Now that we’ve talked about the different types of Christian fiction and their unique benefits and I’ve hopefully encouraged and challenged you Christian writers in your own writing, I want to recommend some ways that we Christian authors can build up others in the community, because I think it can be something we neglect either because we don’t think about it, we don’t know how to do it effectively, or we don’t see the importance of it. (Or we’re just socially anxious and terrified they’ll be annoyed with us, but… that’s its own issue. ;P) So I want to give some concrete examples of ways to show support for writers in the Church. Continue reading “How to Show Support for Writers in the Church”
Tag: Evergreen
Inspiration and Motivation for the Christian Author
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”
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”
NaNoWriMo Alternatives – Word Count Tracker Options & Community
I participated in National Novel Writing Month from 2014 all the way through 2020 or so, and I think the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days is a great tool to get people writing and foster community among writers and just overall encourage authors. Toward the end of that run, however, the NaNoWriMo organization began making a lot of decisions based on politics, decisions that I personally found detrimental to the encouragement of community that is central to what NaNoWriMo has to offer—and only continued to make more and more controversial and outright unhealthy decisions until they were forced to shut down altogether. If you’re looking to replace a long-standing tradition of NaNoWriMo participation, or you’re looking for additional resources for a separate word count tracker or more targeted community, here’s a gathering of resources—both those that have been around for a while as well as those that have popped up since NaNoWriMo began to decline.
As a note, I do update this list periodically with new resources! If you have suggestions of your own, feel free to drop them in the comments as well. Continue reading “NaNoWriMo Alternatives – Word Count Tracker Options & Community”