Hi, everyone! I know it's been a while—that's just the way my blog is going to be. If I planned to post regularly every week, I'd find myself writing rather random and sometimes meaningless articles, which wouldn't be fun for either of us. *Grin* So I just wait until I get a bee in my bonnet, and go from there.

  Well, today I've been thinking about—guess what? Fiction! This post may be a little bit rabbit-trail-ish, but I hope you enjoy it.

If you've read through my blog at all, you'll know that I like to read popular books and analyze them. With the past few popular books, I haven't been very impressed. There are a lot of themes and ideas mixed into Twilight, Harry Potter, and Eragon that I don't agree with. But especially with J.K. And Stephanie, one thing that did impress me was their writing.

And that's why they're so popular. Even many Christians who disagree with the author's worldview read and love these books because they are very engaging. Christians read them, and at the least, sort of shrug. “Oh, well—yeah, I see the problems, but I still REALLY LIKE the characters!” Or something like that.

My question is this: Why isn't it the same way with Christian books? Why don't non-christians say, “Yeah, I know they have weird ideas, but the book is GREAT anyways!”

Well, there are two reasons, and they are somewhat intertwined.

The first one is, well, writing! I've heard stories about authors who never re-write because they, “got this story straight from God.” Well, first of all, that isn't entirely wrong, because everything we have comes from God, so undoubtedly, so do the stories we write! But if I'm not mistaken, even preachers have to learn how to preach. Some Christian authors have awesome messages, but never took the time to learn how to present them. It's kind of funny how this works. The writing, story, and characters have to be the first priority, otherwise the true first priority, the theme, means nothing. The people who need to hear the message won't come near it because it isn't presented well, and the people who already believe it have nothing to gain from the book. And that leads right into my next reason.

Even if an author's writing is good, if they spend too much time trying to emphasize a theme, they are actually taking away from it.

This is really only another application of the old rule, “Show, don't tell.” If an author wants to emphasize forgiveness in their story, he or she should have their character learn the lesson through actions and happenings—not have him sit and listen to a pages-long lecture on the subject. If a non-Christian won't go to church and listen to a sermon, why would he take the time to read one in the middle of a novel? This is much more subtle, and in my opinion, more effective for a writer.

Take the classic authors, for example. People like Dickens and Austen, and the Bronte sisters. All of these were Christians, and their books definitely teach godly principles! But even non-Christians enjoy them. Because really, you don't have to try to put your views into a novel. They get there by themselves, and to try and underline them is to make them too obvious, and so spoil their effect.

Those are, in my opinion, two huge problems with many Christian authors today. I think this might be the beginning of a series on writing tips. Because once you emphasize a problem, you have to find a way—or let someone else find a way—to fix it. Otherwise it's just being pessimistic. And I have been accused of that before. *Grin*

What do you think?

God bless,

~The Rose