Voices for Voices®

Finding Your Writing Purpose: David Solomon's Journey with Faith | Episode 210

• Founder of Voices for Voices®, Justin Alan Hayes • Season 4 • Episode 210

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Finding Your Writing Purpose: David Solomon's Journey with Faith | Episode 210

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What does it mean to write with divine purpose? David Solomon, accomplished Christian fantasy writer, returns to Voices for VoicesⓇ to share the profound spiritual journey that shapes his storytelling.

Solomon reveals how following God's unexpected prompting once led him away from a high-profile project to help prevent a suicide—demonstrating how stories can literally save lives. This powerful example sets the stage for his practical wisdom for writers seeking to make an impact through their work.

Through a beautiful metaphor of God as a father waiting on a basketball court, Solomon transforms our understanding of prayer and faith. "Talk to God like he's your best friend, like he's your dad. Just talk to him like a normal person," he advises, making spirituality accessible to everyone.

Writers will find particular value in Solomon's five-point framework: find your purpose, identify your audience, resist self-criticism, celebrate completion without pride, and edit with care while remembering that "good is good enough." His frank discussion about perfectionism addresses the paralysis that prevents many writers from ever finishing their work.

Most provocatively, Solomon challenges the Christian writing community to embrace diversity, pointing out that when faith-based fiction fails to represent all people, those seeking representation may turn to secular content that contradicts Christian values. Through his projects like "Destiny Halls" and "God's Heroes," he demonstrates how supernatural elements in scripture can inspire fresh approaches to contemporary genres.

Ready to find purpose in your writing? Connect with David at soldierboywriter@gmail.com or on Facebook at Mythical Creatures Around the World, where he offers guidance to aspiring authors seeking to share their unique voice with the world.

David Solomon shares his journey as a Christian fantasy writer and offers guidance for writers seeking to find their purpose and create impactful stories that honor their faith.

• Finding purpose in your writing is essential—ask yourself why you're writing and who your audience is
• Talk to God like a father waiting on a basketball court—approachable, caring, and always there to listen
• Avoid being your own harshest critic and don't let criticism derail you—if you're making people uncomfortable, you're probably doing something right
• Edit with care but remember "good is enough"—perfectionism prevents completion
• Christian fiction needs diversity—when we don't represent all people, readers seeking representation may turn to secular content
• God's supernatural intervention in real life (making people invisible in dangerous situations, healing) inspired Solomon's "God's Heroes" concept
• Writers should reach across cultural boundaries while maintaining Christian values in their content

For aspiring writers looking for guidance, contact David at soldierboywriter@gmail.com or find him on Facebook at Mythical Creatures Around the World.

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Justin Alan Hayes:

Thank you again for joining us on this episode of the Voices for Voices TV show and podcast. I am founder and executive director of Voices for Voices, justin Allen Hayes. Thank you for your love and support for watching, listening. We just hit 600 cities worldwide after our last episode and we're close to 60 countries across the world.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So, starting out, never thought we would get to that point. We had a big goal that we wanted to and and so I think that's a thing to think about is to dream big, have, have big goals and, as our guest on today's show it talks about is, you know, dream, have big dreams, goals. And you have to be passionate about what you're doing, because the work isn't always glamorous. Some of the after work and potentially, you know, being invited to, you know, different award shows and and different things and, uh, that's, that's always a nice to have. But if you don't have that passion to get to that point, uh, it's going to be tough, and there's always that, uh, the saying that I I've heard that you know everybody going to be tough, and there's always that the saying that I've heard that you know everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to put in the work that we just want to organically just become famous and have all kinds of money and not have to work very, very hard. But that is far from the truth. That hopefully you learned a little bit from our show and especially from our, our guests.

Justin Alan Hayes:

So this is picking up the the second part of our conversation with past and now current guest, david solomon.

Justin Alan Hayes:

He was talking about how different cultures, different languages, still go back to the Bible and Jesus, even talking mythically and fictionally, uh, and how what we, what we kind of ended on last episode was when, when david was at a studio, uh, work working some, uh, you know, higher, everything's high profile, I guess anymore.

Justin Alan Hayes:

Uh, he's working on on a high profile project and god kind of told him hey, I'd like you to stop and work on this other project. And when David did that, he was able to help somebody from taking their own life and I think that that's huge. And while we want to help as many people as possible, and while we, you know, we want to help as many people as possible, but you know, and any number of lives that we can help and share our experience and help from doing something like taking their own life, which is it's hard to work with as the individual, but then as the family and friends, and we all have purpose. It's sometimes it takes a minute to find that, but David Solomon is going to help talk about his purpose and how that continued to where we're at today. So, david, if you want to pick us up from where we left off and thank you again for joining us, david, thank you.

David Solomon:

Always a blessing to be here. You know, what I was saying in the first part was how you know it's important for us to find our purpose in life, and how to. When you're a writer, you want to ask yourself, why am I doing this? And then I ended it with of how God used me to touch someone else's life that was going to end their own and that's just so important to find that purpose because I listened to God in that moment and that story, although not produced, made such a difference. And then I spoke that on testimony night at a church it's about 2,000 to 3,000 that were in the auditorium, about 200 came to God right around there to the altar because they had never thought of God like that before, and that was a big moment to watch. That many people come to God because of a story that God gave me, because of a story that God gave me and that I just humbled myself before God that day and went, wow, okay, god can use even the tiniest person to make the biggest impact. What a blessing. And it's just how powerful and beautiful and mighty our God really is.

David Solomon:

There was a moment in Maryland and Texas where after that night, I preached again, because Pastor Happy comes back and I said you know I want to talk about God, but I want to talk about it a different way. You know I play ball, like a lot of people that know me from back in the day, the true David Solomon amen, that not only grew up riding, not only grew up on a horse ranch, but grew up playing ball. My friends in the basketball world know me and we always talked about God on the court. In fact, I wrote stories while playing basketball. Believe it or not. I would go on our old basketball. We had a basketball hoop and we had this little place where you could play ball and it was your own yard. It was a really beautiful thing I'd just create while playing the sport.

David Solomon:

I'd come up with songs and stories and I would act those out, which means I would act out all the different dialogues. So I knew what every character was saying. Think of it like. What do they call that? Deep acting. That's not the right word I'm looking for. It'll come to me. Deep acting, that's not the right word I'm looking for. It'll come to me, but not improv Method acting, method acting, Method acting kind of.

David Solomon:

And then from there, my mom had me take lessons through professional works in Shakespeare and in Hollywood to get my acting better, and I worked with a lot of good, you know great people. I got to be involved in some heavy plays, one that was kind of a Broadway. It was kind of fun. I was like 11 at the time. Way, it was kind of fun. I was like 11 at the time.

David Solomon:

Um, I was just having the time of my life, just, you know, really letting god shine through me. I was on fire for god as a kid and uh, so in maryland I I told the story of what I, uh, what I pictured god as, because I didn't grow up with a dad. And uh, this, this is what my mom said. And then it kind of resonated with me and I kind of made it into my own thing. But we're on this, uh, we're on this journey and uh, we're in our ferrari or we're in our motorcycle or we're just doing our own thing.

David Solomon:

And uh, and our dad is calling us to get to the court, want to play some one-on-one, want to talk, want to fellowship, want to get a game and want to see how we're doing. You know they're crying over our situation. I decided to smoke or drink. Today I cheated today, you know. Uh, just examples of what people do and and sinners do. And so our dad is trying to call us and text us and say hey, you know, I want to check in with you. Are you doing all right? You know, cast all your cares upon me, he says, and he's there for us. And all we got to do is just pick up the phone and say dad, I want to talk to you. Dad, I'm having a bad day. Dad, you know, this happened and I'm heartbroken. Or, dad, you know, I'm so happy today. I just wanted to share that with you. Thank you for making it possible.

David Solomon:

Dad, and Dad's always on the court. That's the funny part. Dad is always on the court and he on the court. That's the funny part. Dad is always on the court and he's ready to welcome you home. He's ready to welcome you to play ball again. He's always going to wait for you and he's never going to give up on you and he's never going to forsake you. And so, if you think of our Father, god, jesus, the three in one, the Holy Spirit, if you think of our Father in Heaven as that dad on that basketball court and he has just not given up on his kids and he's saying I'm going to be here no matter what. And that is what my mom used to tell me when I was a kid, because I didn't have a dad. Dad is watching.

David Solomon:

If you ever want to talk, just call your dad. Call God, and you know, just let him know how you feel. Obviously, you don't call him on the phone, you just talk to him and you know. You say you know, dad, I want to take you to the court. You know, I had anger today, or I was called a name today, or this person did that to me today, or I feel this way today. Help me not to do that today.

David Solomon:

And a lot of people struggle with what prayer is, and that's how I tell them how to approach prayer.

David Solomon:

Don't talk to someone like you're going to light a candle and you're going to go. You know I'm going to talk to a statue or you know something like that. Don't talk to him like that. Talk to God like he's your best friend, like he's your dad. Just talk to him like a normal person. You know, maybe it's a basketball, you know stadium for you. Or maybe it's a football stadium, a baseball stadium. Maybe you like fishing and you just want to have a little fishing trip with dad, you know. But you know that's how I learned who my God is, that's who I learned my relationship with Jesus is. That's how strong we are, we're tight net and that that Not a lot of people think of God that way. Not a lot of people think that God can just be this normal person you can talk to. So I guess a lot of my career really rooted on my faith from a very early age and I just fell in love with sharing that relationship I had with my dad. And you know about 14, I made some bad choices.

David Solomon:

We all have and uh, I uh, I didn't do drugs and I didn't drink, but I, uh, I, uh, I hotwired a, hotwired a cop car and uh, you know, I uh, it was a dare and I was dumb.

David Solomon:

I got caught, I turned myself in and that's how guilty I felt. And I also got dared to steal a comic book from the place I used to hang out in all the time in Oregon. I'd be there every day almost because I would write in there. At the time I was writing for Smallville and Arrow and Flash and all these different comic book properties. What a blessing I'd write in there. Anyway, I was there to steal a comic book. It was a $2.99 and it wasn't a big deal. But I got out the door with my friend who dared me to do it and I couldn't get in the car with him. I ran right back up to the owner and I gave him the comic book and I said I stole this, throw away the key. And he had mercy on me and he said you know that is so powerful that you, that you felt the conviction to come forward. Thank you for coming forward. And so God really put it on my heart, convicted it on my heart to know what was right and wrong at an early age, and I am crucified for that to this very day.

David Solomon:

I'm a very black and white person. If my dad on the basketball court says, don't write that, don't do that, don't go into that activity, don't talk to that person, my dad is right. God is always right, god is never wrong, god doesn't make mistakes, and so if he's saying that is a mistake, I am going to listen to him 110%. Granted, sometimes I try to do it my own way. So, getting back to my journey now and to the inspiring writers, we got five points and we got time. That is never on our side, amen, so let's get right into it. Point two so when we're writing a story, we need to ask ourselves who our audience is. Is it ourself? Are we writing it to feel good? Sometimes we write a story to feel good. Sometimes we write a story to heal ourselves, sometimes.

David Solomon:

In my case, I had a best friend who was contemplating suicide. Um, I wrote him a. I wrote him a short story in a little journal and it saved his life. I told him how important they were and how God loved them and I created this entire superhero for them and it changed their life. It impacted them. It had this big impact on their life not only their life, but their family that saw how dark that place was and that they put that person in that moment. That was a powerful, deep, depth and dark moment to withhold. It was wow, wow.

David Solomon:

And so number two is why are you writing this story? What motivates you to write this story? So, find out why you're writing this story. Number one is you want to find purpose, but number two is who's your audience? Are you writing for yourself or are you writing for others?

David Solomon:

Number three never put yourself down and never criticize yourself and let others criticize you, because you're always doing something right. You're doing something wrong if someone ain't calling you names, if someone ain't saying this is horrible and I hate this, this is the worst writing I've ever seen. You're doing something wrong if they ain't saying that when you're doing something right for your dad, for the kingdom, the enemy is always going to come and he is always going to attack and he is always going to come and he is always going to attack and he is always going to strike and he is always going to say you're doing something wrong, you stupid, and he is going to get you down and he is going to try to break you. But that is where you find your strength, my inspiring writer friends. That is where you find your strength, my inspiring writer friends, that is where you find your strength and you let your dad, you let God lift you up in that moment of need, in that moment of crisis, because every writer faces it. So, number three it's very important. It's very important not to criticize yourself and not to put yourself down and then, when you tell others about your projects, listen to them, listen to who's telling you that's stupid, and then watch the people that think it's not. I promise you, even if it's just one person that says that's brilliant, look at where they're at in their walk with God. Look at that. So don't criticize yourself. Don't be your own. Critique Us writers, us creators we're always our own critiques.

David Solomon:

I was writing last night and those of you who know, I used to write about 400 pages a day. I faced a critical health crisis, so I can only write about 30 pages a day right now, amen. And so I wrote the 30th page and I reread it and I went this is the worst page I've ever written. No one's going to want to see this. No one's ever going to want to read this. This is just terrible. God, why did you let me write this page. I'll just rip it out. And then I realized if I rip it out right now, I will never finish this novel. I will never get to the finish line, get to the end of my goal, get to the end of that race that I'm trying to run. So I let it go. I said you know what it's going to come out in editing, I'm just going to keep going forward and not looking back.

David Solomon:

So number three don't be your worst critique and keep moving forward. Don't take two steps back and edit your work while you're doing it. Worst thing you can do Okay. But then she realized well, you can't do that, you know, because then it kills your creativity. You just can't do that. So don't be your worst critique. To that finish line. Take a break, give yourself a reward, patch yourself, thank God that you got there. But don't say, whoa is amazing me, how sweet the sound. Because he didn't save a wretch, or, excuse me, you didn't save a wretch or excuse me, you didn't save a wretch for yourself, he saved a wretch like you. So humble yourself before god. Humble yourself before the one that gave you the story to create, because you only finished that because he gave you the gift to be that storyteller Number five when you edit. Edit with care, edit with caution, edit with precision, but ultimately, edit not to be perfect, but good is good enough. Not to be perfect, but good is good enough, or you will never get anywhere. We, as writers, are perfectionists. The project I'm working on I want to talk a little bit about it Destiny Halls and God's Heroes. Justin leaned into that last time and Justin can show you a shot of it for those that want to find it on Facebook.

David Solomon:

This was my first moment coming into Christian fantasy, where I wasn't ghostwriting for people like Brian Davis or other Christian authors who I won't name because of NDAs, but I wanted to make an impact. I wanted to tell a story that had never been told. So I talked about a descendant of Samson because he's a superhero. Right, people say god, you know, doesn't like superheroes. What do you call samson? Samson is this kid who was blessed with this superpower by god to never cut his hair, and he had super strength. I mean, this here sounds like the Hulk, you know, or Superman, amen. So that's kind of cool. So God loves superheroes and I wanted to do that. So I contacted TBN and I contacted some other publishers and I have a contract with them, but I published it on my own until I could, like, find my niche on my own Because, understand, until this point I had never published Christian fantasy under my own name.

David Solomon:

I was always under Brian, or I was always under Ted or other people, always under ted or other people. Um, I had written about 81 christian fantasy novels since the age of 14 ghostwriting and that's not including tv shows and movies that I helped, that were secular, amen, and so, um, all the big writers call me to write their books and I was on my own. So it's a little shaky. It's a little shaky and I'm going to be rewriting it, but it made an impact. It made people start a conversation that didn't know who Samson was.

David Solomon:

And then God's Heroes came. Two years ago, when I met my beautiful and wonderful wife, who is my best friend. She inspired me to create God's Heroes. See, the Bible says ask and you shall receive is ask and you shall receive. About 2004, on a road called Green Springs in Oregon, or Dead Indian Road is the parallel to it. It's this road that's like the cliff, it overlooks the Rogue Valley in Oregon and it's high and there's no rails at that time and at one point in the road my dad was stalking my mom. She had just come from Clamas, where I grew up, and we were going to church over there and, uh, and making the hour journey back to home because it was such a beautiful church and so my dad tried to ram.

David Solomon:

My mom prayed to God to send Michael and this giant figure appeared and my dad turned around. Of course there's a police report and if you read the police report, there were other people on the road on the other side that saw blindness and they couldn't look. So then my mom taught me at a young age ask God and you shall receive. But all you got to do is ask. He will hear you in your time of need. About 2016, ocean Shores Washington.

David Solomon:

In 16, ocean Shores, washington, we were in the middle of a rainstorm and this car was drunk and I don't know what was going on. They had a gun and they had the Nazi symbol. They started firing on this dirt road. We were there because we were on the way to the beach. Mom wanted to see the beach. We lived in Seattle at the time and mom said make our car invisible, god, make it so our enemies cannot see us and we thank you in advance. And they literally drove right next to us, looked us in the mirror, held the gun out the window and couldn't see my mom or me. I made it to the beach. The police arrested him and mom said God always hears you. I made it to the beach, the police arrested him and mom said God always hears you in your time of need.

David Solomon:

I met a missionary from the Philippines not long after. They had a similar story where they were going to get caught and they asked God to make them invisible or make it where they could breathe under water for a supernatural amount of time. Or a person that was in a fire and he needed the supernatural strength to be fireproof to save his children. These are beautiful stories, but they sound like superpowers to me. So my mom was a heavy woman of faith and she raised me to be someone that doesn't only believe in the supernatural but sees it. And God is the supernatural. Don't let anyone tell you that God is not supernatural, because there is a missionary who is going to get killed in North Korea and the only way out Was for God to make them invisible. And I got to tell you right now God made that person invisible, that family, and they are safe. Amen. You know we talk about stories where I've seen it before where God calls certain people to heal people. That's a superpower To heal people of sickness, just completely heal them, or deliver them from demons. These are supernatural powers. So God's Heroes is about normal people who cry out to God in their time of need and God grants them that supernatural power and they become superheroes. What a beautiful thing. And so I want to portray god to uh to hollywood, and that's just one one impact we're having in hollywood right now. You know we uh we've had a lot over the last four, five years, but God's Heroes is a major one in Destiny Halls.

David Solomon:

Those who follow my Facebook GoToGoa I wrote last year. I wrote it in a country that hates God, india, and it reached people in India, so I'll be moving forward on that sometime. But we are going to produce and create TV shows and movies and books that impact and speak to culture. I think it's important for inspiring writers, and this is something that no Christian author will probably tell you, because I was never told it. I was told the opposite. The Bible says go forth to every nation and tell them what I have told you and given you the good news.

David Solomon:

But doesn't that mean that us authors should go into diverse communities? I want to open that communication up. What does that mean? A Caucasian author writing about African American heroes? Or Korean, asian American? We should not just write stereotypes. We should not just write stereotypes. We should not live in the past.

David Solomon:

There are so many people especially in Christian fiction, I'm going to be honest are whitewashed and we don't have characters on the book I'm going to be honest are whitewashed and we don't have characters on the book covers that are diverse. So where do those readers go? They go to the woke agenda and they get the gays and they get the trans. It's a Hope, pride, rainbow Parade, amen. But isn't it our responsibility to make sure that they don't go there, or at least create an avenue where they can choose not to go there, let me put it that way. But yet we're failing to meet that moment. Isn't that funny. So I call you, no matter your race, embrace it. Don't let your church and I mean this with love it. Don't let your church and I mean this with love don't let your church or your church leaders tell you oh, you know, you can't write a diverse story. God wouldn't like that. God will use your story as he uses a missionary on a missionary field, and he will use that to impact his kingdom and save someone's life. That is what puts us different than secular writers.

David Solomon:

I was reading a story the other day Someone said this is a great Christian story. You're going to love it. It's awesome. You know, I was so excited. It was good. It was going good, and then the F word came, and then the D word came, and then the S word came, and then we were describing cleavage, even though they had a Christian message, even though there was a Christian mythology to the character. You're called not to be of this world, but to live in this world. We're called to be aliens. Did you know that we're literally called to be aliens If you are being made fun of for not writing Game of Thrones, but you're writing Game of Thrones without the sex and the language.

David Solomon:

I mean you're writing Game of Thrones without the sex and the language. I mean you're doing something right. So it's time to be criticized. It's time to have people make hate videos on you. It's going to happen, but it's worth it. You know how many hate videos I have on me alone's going to happen, but it's worth it. You know how many hate videos I have on me alone? I don't know, probably hundreds at this point. But you know what? God bless them, because the more hate that I get, the more blessings are going to come Because I'm doing something right.

David Solomon:

If I'm having that much of an impact on people saying you're wrong, how dare you? I have the one person I spoke out against they did this whole video on YouTube saying that my Christian fantasy is porn All because I have a 13-year-old boy have a crush on a 13-year-old girl. I'm sorry. What would you like me to do? Would you like me to have the audacity to have the boy have a crush on a boy and let's just go that way? How far is too far? And, writers, I want you to challenge yourself on this.

Justin Alan Hayes:

We're really close to the end, just FYI.

David Solomon:

Absolutely so. You know, I really hope that this has been uplifting. I know you've heard a lot about me. If you haven't tune into other episodes about my journey into surviving trafficking. But you have your own story. Don't listen to my story. Make your own story heard. Tell your own story. Don't listen to my story. Make your own story heard. Tell your own story. God uses your story to touch others. So let's hear your story. Let's hear your feedback.

David Solomon:

So my email is soldierboywriter w-r-i-t-e-r at gmailcom. Sldierboywriter W-R-I-T-E-R at gmailcom. S-o-l-d-i-e-r-b-o-y-w-r-i-t-e-r at gmailcom. My Facebook page is Mythical Preachers Around the World Facebook. Any inspiring authors want to reach out. I'm more than happy to give you or maneuver you through guidelines or give you resources to help you get your voice out there to the best of my ability.

David Solomon:

I owe what I am today and I'll end it with this because I couldn't do it on my own, because I tried to be the person that said God, I'm doing your work and I'm listening to you, but I'm not picking up your call. And so my wife, my beautiful wife, she had to show me that I needed help. She had to show me that I needed help. I needed her help to do it, because I couldn't do it on my own, and that's ultimately what sunk my health is. I got so engrossed in doing it on my own that I stressed myself to the maximum. And so my best friend, my wife, she said honey, one day that's going to destroy you. One day you can't do this on your own. So now she helps me and I look to her for guidance. If she says this doesn't sound right or maybe you shouldn't do that, I try my best, amen, to listen to her.

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