Writing and Truth

This has been weighing on my mind since my Writing for YA class got out half an hour ago, so here goes... We talked about truth in writing and having the truth come through. What we've been stressing the entire semester is that you can't preach to your readers. You tell your story, and you let your character grow and experience and make choices, but you don't go to your story thinking: I am going to give my readers this great lesson about such-and-such. Anyway, today an author came in and talked to us about the unique perspective we have as LDS writers. Writing is all about finding "truth", and in the LDS culture, we believe we have truth. It is our responsibility to make our inner truth shine through in our writing. It's interesting how many people are looking for truth. You can always find this search for spirituality and direction in YA writing, particularly through the main character's moral struggles. There is often also a Christ-figure in YA writing who leads the character (there is one is many many books that I have read recently...and now I realize that there's one in my novel, but I when I wrote him in, I wasn't thinking, "this is my Christ-figure", I was thinking, "For some reason I feel like my main character needs this character to help her in the novel). Anyway, writers and readers are looking for this direction and meaning, and LDS writers have this to some extent. So while we can't preach, we can show through our story the search for spirituality and the hope it brings about. The author today also talked about the spirit directing her in her writing, and how she felt that God wanted her to tell certain things. I believe even God cares about how we touch people through writing, and He can direct us through writing to tell our stories in the best possible ways that will affect readers' lives. I have had been experiences through reading where I have learned about life and about who I am. Sometimes I finish a book thinking "WOW", and the issues in the book pry at me after I'm finished and affect the kind of person I am and what I believe. THAT, I think, is the mark of a good book: something that can affect you in this way. And that's how I hope to write.