Fundie Fiction

[Reb009]

Has anyone ever written, or thought about writing Fundie-based fiction? I feel like though so many of them have such sad lives, there are novels to be written here about these people. Anyone have thoughts?

[Reb009]

I know I'm a newbie, so first post I'll go with the first three paragraphs I just wrote after lurking here for a year. Feel free to rip apart:

It was when Micah was born that Elizabeth first started questioning whether or not children really were a blessing. She’d taken the 6th load of laundry out of the dryer for that day and was folding and hanging all the articles of clothing according to who they belonged to. Girls on the right, on this hanging bar. Boys on the left. That’s how the family closet was structured.

While doing the laundry she’d had a practical thought—more babies, even more laundry. As the second oldest daughter she had a lot of responsibilities, although probably not as many as Leah, her older sister. Although Leah seemed fine with all that she’d been given. Leah handled disciplining and schooling the smallest of the family—Elijah, John and Constance, all under 3, and balanced that with her sewing, cooking of dinner and helping their mother with various odds and ends. Maybe it was her name. How could a Leah be satisfied with anything more than second best. The biblical Leah hadn’t been and who were they to expect better than Bible characters. Those whom God had chosen to write down in His word.

If Elizabeth were to use that logic though, she knew what her fate would be. That of the mother of someone significant. Someone who was significant up to the point where his head appeared on a platter. Significance plummeted at that point. And that wasn’t what Elizabeth wanted, so she shrugged that thought off immediately. Her significance would extend beyond that.

[cenarose]

I wrote fundie fiction back when I WAS a fundie, so it was... preachy and idealized and didn't address any of the huge problems or miseries of that lifestyle. Since then, no, I haven't really thought about it. I like your three paragraphs: I already empathize with Elizabeth and would like to get to know her better. I'd encourage you to keep writing! Stories of fundie children need to be told. Very few people in the world at large understand what their lives are actually like. That's why I am still kind of in love with the book "When Sparrows Fall" by Meg Moseley.

[EyeQueue]

Has anyone ever written, or thought about writing Fundie-based fiction? I feel like though so many of them have such sad lives, there are novels to be written here about these people. Anyone have thoughts?

I'm working on a piece right now which will be my first try at incorporating fundie characters into my fiction. It's a short story horror piece about a girl who has been adopted by a fundie family in the Duggar/Pearl vein. Let's just say this girl has some...oddities...about her that amp up the "pray/beat" the evil away impulses of this family.