Three Cs

I really like reading Christian fiction. There is something wonderful about reading stories that are fun to read and that point to the Lord in some way. I enjoy writing Christian fiction as well, and I find it rewarding to know that those who read my stories might be encouraged in their faith.

The first short story I ever had published was historical Christian fiction told from the perspective of the Apostle Peter’s wife. You can find a link to that story by clicking here and scrolling to the bottom of the page. My novella, Her First Noel, is contemporary Christian fiction.

As much as I enjoy writing Christian fiction, it does present some unique challenges. The first is making sure that the story isn’t too didactic, or “preachy.” If readers wanted to be preached to, they would listen to a sermon. I know as a reader that when I pick up a fiction book, including Christian fiction, I am primarily wanting to read an entertaining story, not learn a moral truth. As a writer, it can be hard to tell if my stories are too didactic, but I do my best to make sure they’re not.

Another challenge of writing Christian fiction is the tendency to have the story’s conflict be resolved too easily. As a Christian, I believe we have an Almighty God who is more than capable of answering our prayers and solving our problems quickly. And a few times in my life, God has done that, but most of the time, He hasn’t. Instead, He’s been with me through the struggles and used them to help me grow.

As a writer, it can be tempting to write stories where the Lord intervenes and instantly makes everything okay, either through a miracle or a miraculous change in someone’s heart. The problem with this is that it often leaves the reader feeling unsatisfied for two reasons. First, stories tend to build tension as they lead up to the climax where the primary conflict is dealt with. It is meant to be the most intense part of the story. If the conflict is solved too quickly or too easily, it feels lacking to the reader.

Second, most of the time, God does not just take our problems away, so readers can find these types of stories unrealistic and have trouble relating to them. Personally, I find it easier to resolve conflict in a satisfying way when I write novellas and novels. With short stories, I have a tendency to try to resolve things quickly in an attempt to keep the word count as low as possible. I sometimes end up revising my Christian short stories so that the conflict resolution will feel more satisfying.

A third challenge with writing Christian fiction is finding a publisher. Christian fiction is a niche market with fewer readers than many other genres. There are only a handful of literary journals that will consider overtly Christian fiction. This limits how many places I can submit a story and reduces the chances of finding an editor who likes my story enough to publish it. There are more publishing options for Christian novels and novellas but still much fewer than most other books. This is especially true for subgenres like Christian fantasy.

Despite these challenges, I still enjoy writing Christian fiction and do so fairly often. I haven’t written much recently because I’ve been putting so much time into working on the homeschool curriculum I talked about in my previous post, A Reflection on Planning Lessons. However, I’m sure I will be writing a lot more Christian fiction in the future.

Do you like reading or writing Christian fiction? Let me know in the comments. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to see more like it.