When You're a Christian But Your Characters Are Not

Is there such a thing as a Christian novel?

posted by Michelle Griep for Rachel Allord

Once upon a time there was no such thing as Christian fiction. There were only novels. Some referred to God, some even mentioned Jesus, and some did not. Then one day a line was drawn. Christian fiction was demoted to an itty-bitty shelf in a mainstream bookstore, or ended up in its very own Christian bookstore.

When did this segregation occur? I’m not sure. Some time after Dickens and Hugo and C.S. Lewis, but before Grisham. This distinction isn’t necessarily bad, but it does force writers who are Christian to ask: am I a Christian novelist, or am I a novelist who is a Christian? And yes, there’s a difference.

My first book, Mother of My Son, neatly fell into the genre of Christian Fiction. Well, not neatly. A drunk college girl leaving her baby beside a dumpster is anything but neat, but the story highlights redemption and found a home with a Christian publisher.

And then this other story began bubbling inside of me. As it surfaced, I realized this baby wasn’t going to make the Christian fiction cut. I could have forced a conversion scene I suppose, but the story was working and the characters had captivated me, although they were not behaving, even uttering a few mild four-letter words every now and then. My characters, those weasels, wouldn’t shape up and I couldn’t rid my manuscript of their PG profanity. As tame as it was, I knew it wasn’t going to fly in Christian fiction.

So. What’s a writer who is also a Christian to do? Pray and let the story, and The Spirit, lead.

While Christian fiction writers must realize and stay within the parameters the genre imposes, writers who are Christians are limited only by imagination and personal conviction. To be honest, I struggled over the “controversial” elements of The Ground Beneath Us but after a whole lot of praying, and after listening to reader/friend feedback, I took a cue from the Beatles and let it be.

It’s futile to write for shock value, to rebel against conventional Christian fiction simply to rebel, but neither do we want to Christianize every story. Force it to fit into a box when it shouldn’t.

Don’t murder art. Let it breath. Bring your story before the master Creator and beg for wisdom. If you’re a Christian who’s a novelist, allow your faith to flavor and undergird your writing. Allow spiritual truths to seep in and surface symbolically—often the most effective way to pierce culture and prompt readers to ponder spiritual truths they might not otherwise consider.

Life is hard. People are messy, Christian or not. Both Christian fiction and fiction written by Christians have the power to feed His sheep, to offer hope and reveal truth—all while telling a killer story.

ABOUT THE BOOK

THE GROUND BENEATH US a novel

‘Til death do us part. But what if the marriage dies first?

Feeling trapped in a lifeless marriage, Holly Lewis runs away from home one morning. She’ll come back of course, to her humdrum husband and two children, but after running into Seth, the divorced artist down the street, Holly begins to question everything. It doesn’t help matters that one of her friends seems to have an ideal marriage and another friend is starting over. When Seth helps her train for a half marathon, Holly wonders if she’s missing out on her soul mate. Should the promise she made to her husband, who now seems like a stranger, trump her own happiness? Can a dead marriage be resurrected? Available on Amazon

Author Rachel Allord

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Rachel Allord grew up as a pastor’s kid, vowed never to marry a pastor, and has been contentedly married to her husband, a worship pastor, since 1995. She is privileged to be both a biological and adoptive mother. Her stories and articles have appeared in MomSense, Chicken Soup for the Soul, and various other publications. Her most recent novel, The Ground Beneath Us, released in October of 2015. Rachel lives in Wisconsin where she avidly consumes coffee, sushi, and novels—preferably at the same time. Connect with her: www.rachelallord.com RachelAllordFans on Facebook Twitter

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A Girl With A Pearl Earring Lives Here by Dayna E. Mazzuca

I'm pleased to welcome a guest blogger today, Dayna Mazzuca. I think you will find her words inspiring. :)Marcia Laycock

I’ve yet to meet a writer who didn’t also have an appreciation for visual art. Maybe that’s because the two have a lot to say to each other. When you add in the all-important layer of faith, the cross-overs are endless. I noticed this the other day…

There is a small painting on my refrigerator door. It’s a copy of the famous work by Jan Vermeer called Girl with a Pearl Earring. The original oil on canvas resides in The Hauge, Netherlands. My small painting is a copy of a copy, magnetized and worth less than ten dollars at the local bookstore. Still, I adore the picture of a young girl, with her blue headdress, gold jacket and tear-shaped pearl earring.

One day, after paying the bills and getting the kids their lunch, I wondered what it would be like to have a houseful of original artwork. I imagined the Girl with a Pearl Earring hanging above the sofa in the living room. I envisioned an original dancer by Degas in my daughter’s room and a sketch of a flying machine by Michelangelo in my son’s bedroom. I would love one of Caravaggio’s paintings, perhaps the Calling of Matthew, with its emphasis on the compelling look of Christ. In the painting Christ reaches out an arched finger to Matthew, the tax collector who is sitting at a table, hunched over the piles of coin he is busy counting. It is as if Christ’s call to come follow him extends past our immediate concerns, offering eternal reward in their place.

I began to daydream... A bungalow full of priceless paintings would attract a lot of visitors. We would have to install security systems, regulate visiting hours and install carpets. A whole cottage industry would follow.

The daydream didn’t last long. I made my sandwich and closed the fridge door, only glancing at the Girl with a Pearl Earring. But the glittering thought made an impression. After all, isn’t a humble home transformed into a world-class art gallery a lot like an ordinary life made brilliant by the life of Christ within?

Isn’t faith that is real and alive better than art that is flat and inanimate? Doesn’t God take the basic stuff of our lives, our circumstances and dreams and turn them into something precious and holy in his sight? Isn’t God the master artist?

The difference is that works of this world need to be guarded, insured and cared for, while the incredible life of Christ within us is meant to be shared and enjoyed by all. It is meant to be contemplated not only by the critic, or the serious student, but by everyone. The life of Christ is an invitation to come, taste and see the difference that God can make in anyone’s life. To see God’s work in us on display, right where we live.

As writers, we have the insights of an artist—but as faith-filled artists, we also get to enjoy the joys of knowing beauty lived from the inside out.
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Dayna Mazzuxa works (and lives) as a writer, poet, creative workshop leader, and homeschooling mom of two on beautiful Vancouver Island. Her topics tend to focus on the value of spiritual disciplines in everyday life. From parenting to writing, from work to relationships, from money to leadership, faith matters.

Ms Mazzuca has studied theology and taught writing and literature at the college level. She holds an honours degree in political philosophy and a diploma in Journalism Arts. She is a former award-winning community journalist, and co-author of a book series on spiritual formation.

Dayna's writing has appeared in magazines, newspapers, high-profile websites, educational packages, literary journals and on-air. And she blogs, sometimes willingly, at daynawrites.blogspot.ca

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Making Art

I'm speaking this week on the subject of what to do when life looks like the plot of a novel, a cheesy novel that would make an editor say, "Yeah, not believable. Try again."

"But it really happened."

Sigh. "Do you know what we editors call it when a character is faced with that many compounded disasters?"

I flipped through my mental glossary of writer terms. None seemed to fit. "No. What?"

"The Die Hard Series Syndrome."

"Pardon me?"

The editor smiled. "We also call it ridiculous."

"I thought so, too, when I was going through it."

Maybe the series of disastrous family events that started a year ago won't make it into one novel. I may have to spread them out. And I am. A speaking event or two or three. A collection of devotional thoughts. This blog post. Anecdotes for a non-fiction book.

In the September 2011 issue of "The Writer" magazine, Luke Reynolds proposed that it's becoming harder and harder not to see pain as a necessity for creating truth with words--even in writing fiction. He quoted author John Gardner (On Becoming a Novelist) as saying, "Art begins in a wound."

At twelve years old, Gardner accidentally ran over his younger brother with a tractor on their family farm. The younger boy died from the injuries. Gardner battled guilt and depression, but grew to write with a depth of empathy the untouched fail to reach.

"A writer must be able to translate pain--his own or another's--into compassion," writes Reynolds. "As soon as compassion begins, so can creation."

Turning pain into art is what God does every day with the soul that looks to Him. We couch it in different words--words like redeem, reclaim, repurpose...

When we look for the epicenter of pain in great books, we'll find it, there within the art. What seemed coarse or harsh or piercing is rearranged to make beauty.

The tatters, the noxious weeds, the broken pieces, the disappointments of life are the Artist's tools.

I applaud Mr. Reynolds's conclusion to his observations. It is a conclusion that gets to the core of the role of pain or distress in equipping us to write authentically and with meaning. He said, "While Gardner is right that art begins with a wound, we might add that it ends with a way forward--a crack where hope seeps in."

QUESTION FOR YOU: God is in the process of sculpting beauty from shards and difficulty in our lives. How far into the process is He with your story? Do you see the art yet? Is your experiencing being redeemed to impact someone else's story?

Cynthia Ruchti writes about finding art in the ash heap in her non-fiction from Abingdon Press--Ragged Hope: Surviving the Fallout of Other People's Choices. Her recent novel--When the Morning Glory Blooms--links three stories of compassion's redemptive beauty. You can learn more about her books at www.cynthiaruchti.com or www.hopethatglowsinthedark.com.

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A Cover Story with Creative Director, Ashley Schrock

Ashley Schrock serves as creative director for Barbour Publishing, Inc. Outside of work she enjoys playing tennis, coloring (you're never too old to color!) and walking her newly acquired puppy, Sawyer. She currently resides in the fabulously small town of Sugarcreek, Ohio.

My job as creative director covers a lot of ground—I oversee covers that are sent out to freelance designers, manage cover schedules so they get out to the printer on time, facilitate the communication of cover processes with our editorial team, and more recently coordinate photo shoots for our full length fiction. Basically if it has to do with our covers, I have something to do with it. But the majority of my time is spent designing covers and that's what I'm going to share with you.

And let me preface this by saying how thankful I am not to only have a job during this time of hardship for so many but a job that I love! Sometimes I can't believe that I get paid to do something I enjoy so much (don't tell my boss I said that). :) So here it is, in TLC title fashion

When we're working with new books everything starts with the publication list. We work from 2 lists a year—a spring and a fall. This is screen shot (below) of a pub list from a few years back. You probably can't make out the info but the highlighted yellow column contains the title info and that's where I start—finding the titles, author, and what category it belongs too. Most of what we do is in the fiction, gift, reference, kids, or devotional categories but we have several titles per list that are wild cards. The number of titles on these lists ranges from about 75-90 titles and included in every fall list are about 20-30 Christmas titles so once this list is final I can start what is about to be a crazy couple of months...

Once we have our pub list final I have meetings. Holla if you love meetings! (crickets? that's what I thought). But no, these meetings are great because it's with our editorial team. We go over upcoming titles and the direction we want to take them in. In our meetings review the strategy of who we want the book to target (read: market analysis), say a 20's something group and that gives me an idea of why kind of style we'll looking at. We decide if we want to art of some kind or photography and maybe we want it a little edgier than some of our other titles. Or if it's woman's devotional we look at who we're targeting and go with a whole different approach. We talk about budgets and what we can do as far as the cover treatments go, spot uv, foil, emboss, etc. Now it's go time...

And this is how the magic happens...

This is my handsome 24" iMac I named Zeke. In the morning I come into my office and say, "Zeke, it's go time." :) If ever there is a Mac vs. PC match going on you'll find me in Mac's corner holding the spit bucket. And those Mac commercials... love em! (Big surprise, a designer likes Macs. I know.)Anyway, getting off point. Now it's time to start. I always start a new design by sketching out ideas first. And to be honest, I'm a terrible drawer so I usually want to skip this part, but I've found that you can't be afraid to sketch out 10 awful covers because the 11th might be great. So I get over my insecurity and stick to drawing mostly straight lines. :) I very rarely let people see my sketchbook but here's a shot from a page that I was sketching out ideas for The Names of God.

Then I go to work on Zeke. I begin with a blank page in Photoshop and a few minutes later I take a step back and find a cover. Poof! It's just that easy! Okay not really. This final cover was the result of many hours and several bad comps, gradually turning into better comps, and eventually landing on a final. A comp is what we call a cover that is designed but not approved yet. Like when I'm done with designing a front cover and send it out for feedback I say "Here are the first round of comps (compositions)." And we refer to them as such until we choose a final

I have to say I was happy with this one (below) at the end of it all. Some days I'll start working on a cover and it feels like no matter what I do it just keeps getting worse. Then I'll come in the next morning, open it up, and think, "Oh I need to do this!" And then everything just falls into place. I think that happens to a lot of people. Author's can you back me up on this?

And just because I call it final doesn't mean it actually is. It has to pass through several people before it gets the stamp of approval. I refer to this process as "the gauntlet of cruelty". :) But in this case The Names of God cover shown is the approved, final cover. Yeah!!! The worst part now is waiting until I can have a printed copy in my hands. Depending on how late in the year it's scheduled to come in it can up to a year. I'm currently working on designs for our Spring 2010 pub list. I know who to blame when I write 2010 on my checks.

So that's a pretty quick run-through of my design process. Hope you enjoyed it!

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