I'm realizing that my characters' lives aren't going to be all glory and triumph. I'll have to take away what I want them to have--what they want to have--in order to tell the story that needs to be told,... something bigger than just getting what they want and happily ever after.
It's interesting how hopeless secular fantasy has become. Even the positive endings feel hollow to me. I contrast secular reading to those books written by Christian authors. Though the circumstances are just as desperate, and the characters don't know of a reason to hope, hope still colors the pages.
But I am challenged, also, to write of hopelessness in a way that can be recognized by those without hope. Hopelessness can't be reached by mockery or superiority or shallow impressions of familiarity. It is driven further into darkness by scorn, and binds itself tighter to emptiness when hope is portrayed as an exclusive club meant only for those who don't know what hopelessness can be.
No matter how deep the darkness, the light goes further. But writing this into a story ... a fable ... what have I gotten myself into?
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PS
Another glimpse has been posted.
