A Rant of Sorts

The other day I was thinking about my stories, and a comment my mom had made.

She said "all of your stories involve sex, drinking, drugs, or smoking in some way."

She wasn't accusing or anything, just stating a fact. 

It did get me to thinking though. For most of my stories (not quite all) she was right. And I wondered, should I be worried about that? Why do my characters engage in these activities. I've never written a character where I tried to glorify those types of actions. But often those behaviors manifest themselves in the main character.

The hero.

The one I want my readers to love. 

Why do I do that? 

I thought about it long and hard and I came to the conclusion that it makes them real.

Not that all people are druggers or alcoholics or anything like that, but it gives my characters a flaw. A real flaw that makes people disappointed in them, and can bring out the worst of their humanity.

I like to call them broken characters. 

This got me thinking down another trail, as my mom also wondered why I hardly read any Christian fiction. 

The answer is largely because it lacks these broken characters. But why? Christians, of all people, should realize that we are all broken people and that only the grace of Jesus can put us together again. Christian stories should be teaming with shattered characters. But they're not. 

My favorite characters are all broken in some way or another. 

Katniss starts the Hunger Games books off as a broken girl. Her father's death and a need to survive and keep her family alive has made her hard to emotions and feelings of the people around her. And she just keeps getting broken as the series progresses.

Whether you like him or not, Gale makes it onto my list of broken characters. 

Tris doesn't start out noticeably broken, but she is by the time we get to Insurgent. 

I dare say Four is a broken soul. 

Will Herondale is perhaps the definition of a broken character, and so is Jem, even if he expresses his brokenness a different way. 

Murtagh, Ky, Theresa....

Broken people. 

I love these kinds of characters. I can relate to them. Even if I don't have the same flaw they do, we both have flaws.

They have imperfections, same as me.

They can be a complete screw up and still be the hero. 

The danger in these characters is that the secular genre can glorify their vices. 

We all laugh when Will insists he needs to get to a brothel. 

Sometimes we feel like we should be a Katniss and just shut out the world and everyone in it. 

But we shouldn't. 

Don't get me wrong, I love the Will quote, but do you see what I'm getting at? We can let the fictional problems of characters we love make us callouss to real sin in the real world. 

Why then, can't there be broken characters in Christian fiction? Where the story is presented in a way that guards our tenderness toward sin, but still gives us a believeable story?

So many (not all mind you) of the Christian stories I read have "ice cream cone characters". Perfect little John and Lucy's who have everything in order.

Of course they have a sin. Characters in Christian books always have some kind of pet sin. But it's wanting to be rebellious against the stuffy church rules, being drawn to the bad boy who's not a Christian, or maybe being short tempered with a sibling. 

Real flaws, but seemingly minuscule. The characters seem too perfect. I mean, come on. Don't we all wish our only flaw was occasionally getting into a mild argument with a sibling? 

If there is a broken character in a Christian story, it's usually the antagonist, or a secondary character. The broken secondary character is shown as flawed, and possibly in the wrong, and they never get a victory.

Aren't there Christians who are broken? Don't Christians have traumatic pasts, habits they can't break, and emotional scars? I've met them! I've been them! Can't we use that to make a good story with redemptive qualities? 

I'm not saying every story needs to have a messed up character and a glorious scene of salvation at the end.

I'm actually against that.  

But isn't there a way to use some of these things in stories without turning them into a cliché, or violating a reader's innocence?