Blog: How to Write Christian Stories and Characters

I’ve written a bit about Christian media here. I’ve talked about how terrible the music is, how bad the movies are, and y’all have read my rants about how bad many of the books are. Finally, after my review of The Orphan’s Wish, I figured it was about time that instead of complaining about how objectively horrible so much of Christian media is (especially literature and movies), I should give some tips on how I think they should be written so they don’t suck. This is not an exhaustive list, but I think it gives some basics.

#1: Gauge Your Audience

If you’re writing a book specifically for Christians, then it’s okay to make the Christian themes and messaging a bit more overt without it completely overwhelming the story. However, if you’re writing for a more secular audience and want to sneak in a Christian message, don’t make it as overt. Instead, maybe hint at Christian themes here and there in a natural way, which leads to my next point…

#2: Make it Natural

It doesn’t matter who you’re writing to – Christian or secular – if your story can’t share the Gospel in a way that’s not totally ham-fisted, preachy, and shoehorned into the plot, it’s time to either rewrite your story or throw it into the trash and start again. This has been a problem in pretty much every bit of Christian literature I’ve ever read save a few and it’s terrible. I even had this problem with The Chronicles of Narnia, which, while Lewis made it work for the most part, some parts were so obvious that it was sometimes annoying, especially when Aslan’s actions weren’t consistent with Jesus, who he’s supposed to represent.

To give you guys an example of Christian themes being introduced in a natural way, I’ll use the movie Hacksaw Ridge and the book ‘Till We Have Faces, as two examples of how this can be done. Starting with Hacksaw Ridge, this movie isn’t an overtly Christian movie, nor is it really meant to be. However, the main character, Desmond Doss (Andrew Garfield), is a Christian, which is established early in the movie, and he goes on to live out his faith throughout the movie. Thus, while we don’t explicitly get a Gospel message, because of how compelling his character and story is, we can come away from the movie thinking about how different a faith-led life is for our own.

As for ‘Till We Have Faces, it being a book by C.S. Lewis, it’s a bit more overt in its Christian messaging, however, as it’s a retelling of the story of Psyche and Eros, the Christian messaging isn’t as overwhelming. It’s characters also show the difference between a life with Christ vs. without Christ, once again making the reader come away wondering about the two differences.

#3: Make Your Characters Interesting

Another thing that Christian writers seem to struggle with is making their characters interesting. While some have been able to do this, a lot of characters seem like they were picked up off a manufacturing line and thrown into a story that’s pretty much the same as every other story because the characters are almost all the same. Therefore, you should make a compelling character who people actually resonate with instead of one who’s just there as a cardboard-cut out self-insert character for the author.

#4: Make the Plot Interesting

This goes with making your characters interesting.

If your book is a rip-off of another book, poorly written, requires the reader to suspend their disbelief so much that they’re floating in space, or is so ham-fisted with the messaging that it feels like satire, get rid of it. You can write something interesting and original as a Christian. It’s not a sin.

#5: Stop With The Gratuitous Stuff

One of the things I’ve observed is that some Christian writers (mainly women writing romance) is that though they say they’re Christian and their books are sold at Mardel, some of them are overly gratuitous with certain scenes, but it’s okay because the self-insert heroine is a “Christian.” While an argument could be made that it reflects the real world and that argument could apply to something like descriptions of violence, we don’t need several paragraphs or pages describing bed activities. It’s also hypocritical of Christians to write graphic descriptions of that stuff and sell it, then tell young men and women that porn is bad and they need to stay sexually pure.

#6: For the Love of God, Represent Christ Well!

If your representation of Jesus is meant to be so obvious that Dora the Explorer could find it but is so flawed in comparison to the Bible that unless you’ve never read the Bible, you could never say it’s a good portrayal, throw out your manuscript and start over, this time reading the Bible before writing your book. And if you rename Jesus “Justin” (looking at you Ted Dekker), you should just give up writing completely.

Until next time,

M.J.