I'm writing a short story about going to Heaven and going to Hell, any suggestions?

For my website, eclecticsite.com/inspirationcorner.html I'm writing a short story about two men who die. One goes to Heaven and the other to Hell. I'm trying to stay within scriptural (Holy Bible) teachings, but I plan on taking considerable artistic license otherwise.

My goal is to pull no punches and to hold nothing back. I want the visit to Heaven to be unvelievably wonerful, enticing and plausable, and I want the trip to Hell to overwhelmingly scary, disturbing and believable. I just want people to get a glimpse into what eternity could be like in each situation.

Anyone have any suggestions on what kinds of things I'll want to include and exclude? What direction I should take with it? How best to paint these mental images?

I can't promise I'll use all of the suggestions, but I can promise that I will certainly consider everything offered. Asked by Keitharoo 51 months ago Similar Questions: writing short story Heaven Hell suggestions Recent Questions About: writing short story Heaven Hell suggestions Society > Religion & Spirituality.

Similar Questions: writing short story Heaven Hell suggestions Recent Questions About: writing short story Heaven Hell suggestions.

Exciting, you are undertaking my favorite fiction genre, can't wait to see the finished product! Ok this is just what I personally would like to see. I picture Hell as a type of earth in another dimension sort of place where the Holy Spirit is not present, and God is not involved at all.

Satan is a tyrannical ruler. What would that man’s life look like? He knows that he had family & friends, coworkers, neighbors, and remembers them vividly.

But not all of them are present in his dimension because they are in Heaven. He is also vividly aware of where they are and where he is. What would a governing structure look like in hell?

What would a society full of condemned human souls function like, apart from the tempering of the Holy Spirit? What would the relationships between "man" be like? What would a normal day look like there?

I would like to see a Heaven where we are learning and experiencing new things every day. We are having dinner feasts with long lost relatives, friends, & historical figures of all sorts. Maybe your man gets to eat with Paul one night and Paul is talking about what it was like to be blinded and then finally "see" after being a Christian killer, and he tells us what his "thorn in the flesh" was all about.

I would like to see a huge celebration party given by those saints who in Revelations are crying out "How long oh Lord until you avenge the blood of the martyrs? " Maybe your man could be walking with Jesus and asking questions like "what about that time I got into that bad car accident where I should have died? " And Jesus saying something like "Well you would not remember Joe, the firefighter who extracted you from your car.

You said something to him while he was trying to keep you conscious, and that was the last seed that needed to be planted for him. He is here with us now, and you were an integral thread in that plan. Your death that night was not what I had planned.

" I could go on and on, but you have 4 more answers to read. Good for you taking this on! .

Sounds like an interesting project I am sure you’ve all ready gone there, but if not, I would go back and read Dante and Milton and mine them. Most of what people think of Heaven and Hell are formed by the images which were found in Inferno and Paradiso which both seem to influence Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. I think there is enough imagery in those to write an entire series.

The other person that I think did a great job of bringing images of heaven into his writing was CS Lewis. I don’t think it ever hurts to look back at the Narnia series, especially in this case The Last Battle. He also wrote a book which paints images of his vision of Hell and Heaven called The Great Divorce.

These might be good places to look at to further some of the creative juices that are already moving within you. Of course you have the wealth of imagery which exists in the Revelation. There is a lot you can mine there.

But here’s my opinion and nothing more. I spent a lot of time in those "Hell Fire and Brimstone" churches. So for someone like me the idea of Dante like descriptions of people being roasted forever burning coals is something I don’t get too excited about.

Frankly I go - Oh I’ve heard that before - NEXT. There are plenty of things out there that try and tell me how great heaven is and how awful hell is - mostly printed in tracts that folks hand out at the airport. I think there is a place for that but what I think Hell really is, is that seperation from God.

That absolute divorce from joy and that place of hopelessness. Maybe look at Marlowe’s play Dr. Faustus. In that Mephistophiles (sp?

) has a really interesting description of Hell, where he essentially discusses how Hell is separation from God and how he (a fallen angel) having once looked on the face of God can find any other place, nothing but Hell. One final thought - you know if the devil and sin weren't attractive then Hell would be pretty empty. I don't know how you can use that if you have people all ready in Hell, but I think it is important to notice the sensual call that sin can have on our baser human natures.

It pulls at us because it is something that at least something in us wants .

Can't help with that, but here's something interesting... It's a book called "In Leiu of Heaven" by Kevin Archer. It's about a man who has died and wonders if he has encountered Heaven or not, and it has been read by all of my friends and really shaped our perspectives of what Heaven and Hell may or may not be. Personally I think Heaven and Hell are in the mind of the individual.

For example, I am terrified of snakes, so I believe that in the unfortunate event I have to go to Hell, that is what it would be like for me. Someone who likes snakes wouldn't find this a torment. The same with Heaven.

Smack_584's Recommendations In Lieu of Heaven Amazon List Price: $20.99 Used from: $4.51 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 5 reviews) .

Very interesting! Well, If I were you I would borrow very heavily from Revelation 21-22 for Heaven, Gates of Pearl, Streets of Gold, the Tree of Life with twelve fruits, the Lamb being the Light of the City. Also from 1 Corinthians 15 and Paul's description of an incorruptible celestial body, no more sickness, no more pain, no more death or crying, no sadness.

A relationship with God which more than matches the perfectly sinless mind and heart that in Heaven means no loss of memory, no bad days, etc. Hell is the place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched, according to Revelation 14:10-11 wrath is without mixture and there is no relief from its intensity. In cases of extreme pain here on earth a person may pass out, there are pain killers etc. In Hell there is no relief and maybe worse, no hope that there ever will be as it is an eternal situation. I once read of a king who tortured one of his enemies by building a metal suit and dressing the man's naked body with it.

This he heated till it was red hot and the history of it talks of hideous screams for several hours till the man died. Yet Hell is not a matter of hours, or days or years but rather ETERNITY! Thomas Watson describes eternity like this - Use one: Here is thunder and lightning to the wicked.

God is eternal, therefore the torments of the wicked are eternal. God lives for ever; and as long as God lives he will be punishing the damned. This should be as the handwriting upon the wall, it should 'make their joints to be loosed, etc. (Dan.

5:6). The sinner takes liberty to sin; he breaks God's laws, like a wild beast that breaks over the hedge, and leaps into forbidden pasture; he sins with greediness, as if he thought he could not sin fast enough (Eph. 4:19).

But remember, one of God's names is Eternal, and as long as God is eternal he has time enough to reckon with all his enemies. To make sinners tremble, let them think of these three things: the torments of the damned are without intermission, without mixture, and eternal. (1) Without intermission.

Their pains shall be acute and sharp, and no relaxation; the fire shall not be slackened or abated. 'They have no rest day nor night' (Rev. 14:11); like one that has his joints stretched continually on the rack, and has no ease. The wrath of God is compared to a stream of brimstone (Is.

30:33). Why to a stream? Because a stream runs without intermission; so God's wrath runs like a stream, and pours out without intermission.

In the pains of this life, there is some abatement and intermission; the fever abates; after a fit of the stone, the patient has some ease; but the pains of hell are intense and violent, in summo gradu. The damned soul never says, I am now more at ease. (2) Without mixture.

Hell is a place of pure justice. In this life, God in anger remembers mercy, he mixes compassion with suffering (Deut. 33:25).

Asher's shoe was of iron, but his foot was dipped in oil. Affliction is the iron shoe, but mercy is mixed with it; the foot is dipped in oil. But the torments of the damned have no mixture.

'They shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture' (Rev. 14:10). No mixture of mercy. How is the cup of wrath said to be full of mixture!

'For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture: and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out and drink them' (Ps. 75:8). Yet in the Revelation it is said to be without mixture.

It is full of mixture, that is, it is full of all the ingredients that may make it bitter; the worm, the fire, the curse of God, all these are bitter ingredients. It is a cup mixed, yet it is without mixture; there shall be nothing to afford the least comfort, no mixture of mercy, and so without mixture. In the sacrifice of jealousy (Nu.

5:15), no oil was put to it; so, in the torments of the damned, there is no oil of mercy to abate their sufferings. (3) Without cessation, eternal. The pleasures of sin are but for a season, but the torments of the wicked are for ever.

Sinners have a short feast, but a long reckoning. Origen erroneously thought, that after a thousand years the damned should be released out of their misery; but the worm, the fire, the prison, are all eternal. 'The smoke of their torment ascendeth for ever and ever' (Rev. 14:11).

Panx gehennales puniunt, non finiunt The torments of hell keep on punishing, they never end. Prosper. Eternity is a sea without bottom and banks.

After millions of years, there is not one minute in eternity wasted; and the damned must be ever burning, but never consuming, always dying, but never dead. 'They shall seek death, but shall not find it' (Rev. 9:6). The fire of hell is such, as multitudes of tears will not quench it, length of time will not finish it; the vial of God's wrath will be always dropping upon a sinner.

As long as God is eternal, he lives to be avenged upon the wicked. Oh eternity! Eternity!

Who can fathom it? Mariners have their plummets to measure the depths of the sea; but what line or plummet shall we use to fathom the depth of eternity? The breath of the Lord kindles the infernal lake (Is.

30:33) and where shall we have engines or buckets to quench that fire? Oh eternity! If all the body of the earth and sea were turned to sand, and all the air up to the starry heaven were nothing but sand, and a little bird should come every thousand years, and fetch away in her bill but the tenth part of a grain of all that heap of sand, what numberless years would be spent before that vast heap of sand would be fetched away!

Yet, if at the end of all that time, the sinner might come out of hell, there would be some hope; but that word 'Ever' breaks the heart. The smoke of their torment ascendeth up 'for ever and ever. ' What a terror is this to the wicked, enough to put them into a cold sweat, to think, as long as God is eternal, he lives for ever to be avenged upon them!

Here the question may be asked, Why should sin that is committed in short time be punished eternally? We must hold with Augustine, 'that God's judgments on the wicked, occultu esse possunt, injusta esse non possunt, may be secret, but never unjust. ' The reason why sin committed in a short time is eternally punished, is, because every sin is committed against an infinite essence, and no less than eternity of punishment can satisfy.

Why is treason punished with confiscation and death, but because it is against the king's person, which is sacred; much more that offence which is against God's crown and dignity is of a heinous and infinite nature, and cannot be satisfied with less than eternal punishment. Use two: Of comfort to the godly. God is eternal, therefore he lives for ever to reward the godly.

'To them who seek for glory and honour, eternal life' (Rom. 2:7). The people of God here are in a suffering condition.

'Bonds and afflictions abide me' (Acts 20:23). The wicked are clad in purple, and fare deliciously, while the godly suffer. Goats climb upon high mountains, while Christ's sheep are in the valley of slaughter.

But here is the comfort, God is eternal, and he has appointed eternal recompenses for the saints. In heaven are fresh delights, sweetness without surfeit; and that which is the crown and zenith of heaven's happiness, is, that it is 'eternal' (1 John 3:15). Were there but the least suspicion that this glory must cease it would much eclipse, yea, embitter it; but it is eternal.

What angel can span eternity? 'An eternal weight of glory' (2 Cor. 4:17).

The saints shall bathe themselves in the rivers of divine pleasure; and these rivers can never be dried up. 'At thy right hand are pleasures for evermore' (Ps. 16:11).

This is the Elah, the highest strain in the apostle's rhetoric. 'Ever with the Lord' (1 Thess. 4:17).

There is peace without trouble, ease without pain, glory without end, 'ever with the Lord. ' Let this comfort the saints in all their troubles; their sufferings are but short, but their reward is eternal. Eternity makes heaven to be heaven; it is the diamond in the ring.

Oh blessed day that shall have no night! The sunlight of glory shall rise upon the soul and never set! Oh blessed spring, that shall have no autumn, or fall of the leaf.

The Roman emperors have three crowns set upon their heads, the first of iron, the second of silver, the third of gold; so the Lord sets three crowns on his children, grace, comfort, and glory; and this crown is eternal. 'Ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away' (2 Pet. 5:4).

The wicked have a never-dying worm, and the godly a never-fading crown. Oh how should this be a spur to virtue! How willing should we be to work for God!

Though we had nothing here, God has time enough to reward his people. The crown of eternity shall be set upon their head . Use three: Of exhortation.

Study eternity. Our thoughts should chiefly run upon eternity. We all wish for the present, something that may delight the senses.

If we could have lived, as Augustine says, a cunabulis mundil from the infancy of the world to the world's old age, what were this? What is time, measured with eternity? As the earth is but a small point to the heaven, so time is but, nay scarce a minute to eternity.

And then, what is this poor life which crumbles away so fast? Oh, think of eternity! Annos aeternos in ente habe.

Brethren, we are every day travelling to eternity; and whether we wake or sleep, we are going our journey. Some of us are upon the borders of eternity. Oh study the shortness of life and length of eternity!

More particularly think of God's eternity and the soul's eternity. Think of God's eternity. He is the Ancient of Days, who was before all time.

There is a figurative description of God in Daniel 7:9: 'The Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like the pure wool. ' His white garment, wherewith he was clothed, signified his majesty; his hair, like the pure wool, his holiness; and the Ancient of Days, his eternity. The thought of God's eternity should make us have high adoring thoughts of God.

We are apt to have mean, irreverent thoughts of him. 'Thou thoughtest I was such an one as thyself' (Ps. 50:21), weak and mortal, but if we would think of God's eternity, when all our power ceases, he is King eternal, his crown flourishes for ever, he can make us happy or miserable for ever, this would make us have adoring thoughts of God.

'The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat upon the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever; and cast their crowns before the throne' (Rev. 4:10). The saints fall down, to signify by that humble posture that they are not worthy to sit in God's presence. They fall down and they worship him that liveth for ever and ever; they do as it were kiss his feet.

They cast their crowns before the throne, they lay all their honour at his feet; thus they show humble adoration to the eternal essence. Study God's eternity, it will make us adore where we cannot fathom. Think of the soul's eternity.

As God is eternal, so he has made us eternal. We are never dying creatures; we are shortly entering upon an eternal state, either of happiness or misery. Have serious thoughts of this.

Say, O my soul, which of these two eternities is like to be thy portion? I must shortly depart hence, and whither then shall I go, to which of these eternities, either of glory or misery? The serious meditation of the eternal state we are to pass into would work strongly with us.

(1) Thoughts of eternal torments are a good antidote against sin. Sin tempts with its pleasure; but, when we think of eternity, it may cool the intemperate heat of lust. Shall I, for the pleasure of sin for a season, endure eternal pain?

Sin, like those locusts (Rev. 9:7) seems to have on its head a crown like gold, but it has in it a tail like a scorpion, verse 10, and a sting in its tail, and this sting can never be plucked out. Shall I venture eternal wrath? Is sin committed so sweet as lying in hell for ever is bitter?

This in thought would make us flee from sin, as Moses from the serpent. (2) The serious thoughts of eternal happiness would very much take us off from worldly things. What are these sublunary things to eternity!

They are quickly gone, they salute us, and take their farewell. But I am to enter upon an everlasting estate; I hope to live with him who is eternal; what is the world to me? To those who stand upon the top of the Alps, in the great cities of Campania are small things in their eyes; so to him who has his thoughts fixed on his eternal state after this life, all these things seem as nothing in his eye.

What is the glory of this world! How poor and contemptible, compared with an eternal weight of glory! (3) The serious thoughts of an eternal state, either of happiness or misery, should have a powerful influence upon whatsoever we take in hand.

Every work we do promotes either a blessed or cursed eternity; every good action sets us a step nearer to an eternity of happiness; every bad action sets us a step nearer to an eternity of misery. Oh what influence should the thoughts of eternity have upon our religious duties! It should make us do them with all our might.

Duty well performed lifts a Christian higher towards heaven, and sets a Christian a step nearer to a blessed eternity. Sources: Puritan Thomas Watson Body of Divinity Christian's Recommendations A Body of Divinity: Contained in Sermons upon the Westminster Assembly's Catechism (Body of Practical Divinity) (Body of Practical Divinity) Amazon List Price: $16.00 Used from: $5.01 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 5 reviews) Outstanding book! .

" -- Regarding Hell, I think one has only to look into the past, in descriptive writing see Dante's works, even "Faust" will do; in painting see the artworks of the Middle Ages for memorable replicas of devils and whatever else that is lugubrious and dire. Unfortunately, many of these superstitious misconceptions, drawn from the Bible, have lingered on in the centuries that followed, even down to our present day, but hopefully with the advancement of man's knowledge and intelligence there will be a realization of what Hell really means: a state of mind. We are the creator of our world within.

It would be a great service to humanity to show how the mind creates these illusions, and as the saying goes: "Nothing is good or bad but thinking makes it so. " I'd recommend a fine book which describes the soul's surroundings after leaving this earth, "Destiny of Souls" by Michael Newton, as it is such an eye opener on the underlying circumstances of one's life here and the conditions of one's afterlife as well. From my point of view there is very little purpose in perpetuating the errors of the past such as the primitive imagery of our worst imagined fears and age-old superstitions, and it would be most refreshing to encounter more glimpses of the facts as they truly are.

This is my personal opinion and I'm sure there are many other perspectives that will be given. Good luck with your endeavours! Goldie080's Recommendations Destiny of Souls: New Case Studies of Life Between Lives Amazon List Price: $16.95 Used from: $6.20 Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (based on 74 reviews) Courageous Souls: Do We Plan Our Life Challenges Before Birth?

Amazon List Price: $16.95 Used from: $10.00 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 45 reviews) The Dreamer's Book of the Dead: A Soul Traveler's Guide to Death, Dying, and the Other Side Amazon List Price: $16.95 Used from: $6.95 Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5 (based on 10 reviews) some other perspectives .

" ""Religion is for people who are scared of hell, and spirituality is for people who have been through it. " comments? " (10 answers) "Do you believe all people go to heaven?

Do you believe in hell? " "If there were actually a Heaven and a Hell, which do you think would ultimately have the highest population, and why? " ""Any suggestions on business writing books?

"" "Do you believe in Heaven and Hell? " "Religion & Spirituality" "what scripture in the bible says that we will either go to heaven or hell? " "Do you believe there is an opposite to everything?

Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil, Wrong and Right, Hot and Cold, etc.." "can we grace ourselves out of obedience? Religion and Spirituality.

Religion is for people who are scared of hell, and spirituality is for people who have been through it. " comments? " (10 answers).

Heaven and Hell, Good and Evil, Wrong and Right, Hot and Cold, etc..

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.