The Truth of Writing, Who Are You and What Do You Believe?

by Cindy K. Sproles @CindyDevoted

During the last two years, I’ve taught a class about writing Christian World View into the general market. It has been a challenge—not that the class doesn’t go well. Surprisingly, it’s filled to the brim each time I teach it. But the difficulty comes in figuring out what and how we as Christians cross over into the general market without meeting instant failure with the voice of the world screaming NO!

Let me qualify my writing by saying I write Appalachian historical. Religion was very much a part of the culture of the mountains in the 1800s, so I can get away with a bit more than the writer who is writing contemporary women. Still, I’ve had to learn to wage a strong battle to balance the thread of Christ against a world that pushes against Him. 

Know what you believe: Having said that, the first thing a writer needs to know to write a Christian worldview into the general market is this: What do you believe? I know you’re saying this isn’t a formula to write into the general market. But indeed, it is probably the most important. If you, as a Christian and a writer, do not know what you believe, then you cannot effectively go into combat with the world.

We are bombarded daily with the desires of the world. Its goal is to desensitize us, even guilt us into crumbling to its beliefs. To write a solid Christian worldview, you must truthfully know what you believe and why. Only then can you placemark a niche into the general market with a Christian view. 2 Timothy 2:15 NIV tells us this. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Know what and why you believe.

Understand you are not teaching the Christian: This is hard for the Christian writer because we know Christianese very well. What you must learn is that in this day in time, the majority of the world does not. Using terms like sin, redemption, spiritual, Holy Spirit, God, Jesus, and more are unfamiliar to many general market readers. Let’s clarify that not all general market readers are illiterate about Christianity. Many readers do understand, but they are the minority or they do not believe. 

During the 1980s, a poll was taken to find a statistic on children in church. Poll takers discovered that of the children reared from 1970 and back, nearly 85% attended church or Sunday school weekly. By 1990 that number turned upside down, finding most children had never been through the doors of a church. So, how can you teach about sin when a child has no idea what sin is? 1 Corinthians 3:2 NIV states, I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready.That is just what you do. You return to milk.

Remember, you aren’t surrendering your Christian beliefs by not using words like redemption or even Holy Spirit. You simply find a new way to say it. You show redemption through the events and changes in your character. You’re still writing fiction the old way because we must let a character change by the end of the story. We are simply not using normal Christian words to say it. Remember, the world needs milk first.

Let your characters make serious mistakes: Allow them to suffer the consequences of their actions. Just as in real-life, we cannot always rescue a character from themselves. As Christians, we know what peace we find in our faith, and often the desire to tell readers about all they can find in Christ is so overwhelming that we lose the truth of reality. The world sees “reality.” When we show a character who prays relentlessly for a parent not to die from illness, and they don’t—we are not being fully transparent. Of course, there are many times God hears our cries and prevents an illness from taking a life. But if you have a non-Christian teetering on the edge of belief in that situation and they begin to pray, yet their parent dies—they look at Christians and call us liars. You said Dad wouldn’t die if I prayed. My dad died anyway. They don’t understand that God doesn’t always answer our prayers how we want. He always answers, but it’s according to His will. The non-Christian doesn’t understand that. But when you allow truth to happen and have a character who comes through a loss stronger, readers begin to wonder what that character had that they, the reader, don’t. Now, we’ve struck a chord of curiosity that plants a seed. We are seed planters. God is the grower. 

Truth is stranger than fiction: When we focus on the truth of incidents and their true outcomes, not what wewant to happen, suddenly, the tide turns. There is depth in truth. There are lessons to learn—you know this from your own life experiences. The Christian market loves those stories that tie up in a sweet bow, and everyone lives happily ever after. But the truth is. That is not what always happens. Our faith strengthens us, which the world needs to see. When polled about what they expect in a story’s ending, general market readers surprised the world by saying, “Satisfying.” The story doesn’t have to end tied up in a bow. It must end satisfying because that is how most of our life events end. We make lemonade out of the lemons. Again, there’s always an exception to the rule. 

It’s important to know that I’m not asking you to change the writing rules. I’m asking you to change the vocabulary and focus on truth, not rainbows and polka dots. Learn to craft a story that, rather than having a come to Jesus moment, allows a change and leaves a desire for a Christ-like relationship. Show mistakes, consequences, and how your character wades through by changing and making good decisions. The unwritten rule is never to let the dog die. Readers will hate you. But the truth is, sometimes the dog does die. What do we learn from that? How do we grow? Show that, and then when a new puppy comes into the picture, we see how life moves ahead. It doesn’t stall.

Finally, pray over your writing: Practice handing it over to God and allowing Him to guide you. Learning how to rephrase thoughts, words, and actions takes practice. But you can do it. You’ll soon see threading a Christian worldview through your story is not as bad or hard as you thought, and you’ll make your way into the general market with solid stories of truth and hope.

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The Truth of Writing, Who Are You and What Do You Believe?  from author @CindyKSproles on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Cindy K. Sproles is an author, speaker, and conference teacher. Having served for a number of years as a managing editor for Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas and Ironstream Media, Cindy now works as a mentor, coach, and freelance editor. She is the co-founder of Writing Right Author Mentoring Services with Lori Marett and she is the director of the Asheville Christian Writers Conference. Cindy is also the co-founder of Christian Devotions Ministries and WWW.CHRISTIANDEVOTIONS.US, as well as WWW.INSPIREAFIRE.COM. Her devotions are in newspapers and magazines nationwide, and her novels have become award-winning best-selling works. She is a popular speaker at conferences and a natural encourager. Cindy is a mountain girl, born and raised in the Appalachian mountains, where she and her husband still reside. She has raised four sons and now resorts to raising chickens where the pecking order is easier to manage. You can visit Cindy at WWW.CINDYSPROLES.COM or www.wramsforwriters.com.

Featured Image: Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash