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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).

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

Place of Christ in Fantasy Fiction

August 22, 2018 By Author John Leave a Comment

Place of Christ

Centrality of Christ in Fantasy Fiction

The Perspective of a Christian Writer

I presume it to be obvious that this article is written from the perspective of a Christian author. Well, not “just” a Christian author but a Christ-centered Christian author whose writing is rooted in a biblical worldview.

Christ in Fantasy fictionIt does not matter who the writer is, their worldview will thread through the tapestry of their story. And in truth, someone can say they are a Christian and yet hold to a secular worldview. It is rather like the person who loudly proclaims they are for non-violence, and yet when someone crosses them their fist flies. “Christian” is a descriptive term that can have a vast array of meanings. “Biblical Christian” describes a worldview that the word Christian simply does not.

The Centrality of Christ

For my part, I am a Christ-follower first and a writer second. Christ said that the most important thing in the world is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. Nothing supersedes that. Right doctrine is rooted in love for the Lord—because I love God I want to know the truth about God. Right living is a love response to the Lord. And to love God is to love Christ. And if I truly love Christ above all else it cannot help but impact my writing. Its threads will be found in the fabric of my stories. If I am truly living a Christ-centered life I cannot bifurcate my biblical worldview into separate compartments when it comes to life and story writing. In fact, my stories by nature grow out of the roots of my worldview.

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Filed Under: Author Blog Tagged With: biblical worldview, Christ-follower, Christian author, Christian fantasy, Christian writer, fantasy fiction

Christian Authors and the Place of Faith

January 5, 2017 By Author John Leave a Comment

Place of Faith
Musings from My Journal

Reflecting on Christian Authors and Faith

Christian Authors ReflectionsIn the last few posts I have shared musings from my journal and how the content of those musings impact me as a Christian writer. In this article I look at the nature of faith and observe that true faith affects the totality of a person’s life. That being true, then faith must of necessity imbue the Christian author’s writing? So let us contemplate the nature of faith. The following was taken from my journal and also appears in my book, Reflections of a Searching Soul.

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Filed Under: Author Blog Tagged With: Christian fantasy fiction, Christian fiction, christian stories, Christian writer, my books, Reflections of a Searching Soul

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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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