Many years ago, I was discussing with a Christian friend the Tom Cruise movie The Firm, based on John Grisham’s legal thriller.
Grisham is reputed to be a Christian, and my friend was disappointed by an episode of adultery in the storyline.
I said, “Yes, but there were consequences to the adultery. It damaged the character’s relationship with his wife. She suffered, and he suffered too because of what he’d done.”
By comparison, in a lot of popular culture the narrative would encourage the audience to hope the adulterous relationship would win. Perhaps the character would be presented as “escaping” a tired old marriage, or pursuing someone new who made them feel alive.
In the movie of The Firm, however, the adultery is quite definitely portrayed as a bad thing with terrible consequences, while the damaged marriage proves to be worth fighting for.
Is this a grace note?
Bad things happen in a fallen world – and in our stories – but to me it’s a grace note when they are seen for what God says they are, rather than celebrated.
What do you think? How do you see it?
Thought starters
Gracewriters are Christians who write to influence popular culture. Our fiction might include novels, plays and screenplays, short stories and flash fiction, opera or narrative songs or poems, among other forms.
These are some of my ideas for how to introduce grace notes to mainstream fiction. Please join the discussion, as I’m interested to hear your ideas.
Let’s learn from each other.

Grace notes via a redemption arc?
A redemption arc in fiction is generally seen as an evil character redeeming themselves. A bad guy turns from their evil ways, or feels regret, or recognises the damage caused.
- Since redemption is a solidly biblical theme, in Christian fiction the “bad guy” could actually come to faith.
- In mainstream fiction, could the bad guy still come to faith? I’d suggest that general readers are more able to cope with religious moments than we often give them credit for. If this happened, I’d be keen to see the writing convey it in ways that are meaningful to non-believers.
- A character could have a gentle “movement towards” faith, but not actually cross the line – an especially interesting idea to explore across a series.
- Alternatively, the character could have a different outcome where faith is not explicitly involved. Some other kind of redemption occurs.
I’d also like to suggest that perhaps a whole story – not just one character – can have a redemption arc. That might include:
- A good guy learns from and recovers from bad choices.
- Broken relationships are mended.
- Challenges or illnesses or disasters are overcome, or seen in a new way, or lead to unexpected growth for a character.
- Do you have other suggestions?
This whole-of-book type of redemption arc is not as simple as a happy ending. It could be much more subtle than that, and could also occur in a book with a less-than-happy ending.
Let me say, however, that I don’t despise happy endings or consider them shallow. I still recall the beautiful day my philosophy lecturer at Bible college said: “We like happy endings because it’s encoded into our souls. We were made for something better than this broken world. Our desire for happy endings is one of the symptoms of the image of God in us.”
That made me feel a lot better about liking happy endings in stories!
Grace notes via Christian characters?
Too often, Christians are portrayed in popular culture as serial killers, or oodly-doodly dingleberries (think of Ned Flanders in The Simpsons).
I know lots of Christians who are neither of those things.
And so I chose to write a Christian character into my mainstream crime series who is flawed, and makes poor decisions at times, but shows leadership ability, kindness and intelligence, and keeps on clinging to faith during terrible events.
He is set off against non-believing characters who challenge him from many angles, dispute his point of view, and call him to account.
I mentioned John Grisham, above. In The Last Juror I watched in curiosity as he used a character– a southern Baptist lady – to weave in pretty much an entire gospel presentation, one piece at a time, by the end of the book. She was constantly gospelling the main character, and it’s credible that such a person would do exactly that.
Potential opportunities with Christian characters:
- What are their flaws and how do they deal with them?
- How does their faith influence their actions and choices?
- How do they treat other people?
- What do they talk about?
May I suggest that if you add a Christian character to a mainstream work of fiction, you avoid making them a shining-eyed paragon who can do no wrong? Such an implausible character will rarely open any hearts to our world view.
Grace notes via dialogue?
I try to generate opportunities for Jack, my Christian character in my crime series, to talk bluntly about his faith from time to time. (It’s the sort of thing Jack would do.) My editor is also a Gracewriter, and she helps me avoid being unnatural about it, while also alerting me to opportunities I might have missed.
Sometimes I think we hold back when we don’t need to. Characters of other faiths are often talking about their beliefs in mainstream fiction.
Consider:
- Avoiding “preachy” dialogue – unless it’s a flaw that the character is challenged on by other characters.
- Avoiding Christian jargon, unless other characters force them to explain it.
Do you have friends who don’t share your faith? Maybe spend time listening to how they respond to our faith-babble and notice the types of things they really don’t understand. It will help you explain it more realistically.
Grace notes via “gravity”?
No, not Newton’s theory!
Gravity:
- Sees big things as big things
- Takes serious things seriously
- Doesn’t sneer at good or holy things
- Doesn’t celebrate bad or destructive things.
It’s okay for individual characters to sneer or be destructive. Gravity can still influence the overall tone, message and purpose of the book. In fact, sometimes that message can be stronger if it’s set off against characters who oppose it.
Grace notes via theme?
Every cohesive story has a theme – that one big message that comes through from the work.
Sometimes we know the theme before we begin; other times it emerges during the writing process – possibly not till we’re near the end.
With my mainstream novel Poison Bay, I thought the theme might be greed, but it turned out to be: “the power of forgiveness, and what happens when it’s withheld”. I was delighted to realise this theme had developed – it wasn’t something I tried to impose on the narrative, but emerged organically from it.
Grace notes via what we omit?
Many Christian writers and readers have strong opinions on the Big 3: Swearing, Violence and Sex.
Some argue they should be omitted altogether from fiction written by Christians; others argue for a more nuanced approach.
I’m interested to hear what you think – what you’ve chosen to do so far and how your thinking is developing.
These have been my choices so far:
- Swearing: I don’t enjoy hearing or reading swearing myself and I know other readers who feel the same way (regardless of their religious beliefs). Therefore, I’ve chosen that though some of my characters swear, I don’t make the reader listen to the actual words. So I might write something like “he swore lavishly” and let the reader choose their own adventure, so to speak. Some of the crime shows that appear on television in prime time avoid swearing but still have exciting dialogue, and that also gives me ideas.
- Violence: I write crime and it’s not “cozy” so awful things do happen at times. However, I deliberately choose not to be gruesome by restricting the amount of detail I give. I also avoid treatments that I have found disturbing in other works, for example a murder scene written from inside the point of view of the victim as they die.
- Sex: Some of my characters do have sex, but I have made a choice not to make the reader watch it. It’s mentioned, because it happens in life, but I choose not to describe it.
What do you think about adding Christian grace notes to fiction? Please share the ways you yourself have done so – by what you’ve added or what you’ve chosen to leave out. Please share ideas you’ve gleaned from reading other writers.
I have a final comment on the meaty topics of this blog—
Re: Sex. My first novel also dealt with sex—both directly, as the incredible gift from God that it truly is, and indirectly, as the sad caricature the world has twisted it into. About midway through the story, the two main characters (both virgins) finally join their lives as wedded couple. I stuggled mightily how to approach the scene of the wedding night. I often tired of the struggle and wanted to simply pass over it (“…the sun went down and then the sun came up…”), taking the easy way out. But God would not let me let go of it. I was compelled to explore, to the best of my meager ability, the beauty of what human sexuality was created to be.
Over and over, I kept coming back to the gorgeous poetic take we have on intersexual communion in the Love Song of All Love Songs (or, “Song of Solomon,” as it has been called). Its poetry and imagery deeply informed my final decision to plunge into writing my own scene. The scene unfolded in rich detail, but decidely less anatomically explicit than the diverse Hebrew vernacular used in the original. I incorporated poetic/symbolic imagery to hint at the new and mysterious beauty unfolding between this now-married man and woman.
Whether or not I was successful in what I attempted remains in the eye of the beholder (or reader, in this case). Many have commented they’ve never read anything like it, praising its fresh, exhuberant joy. But some have been shocked. I suppose that every one of “the riches of God’s grace that He lavished on us” (Paul’s letter to the Ephesians) should be shocking as well, if we truly come to grips with them.
Such a tricky area, Bill. Glad to hear you spent a lot of time pondering and came up with something you believe is God-honouring.
I have been thinking about this area a lot lately in regard to romance writing. One of the areas where I am thinking I would make a distinction is in what the affect on the reader is designed to be. I think some descriptions of sexual activity in romance, especially the more anatomical descriptions, are included because readers love them so it sells more books, and readers generally love them because it fuels their own lust and physiological responses. And not their responses to their own marriage partner, but to a mythical man with great abs. A friend of mine wrote a university thesis quite a few years ago on romance novels acting as “porn for women”. I would hope as Gracewriters we can steer clear of that type of writing with those types of goals and outcomes, but I’m not sure where the line should be drawn in practice, and I have no easy or quick answers…
Also, I recognise that there are many forms of romance novel today, and anyone might read them, but I am referring here to the fairly mainstream romance novels aimed most commonly at female readers.
Re: “Swearing.” Having never written fiction before my first novel, I also struggled with the issue of “swearing” (cursing/profanity/obscenity—and there is a distinction between them all). But I finally came to the conclusion that there is no simple answer here.
Paul instructs the Ephesians about what is proper and improper for God’s people, and writes to them, “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.” And yet, in writing to the Galatians concerning people bringing wrong teachings about circumcision into their midst, he seems to turn that proposition on its head, saying, “As for those agitators, I wish they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves!” The English translation cleans up a pretty foul/graphic (and violent) Greek epithet. Of course the context in which these matters appear are part of the resolving of the apparent conflict. And I would say that the context in which a fictional work presents harsh/vulgar language is likewise critical.
The specifics of what constitutes obscenity or profanity is a very fluid matter, and varies tremendously from culture to culture and from period to period. It is constantly changing. The obsolete “Gadzooks!,” which was once a deeply twisted and blasphemous utterance (literally, “God’s hooks!”, referring to the nails by which Jesus hung on the cross), is now no more than a quaint term used to cute liguistic effect at Renaissance fairs. And closer to our own time period, the character Rhett Butler (in Gone With the Wind) once shocked readers, and then moviegoers, with his final exclamation “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a d___!” That curse word which once shocked, now typically elicits the response—“Meh…”
Agreed, Bill. Great synopsis.
So true, Bill. What constitutes swearing (which tends to be the coverall label we used for it in Australia) does indeed shift from generation to generation. I don’t think there is a clear and simple answer, though I wish there were. I can only keep praying and reflecting and doing the best I can as a writer.
Never thought to call them grace notes, but I do this all the time. In both my conversations and my writing. Here’s a line from one of my “non-Christian” romances. This character is dealing with prominent burn scarring on her face and body. “….to accept that her value came, not from how she looked or anything she’d ever done, but from the fact that God cherished her enough to die for her. And daily, she struggled to remember and put it into practice.”
I love the sound of that, Tamie. It’s a beautiful way to describe it. And an interesting character too, in a romance.
Wow—your post, and the comments which have followed, are an incredible beginning to wonderful conversation on the very core of what Gracenotes is all about. Bravissimo! There is so much here to unpack, I am only beginning to respond to it, and hope to come back again. But in the meantime—
Re: Happy endings. My first novel, A Peculiar Darkness (set in mid-19th century American South), was filled with death (14 deaths either occur directly in the storyline—sometimes horribly—or are described in retrospect). The protagonist herself dies at the end. And isn’t death the greatest violence? I didn’t realize how much death ran through the narrative until months after I’d finished it. I then wrote a foreword to the book, fictionalizing my own response to the actual death of my older brother that had occurred just a few months before I began the novel. BUT, the last few chapters contain bright, shining nuggets of redemption, the last and brightest of which is a poem written by the protagonist, and read at her funeral as her body is being lowered into the grave.
God’s word itself is filled with the dark depravity of unredeemed mankind, yet throughout, glimmers of God’s grace continue to shine out through the cracks, finally erupting into a glorious tidal-wave of light by the end of the book. May my own writings, in some tiny way, endeavor to do the same.
Thanks so much for your feedback, Bill. 🙂 I can definitely see how a book full of deaths, though it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, could contain redemptive grace notes. No book is everyone’s cup of tea. (If we strive to write an everyone-book, what a wishy-washy beverage it will be.)
Secular redemption arcs do often end with the death of the redeemed character. I’d argue that as Christians we have a distinctly deep understanding of how redemption and death can go hand in hand…
Belinda, your ideas sound on-target to me and your Jack character is relatable, interesting and honest (and more capable than he gives himself credit for, which makes you like him even more—and also be glad to see him succeed).
Regarding swearing: I think there’s a distinction between blasphemy and plain old crassness (“crap” being the mildest). Would be interested in the group’s opinion on this.
Thank you so much, Dawn. I like Jack and his bluntness – he’s much more bold than I am at times! (and also less diplomatic 😉 )
I too make a distinction between strong and mild swearing. In fact, I think there are 3 or 4 mild swearwords in that novel of mine and a few in the next. I suspect that what we’ll find with swearing is that everyone has an opinion and the opinions are all different.
I get a sense that many of us as writers are waiting for someone else to give us a definitive ruling on which words are in and which are out, but in fact the only people giving definitive rulings are those who possibly don’t understand the subtleties of the case. I could be wrong though!!
Yes—great point, Belinda! That applies in so many areas. Often the more certain a declaration is, the less depth it has.
Also, I’ve just realised you’ve made a distinction between crassness and blasphemy. (overtired!) I actually can cope with the F word a lot more easily than I can cope with it being coupled with the name of Jesus. I feel wounded by that blaspheming type of swearing, especially the more vicious uses. As though they have defiled the name of a loved one.
Yes, Belinda! I totally agree.
As I read the comments I can’t help think of Francine Rivers story ‘Redeeming Love’ that deals with incest as a retelling of Hosea. I think we need to deal with difficult themes and topics. I think swearing is the least of it but I have made up swear words too although it might be a grace note not to use them, particularly in light of what I was exposed to this semester in the literature I had to read for Uni. The characters in my stories always find healing and personal redemption by the end without a full on Christian message.
That’s interesting, I haven’t read that book. Might look it up. I also agree we need to deal with difficult topics. Perhaps we can show a slightly different way of dealing with them? Different writing, different resolutions…? Just thinking out loud.
I used to work in an office where everyone was effing all day long, and to be honest it became a bit tiresome to listen to. Tended to infect my thinking, as well. I tended to think of those words when angry (even if I didn’t actually say them), whereas previously I would not have thought them. I find I breathe a sigh of relief when an author tells a strong story without the strong language.
My current WIP begins with a girl leaving her live-in boyfriend rather than have an abortion. To leave him, she is breaking a pact they have between them. Her father later tells her their relationship was not a marriage because marriage is a legal and social thing as well as a Godly thing. As far as I understand it, all these are grace notes, but I have dealt with very world situations. What do you think?
The Christian characters end out influencing the non-Christian ones and it becomes redemptive. Happy ending.
Also, do you find ‘helluva’ and ‘hell’ offensive? That’s my swearing vocab in novels.
I can’t imagine who will publish this. What do you think about it?
Thanks for your input, Belinda.
It’s a complex thing with no easy answers, Jeanette. I don’t personally find ‘hell’ or ‘helluva’ offensive, but some Christians will. We all fall at different points along a very long continuum on such things. I’m pretty sure there are some Christians who would be horrified by my crime novels, and other Christians who would find them completely tame.
In the end, you can only write the book that’s in you to write. I would suggest continually turning back to God and asking him what he wants.
The decision not to have an abortion surely sounds like a grace note to me.
When you are writing a book like this that is from the heart, I would actually recommend not worrying too much yet who will publish it. There are some books we write with a publisher in mind, because we are writing to market and with a sales result in mind, as working writers. This novel of yours doesn’t sound like that sort of book to me. It sounds like a heart project. Just go with it, and keep asking the Lord to show you the way. Don’t self-censor. Those are my thoughts. x
Thanks Belinda. xo
Thanks for your comments and tips Belinda. As I write for a YA Christian audience I am really aware of the Big 3. But I also wanted to present a story of the Christian journey that isn’t pretty, easy, or straight-forward. My goal was to reflect more of my own struggles and those people I do life with.
Take for example swearing. I know a lot of new Christians who initially hang on to that aspect of their lives as the Spirit is transforming all aspects of their lives. I didn’t want to use swear words, but I wanted to be true to my character coming to faith. And to acknowledge transformation is a process. So, I spent much time in prayer about it.
I decided to create a new vocabulary and my genuine hope was that people would not be offended by the words but relate to the struggles of the young man. Swearing is an issue that is talked about in the book, and it’s something he works to get a handle on. But still, as is the way, I have offended some who won’t read my book. Other however, aren’t upset by it and can relate to the character’s struggle.
Ultimately I want to glorify God with my work, but in doing so, I understand my audience does not cover all people. I pray that those who it is written for will be encouraged, challenged, inspired and aware of God’s love for them, and in the struggle of the battle, they aren’t alone.
It’s not an easy choice is it, Donita? I had almost the opposite problem in that I write crime, and so some people sneer at crime which does not have characters using f-words and worse on every second page. Most reviewers who have bothered to comment on the swearing situation have actually said they found it a relief, but there was one reviewer who made a disparaging remark.
We have to work out to the best of our own ability what is right for our own books, and be open to God’s leading. I’ve read your book and think the invented swearing works pretty well. But, as you say, some will recoil from it. We need to find our own readership…