Writing Heavy Topics

By Lori Scharf

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As a Christian, I often come to a quandary: How should I write about dark and/or heavy topics inside of a Christian worldview?

I feel like a lot of writers, especially Christians, would rather forget dark topics exist than address them in their writing. They paint a much more perfect version of the world, where only very surface issues exist. Topics like abuse, drugs, sexuality, abortion, and suicide are often skimmed over by Christians because of their taboo or controversial nature.

The thing is, skipping over these topics really isn’t the answer.

Without stories that handle heavy material, it’s harder for us to understand and have empathy for those who have experienced things like abuse or mental illness.

A few years ago, I was going through depression without even realizing it. Depression was something I’d only heard about in a broad way, and I interpreted it as something that wasn’t really real, alongside anxiety and suchlike. I thought they were excuses people made so they didn’t have to take on responsibilities, and so dismissed those feeling altogether.

However, I was depressed, even if I didn’t know that was the name for what I was feeling. I felt sad and out of sorts, and was angry at myself for feeling this way for seemingly no good reason.

Once I started to realize that I was, indeed, depressed, it only made me feel worse. Why was I depressed when so many people had it worse than me? What was depression and why couldn’t I make it go away?

I felt so wrong, and didn’t think I could talk about it to anyone, which only made it worse. When I started having suicidal thoughts, I was scared of telling anyone. I thought hey would brush it off, or worse, act like I was broken in some way.

Two books impacted me majorly during this time. Coral by Sara Ella, and Shadow by Kara Swanson.

These two books dealt with depression, suicide, and anxiety in ways I had never seen before. They explained them in a way that made me understand these feelings weren’t just feelings. They were something very real. I also learned they weren’t something I needed to be afraid of, rather something I needed to understand and deal with properly.

Now, some would say that writing a fairytale about heavy topics like depression and suicide is romanticizing the issue, but in all honesty, I’m not sure where I’d be without these books.

I recently started a co-author project with a good friend that handles many heavy topics. Crime, abuse, human trafficking, suicide, death/murder- and this is just in the outline so far!

Yet, even though they deal with heavy topics, these books aren’t about those things.

See, in life we will see heavy things. Like I said in last week’s post, the world is fallen and full of horrible things. The thing about storytelling is, stories aren’t meant to cover up the realities oh life. What makes a story compelling is when they include these topics in a way that is true to life and navigate them realistically, like Coral and Shadow did for me. Even though these stories are full of fantastical twists, they are still grounded in reality.

Many of my stories include heavy or dark subject matter, but the real story is seeing the characters fight through and rise above these things to see the light on the other side.

As Christians, no matter what we write, we should shine the Light of Christ into our stories. Because when you have Jesus in your heart and by your side, there is always hope, even in the darkest situation.

Now, is every writer called to write about these topics? No, of course not. But you also shouldn’t be afraid to write about them as a Christian.

Even the Bible is chock full of these kinds of stories!

You don’t have to read very far to see that the Bible deals with heavy topics everywhere. Sometime you just have to stop and wonder why on earth God would want the inspired writers to include such horrendous stories! But like I said before, these kinds of stories often teach us valuable lessons about how (or how not) to deal with those things.

That isn’t to say that some people who write about these topics don’t portray them incorrectly, or use them to leverage in a potent ideological message, because that does happen.

When these topics are dealt with carefully and respectfully, however, they can reach and help people in their own struggles, like in my case with Coral and Shadow.

Whatever you write and however you write it, do so in a way that glorifies God above all else, and He will use it for His good will.

Until next time,

-Lori