There are several things that I consider when writing a story, and one of the biggest questions I ask myself is “Is this something that I want to depict in my story?”. I don’t like depicting certain things in my stories like child abuse, sex, the death of children, rape, graphic torture. Graphic violence in general, satanism, and a few other things. (There are some things I don’t mind people depicting, but I never will, nor will I promote it because of my own beliefs).  For instance, Games of Thrones doesn’t bug me, but I would never write anything with so much sex, incest, and torture in it. Then there are also books like Hunger Games (I never read the books, but I watched the movies). The novels are considered young adult fiction, but there is more death in those movies than rated R films I’ve seen. On top of that, it is about a bunch of kids who are supposed to kill each other in a death game. 

After doing research into the YA genre I learned that kids killing each other, sex, rape, drugs, and other things that people would consider inappropriate behavior for minors, are heavily depicted in YA novels. Not all of them, but enough where it is noticeable. Now, do I have problems with the premise of stories like the Hunger Games? No, it doesn’t bug me until I look at it closely and say it out loud, but it is something I would never write. I’m also not criticizing the author for it; I just wouldn’t feel comfortable writing it. 

Now to answer the question, Is writing a reflection of the author’s soul? My answer to that is, it’s complicated because it both is and isn’t a reflection. If we were to assume writing was a reflection of a writer's soul, then we could assume that there are a lot of YA authors who would be fine with a bunch of teenagers going around killing each other. If you’ve read horror or murder mystery, then you should assume most of them are deeply disturbed sadistic sociopaths (I mean that’s why I write horror and mystery, but I’m not speaking for other authors here. FYI  that was sarcasm. The part about me being a sociopath was sarcasm.).

Just because someone depicts something in their stories doesn’t mean they are okay with it, but you can see their soul in writing. For instance, our beliefs and experience can influence our writing. In my book Paranormal Frontier: Burning West I write about a scene where a witch is being persecuted and his inner dialogue is a reflection of some of my own thoughts after facing hardships related to my disability. So, when we use our own personal experience or beliefs in our story line you do get a peek into the author’s soul.

You can see my soul in my writing in a few of my characters. Anyone who has or ever will read my novels in the Paranormal Frontier series will become familiar with the character Father Bennet who is a priest and a monster hunter. His theology is heavily based off of my own (aside from the whole priest wielding a shotgun thing, that’s mostly humor and because 
I wanted to create a unique character). That Christian ethic is why Christian literature is the way it is (no sex, profanity, etc). Christians don’t want to depict that stuff in their literature because they believe it is immoral, and while I can overlook profanity there are plenty of other things I can’t overlook (Although I would never refer to my own writing as Christian literature).

Anyways, thank you for listening to my short philosophical ramblings.

MJ Maddox
Visually Impaired Author
Pretends to be a saint, but is actually a twisted, sadistic psycho (again, thats sarcasm)