A couple of weeks ago I discussed different categories of books written by Christians, and last week I laid out some reasons Christian fiction is important. In this post, I want to provide some inspiration and motivation and maybe even a little bit of challenge to those of you who are also Christian authors, regardless of what category you write. Continue reading “Inspiration and Motivation for the Christian Author”
Category: Christian Authorship
Why Christian Fiction is Important
Now that I’ve established the different kinds of stories that I mean when I say “Christian fiction,” but before I get into my encouragement posts, I want to explore a few of the reasons Christian fiction is important, in all its forms.
Fiction Impacts Culture
Everything we take in affects our worldview and our behavior. Fiction—whether in the form of books, movies, TV, or music—is something that we take in a lot of, and it shapes our thinking and our approach to certain issues. Just as one example, taking in a lot of media with Continue reading “Why Christian Fiction is Important”
Flavors of Christian Fiction
Something that’s been on my mind a lot lately is the idea of Christian fiction. That specific phrase, “Christian fiction,” puts an unfortunately sour taste in my mouth. “Christian fiction,” to me, means a lackluster story that really only serves to push the gospel and be squeaky-clean and happy-go-lucky and show that Christians are good and nothing bad ever happens to them and non-believers are either malicious or stupid. But “Christian fiction” isn’t what I’m going to be talking about today (and over the next few blog posts). For the purposes of this post, and those that follow, I’m using the term to refer, quite simply, to fiction that is written by Christians. No Christian themes attached, no specific “cleanliness” level… just fiction that is written by Christians. And I specifically want to talk about two varieties of fiction-by-Christians (though I’ll mention three). Continue reading “Flavors of Christian Fiction”
A Prayer for Writers
Today’s post is a little out-of-the-ordinary, and I was anxious to get it up, hence a Friday post. Story Embers is running a challenge to encourage support and interaction in the writing community, and one of the prompts last week was to pray for the writing community. I’ve done a really bad job of keeping up with the prompts, but I did write up a prayer for writers a few days ago (the Christian writing community specifically), and I wanted to share it to hopefully encourage those of you in that community. So without further ado… Continue reading “A Prayer for Writers”
Writing Fantasy to Explore Worldview
Something I’ve been exploring a lot lately in my Deseran worldbuilding is worldview. What cultures believe what? How do those beliefs differ from group to group and person to person? How do those beliefs clash with the beliefs of other cultures? I’ve found that I really enjoy exploring these different perspectives, and exploring how they do or don’t capture the real-world truth. So I wanted to write about some ways we can explore worldview effectively when writing fantasy, in hopes that some of you will also find it interesting or informative. This is something I’m still learning, so I don’t have it all figured out yet, but here are some of the things I’ve been able to identify from my own thought processes. Continue reading “Writing Fantasy to Explore Worldview”