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Writing Compelling Fiction

February 1, 2019 By Author John Leave a Comment

Writing Compelling Fiction

Compelling Fiction You’ll Love to Read

Writing Christian Fiction

Writing FictionWriting Christian fiction is different from being a Christian writer writing fiction. Writing compelling fiction is about story, about entertaining the reader, and yet about much more. Many Christian fiction writers write what I would classify as pseudo-Christian fiction, fiction with values of decency, but not necessarily with a Christian takeaway, because their desire is to appeal to a crossover market. As I have commented in other blog posts I have had a Christian writer tell me that a story should not have a message. But a story without a takeaway robs the reader.

Writing Compelling Fiction Informed by Biblical Truth

In another blog post, quite some time back, I mentioned a story of mine being critiqued by the members of the writer’s group I was a part of and being told it was a quaint story, but there was no takeaway, i.e. not worth reading. I had to rewrite the story to give it value. My stories focus on being engaging stories with underlying and/or somewhat overt messaging, but messaging that is natural to the story, not contrived or superimposed. They are in one way or another grounded in biblical truth. Rather than simply being written from a Christian worldview, they are written from a biblical worldview.

Writing FictionA biblical worldview does not gloss over the realities and ugly details of our sin-sick world, because the Bible does not gloss over such things: David and Bathsheba, Samson and Delilah, Judah and his daughter-in-law, and on and on. A biblical worldview is simply the foundation on which a story is built, as opposed to a secular godless worldview. Evil is evil and good is good. Wrong is wrong and right is right. However characters struggles with understanding and living out those realities is itself still a reality, even as it is with this writer and each reader.

Some of my stories are moral tales; some are allegorical while others simply integrate symbolism; and then there are those that illustrate some major biblical truth, such as: Choices have consequences, Baruch—God figure—can be trusted to keep his word in spite of catastrophic consequences that result in the advances of evil forces (Seed of the Defiled); or a simple truth like, people’s lives have value (The Myth).

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Author Blog Tagged With: biblical worldview, Christian fiction, Christian worldview, Christian writer, compelling fiction, crossover market

Confessions of a Christian Author

July 4, 2018 By Author John Leave a Comment

Christian Author

Confessions Relative to the Existence of God

God Thoughts from a Christian Author

The primary meaning of the word “confessions” is “acknowledgment; avowal; admission.” Now, I confess that I am a broken sinner saved by grace, being transformed into the image of Christ by grace as I look to Him. But that is not my primary point of confession here. My primary confession is that there has never been a time in my life that I have not believed in God. That does not mean that I have always been a Christian. It does mean that from my earliest memories of childhood I believed God was there. That has always been a given to me.

ConfessionaHave there been moments of doubt? Sure. We all have those moments, attacks of the enemy trying to undermine reality and truth. I stop, focus my mind on the reality of things, smile and nod—yep, God is there! You might ask, “But how can one be sure?”

Ultimately my assurance rests in my real and personal relationship with Christ—either I am insane or He is real, and if He is real God is real. But there are many reasons to believe in God. And in truth, no other concept or philosophy makes sense of all that is.

Life can be looked at as a dance, a drama being played out, or even a symphony. And as I point out in “The God Question,” if there is no God, existence is absurd and the symphony has no meaning. Furthermore, the very idea of telling me what I should or should not believe becomes absurd. For that matter, social order is absurd if there is no God; and death? Death becomes its own Black Hole. If there is no God neither the individual nor society as a whole has meaning. In fact, meaning itself becomes an arbitrary thing without meaning.

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Filed Under: Author Blog Tagged With: Author John Edgell, Christian fantasy author, Christian fiction, Christian fiction author, christian stories, Christian worldview

Writing Stories and Who I Am

May 29, 2018 By Author John Leave a Comment

Vision statement

Writing Stories Does Not Define Me

What Does Define Me?

Writing stories I write stories, but “writing stories” does not define me. First and foremost I am a Christ-follower; that defines me. It does not mean my writing is religious or preachy. Rather, it means my writing is rooted in the reality of who I am, grounded in my Christ-centered worldview—great stories with solid moral values.

So what does my Christ-centered worldview look like?

My Personal Vision Statement

Living life for His pleasure, so that someday when I stand before Him I will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Summarized simply as: For His Pleasure

My Personal Mission and Strategy Statement

To know Jesus Christ and emulate Him, and to influence others to know Him and emulate Him, by my conduct and words (spoken and written).

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Author Blog Tagged With: Christian author, Christian fantasy fiction, Christian fiction, Christian worldview, fantasy author, mission statement

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John Edgell, Author

John has experience as a school teacher, a pastor, and has been a writer of stories since his two sons were knee high to a gnome.

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