Really creative writing

This article is the first of a series of `real-time’ articles about story development, using as a model a story called `The Call’ which I’m developing on the web site. Because I’m still developing it, the articles really will be in real-time, I’ll describe every problem that I encounter as these problems occur. Hopefully, this will help you resolve any problems that you might have with developing your story.

Theme 

The theme of the story is the current state of Christianity in Britain. This is a pretty controversial theme, because although Britain is nominally a Christian country in reality Christianity may be in decline.

Conflict 

The conflict is between an American clergyman who is currently the Pastor of a church in Britain and the local British population. The Pastor represents the continuity of Christianity in Britain and the local British population represents the decline of Christianity in Britain.

Character development

Obviously, it’s impossible to develop the character of an entire local population. Someone (or several people) has to represent this local population, someone has to represent their attitudes towards Christianity.
I’ve already introduced a couple of British characters in the story, and have decided that they will fulfill this role. I also intend to create a conflict between them; one character will have a certain attitude towards the Pastor and towards Christianity in Britain and the other character, his wife, will have her own attitude towards them.
The Pastor also has a wife,  who is also American, and she also represents the continuity of Christianity in Britain. But she has a slightly different attitude towards it and towards the British than her husband, so there is also a conflict here.

Summary

To summarise: so far the story has a theme and it has conflict - in fact it has a main conflict and two lesser conflicts. It also has some character development - I’ve started to develop the character of the Pastor and his wife. I haven’t, however, started to develop the character of the Britisher and his wife.

Theme analysis

In the next article about story development I’ll analyse the theme of the story, I’ll analyse whether it’s an appealing theme, whether it will interest and intrigue people. Hopefully, this will persuade you to question your theme, will help you decide whether your theme will interest and intrigue people.
Footnote:`The Call’ is entirely a work of fiction and is not intended to represent the views of American clergymen in Britain towards the British or the views of the British towards American clergymen in Britain.