Writing believable Christian fiction, especially writing what David Bergsland calls Redemptive Christian fiction, relates back to two of the most oft-quoted pieces of writing advice: write what you know, and show, don’t tell.
Write what you know.
We can’t write with accuracy, authenticity or believablility about a topic we don’t know, whether that is art history, motor racing, SEAL team training, or anything else. And this has the potential to become an issue if we were to try and write about a level of Christian experience we don’t know about personally.
However, we serve a mighty God. I might not be able to write from experience about how a Christian suffering from depression receives healing and uses her experience to help others, I know a God who understands suffering. Who understands being in the dark places. Who understands hopelessness—and the hope Christ brings.
Prayer, therefore, must be the foundation of whatever we write as Christians.
We need to ask God to guide our writing. I’m not saying any of us should be so bold (or arrogant) as to say that our words are God’s words: unless we’re quoting the Bible, we can’t say that. But spending time in God’s presence will allow us to know Him better, and therefore to better reflect Him in our writing. Fiction or non-fiction.
Nor should we judge other writers who seem to be writing at a “lower” level. Their writing may be a reflection of their personal Christian experience, in which case it’s our privilege to pray that God will show them more, and bring them closer to Himself.
Or they may be writing at that “lower” level because that is the place God has called them to, and those are the people God has called them to write for. I see too many Christian writers publicly judging other Christian writers for their writing choices.
- Authors writing for the Christian market judging authors who write for the general market.
- Non-fiction authors judging fiction authors for writing “lies”.
- Literary fiction authors judging genre fiction authors for writing populist crap (of course, they usually mange to find a politer way of expressing themselves).
- Genre writers judging romance writers for feeding inappropriate desires.
- Clean romance writers judging . . . the list goes on.
Unless we know with 100% certainty that a particular author is going against God’s call by writing whatever genre they are writing, then we should not judge. Even if we do believe they are in the wrong, our best approach is through prayer, that God will work in their lives to lead them towards Himself. Telling them they are wrong isn’t going to motivate them to change.
Which brings me to the second major problem with writing Christian fiction:
Show, don’t tell.
Yes, this is another of those oft-quoted pieces of writing advice. And the problem with a lot of Christian fiction is that it tells where it should be showing. To tell is simply poor writing craft.
But a lot of writers don’t know better. They tell, because they don’t know how to show.
This, I believe, is also a reflection of the way we live our Christian lives. The Bible says:
The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.
– 1 Samuel 16:7
It is an unfortunate reality that many modern churches unintentionally encourage and reward members for looking at the outward appearance. “Proper” Christians wear the right clothing styles—not too short, not too tight, and not too much visible skin. They don’t wear too much makeup (or they don’t wear makeup at all). The women don’t have short hair. The men don’t have long hair. The don’t have tattoos, especially not visible tattoos. Clothes are clean and pressed. Jewelry is tasteful.
We bring our Bibles to church. We drive nice cars. We live in nice houses. We have nice families. We say nice things. We never admit to having difficulties in our relationships with our spouse, our family, with God. We never admit to the financial pressure we are under because of the need to have nice things, the right car, a house in the right part of town. We never admit that we’re showing a sanitised version of our lives, that we curate social media to only show the nice parts. That we’re acting.
Yes, As Christians, we are the ultimate in method acting: we play the part of the good Christian because we’ve twisted Jesus’s words in Luke 6:45:
The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.
Yet instead of focusing on attitudes, we focus on the behaviour and pretend to ourselves that our behaviour (and that of our children) reflects our attitudes. And too much Christian fiction makes this mistake: that because the characters are *acting* like Christians, they must *be* Christians.
So we, as authors are *showing* Christian behaviour, but true Christianity goes deeper than that.
It’s also about Christ-like thoughts and attitudes:
Taking captive every thought to be obedient to Christ
– 2 Corinthians 10
I suspect we ignore these underlying attitudes and motivations in fiction because we can’t or don’t see them play out in real life. No matter how well we know our friends (or even our spouse), we don’t know their every thought. We don’t know their deepest darkest secret (although we might suspect it).
But this is the enormous advantage fiction has over real life: as authors, we can use deep perspective point of view to show a character’s underlying attitudes and motivations. We can show their outward actions, and their inward attitudes.
This is where writing craft becomes vital for writing believable Christian fiction.
It’s easy to show outward actions. It’s not easy to show inward attitudes, and many writers slip into the trap of telling through character thought. That leads to writers “info dumping” Christianity into your fiction. That will inevitably come across as preachy. Instead, weave the character’s Christian faith throughout the story, through their actions as much as through their words and thoughts. As St Francis of Assisi said,
Preach the gospel at all times. When necessary, use words.
Remember as well that there is a market for “Christ-lite” fiction. Non-Christians, Seekers, and Backsliders are unlikely to want to read Redemptive fiction . . . at least, not until they’ve experienced Christ for themselves.
