faithful Feminine Women

Women don’t have to be the boss to be cool. They don’t have to be the life saver in order to make a difference in others’ lives. Let the woman be soft and tender with personality. I’d love to see more homemakers in our stories, women who are making a difference by raising families. Let a woman cry sometimes. Let her need the men in her life. Let her except help. Let her be okay with men helping her lift the heavy object. Let women be women again, and men be men. They can still have personalities and they can still be strong, but they don’t need to be kicking down doors to do it.

Bold Faith

I want to see more Christian fiction in which the characters are bold for their faith. I want to see more Christian fiction in which the Sunday sermon isn’t the only faith content in the story, or a prayer prayed only when life is suddenly tough. Let the character’s faith be front and foremost in their life. Let it be obvious from the beginning that they love Jesus. I want to do better at this myself, and I think it will come most of all from living my own life in this way. If my own life of faith is bold and foremost in my life, then it will be more so in my writing as well. We as writers and authors, will inevitably write what is important to us. Is that our life of Faith and hope in Christ or is it other things?

I feel like I could come up with other things, but I want to hear from you. What do you want to see more of in fiction? What do you think we are missing in modern day fiction?