Why Christian Fiction?

One of the most common questions I get asked by the few friends I’ve told about my writing (have I mentioned that, until recently, I was a closet writer?) is “Why Christian fiction?” It’s a good question, and one I struggled with for quite some time when I first realized that writing the first half of novels and then burying them in a drawer wasn’t going to cut it in the long run. (Ok, they’re not really in a drawer. I don’t think I’ve sat and slavishly hand written a story since grade school. All my half-novels are happily ensconced on my hard drive. Or, in the case of the really old ones, a 3.5″ floppy. Though why we called those floppies I’ll never understand, they didn’t flop!)

I’ve always had characters in my head chattering away at me, trying to get me to write their stories. For the most part, I’ve been pretty faithful about at least getting the gist of them down. But for the longest time I hovered, unable really to decide where the stories should go, and I think this was owing to the fact that I hadn’t yet firmly committed to a decision that what I wrote was going to be Christian fiction. (This is, for the most part, the same idea as “inspirational” fiction, though there are some differences. Which is not to say I won’t have some stories that are less overt in their Christianity – moving them into the “inspirational” category more firmly.) I think the large part of that indecision centered around my end goal for my writing. I was torn, really, was I writing for myself – seeking fame, glory, and renown? Or was I writing because it was something I felt called to do, something that I hoped God would choose to use for His glory? I struggled with this, because I think there’s a part of everyone (writer or not) who wants the former. But at the end of the day, I came to realize that what really matters most is the latter.

As someone who primarily writes romance, the end goal is even more important to understand. Romance, as a genre, runs the gamut from the sweet (which you tend to find more in Christian and Inspirational romance) to the smutty. If you stop to look at the top 100 books on Amazon Kindle right now (and for the past several weeks), you’ll see that smutty tends to sell quite a bit better. But that’s not something I feel I can, or should, write. I always want to have consistency between who I am as a person – what I believe as a person – and who I am as an author.

That isn’t to say that my characters don’t make mistakes. They’re sinners, just like me! But at the end of the day, I want my writing to reflect God’s grace and mercy in our lives, and even more, for my stories to be used by Him to minister in some way to the people who read them. (Even if it’s something as small but wonderful as providing them with a few hours of enjoyment in an otherwise dreary day.)

So, why Christian fiction? Because I want to be true to my calling.

Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. — Colossians 3:17