Talent For A Mission: Chapter Five (Part One)

deborahlagarde

January 31

I decided to split up Chapter Five of Talent For A Mission into two parts for this site. This first part would seem obvious to most authors, using suggestions that, again, would seem obvious to any writer trying to get their readers to consider accepting Christ. But the second part, to be posted next week or the week after, might surprise some authors, but the suggestions there ought to be considered anyway, for it is not just 'making disciples of all nations,' but all peoples, even those at the so-called 'top of the food chain.' Further, the end of the chapter emphasizes why using talent for your 'mission' in these perilous times is paramount. Part One is below, © 2024 Deborah Lagarde.

This will be the final chapter of Talent For A Mission. It mainly consists of suggestions in composing a novel that you are being guided to author and based on who your 'target' readers are and whether they are believers or not.

Just a reminder—my 'target' readers are adults who likely followed rock music from the 60s to the 90s and are likely non-believers (but some believers have purchased or downloaded my novels). These novels are written as my 'mission of God' is to try to get readers who are non-believers on Christ to accept Him.

Basically, that is suggestion number one: try to get non-believing readers to consider accepting Christ. That is why you need to understand what the 'target' readers would want to read, what they would likely relate to.

It could be your 'target readers' would be those involved in work or careers you the author have been involved with. In other words—science, technology, medical, historical, law enforcement, teaching, artistic or musical or acting or even magical (magicians…yes, even magicians are salvageable!). Or clerical. Or factory workers or waiters or service workers. Or financial workers. Or domestic workers. That is, characters in these jobs could make up your main characters.

If your target readers are youths, then so should your characters be youths, living the lives of youths. They could be normal everyday teens or pre-teens or children—loners, athletes, gang members, abused children, smart and 'techie' kids or even kids involved in the occult (as I was in my late teen years before an event woke me up to the evil of the occult!). But make sure you know about your youth targets.

You can be an adult that writes novels for younger children. Just make sure you know what your child characters experience. And know what it's like to parent them. Or these characters and 'target readers' could be 'parented' by cult leaders or orphanages. And remember how you lived your life when you were a child, even though it seems times have changed.

Cults? Your readers could even be members of cults you'd love to see leave the cult and accept The Truth. Not some cult leader—THE Leader! I write this because I actually know someone who was in a 'spiritual cult' and then left the cult and accepted Christ. But I won't mention the cult or the person's name.

Let me cut to the chase—let your 'target readers' be those you'd be familiar with even if they live many miles away from you or in another nation.

And, speaking of nations, make sure you are somewhat familiar with the nation or nations where your characters live. I spent enough time in England in 1970 to have my main band characters hale from England, plus I'd met some folks from the area my band characters come from, the northeast. My 'British English' isn't perfect, but it isn't totally messed up either (so I made changes when I reworked the novels into a single trilogy book). Naturally, some parts of my novels take place in my country, the USA (mostly California, 'celebrity central' if you know what I mean—and I've been there as well for a short time). If the characters and/or 'target readers' are from a nation you have never been to or a region you've never been to, make sure you know some of that nation's history and politics, or the history and politics of the region. For instance, a main support character in The Murder Rule is from Central Asia, a fictitious 'stan' nation. I'd suggest the nation in question be a fictitious one; I called my fictitious Central Asian nation Adabustan.

Another notion to consider when composing your novels in order to try to get your readers to accept Christ is this: just what would your characters believe in while on their 'road to redemption'? Among my band characters are: one who, as a boy living with his father, was abused by the father and especially the 'Christian' cult leader…abused with a Bible!; one who was raised by avowed atheists; one who was raised by a homosexual father and a sexually abusive mother; one who was raised by a family that only attended church on holidays and really wasn't committed to Christ; and two of them who barely survived dire financial and other conditions—one who had no clue about Christ and the other who only went to church to sing in religious pageants.