Elliot Kessler

How do you write a Christian story without coming off as “preachy”? How do you bring God into a work of imagination without the story becoming cheesy and laughably horrible?

This is something I’ve struggled with quite a bit. I would like to write a Christian science fiction story, but I never understood how without preaching to my audience, which is one of the biggest complaints I have with most modern fiction. If I explicitly taught my readers through my stories and sold it as “fiction”, I wouldn’t be any better than the writers I complain about.

But how? If you’re trying to preach through a story, how do you do that without preaching?

The answer is simple. You don’t.

The Shift is a Christian science fiction movie created by Angel Studios inspired by the book of Job. The film is explicitly Christian. The main character prays to get out of situations, the villain is clearly the Devil, and the film communicates Christian themes of hope, light, and love.

But the film doesn’t feel preachy. It talks about biblical themes and messages without explicitly talking about those things.

But how does it do this?

Well, to answer that question, I’ll compare this film to another piece of science fiction content that also released recently and tried to teach its audience, but came across as one of the most preachiest pieces of media I’ve ever seen: Doctor Who and The Star Beast.

Of course, Doctor Who isn’t Christian. In fact, it tries to teach ideology that opposes the Bible directly. However, The Shift and Doctor Who both try to accomplish the same thing: teaching through stories.

First, let’s look at The Shift.

What’s this movie about?

After a near fatal car crash, Kevin finds himself in a strange dystopian world parallel to his own reality where a man calling himself the Benefactor reigns supreme, and everyone fears him. The Benefactor tries to recruit Kevin into his army to conquer other realities, but this version of Kevin is the first to refuse. He finds himself stuck in hiding for five years in the dystopian reality, working to find a way back to his home and his wife.

This movie never explicitly teaches anything. Sure, it is biblical and is inspired by the book of Job. But the characters don’t stop the story to vaguely talk about faith and hope. Those themes are strongly weaved into the plot. If these ideas aren’t brought up, the story wouldn’t happen. They are crucial to the plot. Without hope, Kevin wouldn’t have the drive to move the story forward. Without faith, Kevin wouldn’t have anything to fight for.

Now, let’s look at Doctor Who. What was this episode about?

The Doctor runs into an old friend, Donna, on Earth. But because of previous events in the series, Donna cannot remember the Doctor or any of their adventures together or she’ll die. Meanwhile, an alien called the Meep crashes on the planet and hides from another alien race hunting it. The Doctor helps the Meep escape only to learn that he is actually evil. Now, the Doctor must thwart the Meep’s plans before he destroys all of London.

What’s this story trying to teach its audience?

We should be accepting of people, no matter who they are or what they identify as.

As you can probably tell, this message isn’t exactly integral to the plot. In fact, it defies it. The Doctor is accepting of the Meep and helps him only for him to turn out to be evil. That doesn’t sound like the writers are trying to teach anyone about accepting people.

Yet, they constantly have the characters discussing acceptance. A trans character is… there, I guess, and the Doctor… talks to her. A woman in a wheelchair is informed several times by the Doctor and the soldiers she is in charge of that she is accepted and she can do whatever anyone else can do (except go up a staircase, which is a point that’s brought up for some reason).

So, how do you preach to your audience without preaching to your audience?

Start with your message. Don’t write the story and put the message in later. The story should be the message. My novel, Liar’s Legacy, is about redemption and guilt. It’s weaved into the plot. If Sevdis doesn’t become the person he lied about and told everyone he already was, the galaxy is doomed to another bloody war. He must deal with the consequences of his regretful actions and repent of what he’s done to save the galaxy and his new friends.

The story is the message. It’s not a megaphone to put your message in. It’s not something you write and figure out what to say later. The message is a part of the plot, whether you thought of one or not.

If you want to sound preachy, tack a message onto your story after you’ve created the plot. If you want to write a good story, make sure the themes are integral and inseparable from your story.

That’s how I try to write my stories. I haven’t written Christian science fiction (although, I would like to), but I have written science fiction with Christian values. That’s what I really want more of, and that’s what I’m going to model by coming up with themes first and plot second.

Thanks for reading! Have a fantastic day.