Novelist and How-To Author Ron Benrey's ~ The Joys of Complete Idiocy ~ Guest Blog

A few weeks before The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Christian Fiction was published, the smug blogger of a super-smug blog that includes short reviews of highfalutin books poked fun at the title. He wrote:

“I had to include this when I saw it last night, because I’d never seen a book whose title is its own review.”

Now, I don’t speak smuglish well, but I’ve concluded that the blogger (I’ll call him Mr. Haughty) meant in his puffed-up way that the writers of Christian fiction are complete idiots.

Well, given the realities of book publishing these days, writing fiction of any kind requires one or two loose screws. But Mr. Haughty took direct aim at authors of Christian Fiction. Which got me thinking — could he be correct about our collective idiocy?

All good novels stretch their readers’ imaginations. By enjoying what has been called a “fictional dream,” a reader walks in someone else’s shoes and experiences the world in different ways. Christian novelists must write good reads—fiction that keeps a reader turning pages. But Christian novels must also witness to the nature and work of Jesus Christ—and leave the readers with a fresh awareness of the power of God.

I doubt that Mr. Haughty has ever read a good Christian novel, so he doesn’t “get” the industrial-strength challenge faced by Christian novelists. Successful Christian fiction can’t be written by any old idiot.

For starters, we have to make the “foolishness” of the Christian message (to paraphrase Paul’s words in 1 Corinthian’s 2:14) seem plausible. Consider a familiar example: we must create “real” characters who exhibit seemingly foolish behavior...

• 
  Love unlovable cast members, including their enemies
• 
  Forgive villains who trespass against them
• 
  Abandon revenge for the wrongs done them in the backstory
• 
  Lean less on their resources and more on God.
  
  

Simply put, we have to build a compelling plot around nasty characters who ultimately do “nice” things—without making them come across as “too nice.” And that’s only one aspect of telling cracking good stories that simultaneously allow readers to experience God working in the world. That’s not an easy combination to achieve, but it’s what all Christian novelists aspire too.

Whew! Mr. Haughty could be right. Perhaps we are idiots to attempt it.




The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Christian Fiction
by Ron Benrey
Published by Alpha Books (an imprint of Penguin Group)
ISBN-13: 978-159257-681-4

Description: This guide focuses on the specifics of writing Christian fiction. That means I intentionally didn’t try to duplicate the many good books out there about writing fiction. There’s not much difference, for example, in the basic skills you need to tell an exciting mainstream story or a compelling Christian story. But to write a good Christian novel you’ll need to know more. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Christian Fiction is about the more.

I organized the book into four parts that cover the distinctively Christian aspects of writing Christian fiction:

Part 1: Understanding Christian Fiction
Part 2: Writing a Publishable Christian Novel
Part 3: Sitting Down to Write Christian Fiction
Part 4: Get Your Christian Novel Published