Communicating Biblical Truth through Christian Fiction

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By Norma Gail

“You connect with your audience when they identify with your pain.” Notes I took at a workshop a few years ago resonate with every word I write. The message stayed with me because of its truth. As Christian fiction authors, we don’t just sell entertainment, we sell hope, connecting with our readers when we touch a tender point in their heart.

My friend Zoe, a non-Christian, read my most recent manuscript. She has a way with a red pen, but what struck me were her comments, page after page of scathing criticism: your character has everything, she doesn’t live in the real world, her life is perfect, she complains over nothing. The Christian readers didn’t respond that way or I might think there was something seriously wrong with my character.
Land of My Dreams
In my manuscript, the character’s family died. Her life was fraught with fear and persecution. She had a nice home, good friends, and a loving husband, but everything went wrong. Zoe zeroed in on the good and missed the bad.
As I plowed through Zoe’s voluminous tirade I discovered the problem at last. In the midst of a struggle the character recalls her mother quoting scripture before she died. Zoe’s comment: “I don’t believe the Bible says that. Those are words are too modern to be in the Bible. You must be wrong.”

A story about someone who triumphed over trials and espoused an attitude maligned in today’s society rubbed her the wrong way. A scripture voicing a worldview that was foreign to her with and a hope she didn’t believe existed must be wrong. Her basic comments were that the Bible is old; it has no meaning in today’s world. I rejoiced. Anger is better than just marking punctuation and grammar. Zoe’s criticism gave me an opportunity to reply.

As Christian authors, we have the privilege of using the ugliness in life to paint a picture of hope. The characters on our pages can rage at injustice, question life, and be angry with God, only to discover that Jesus is big enough to handle it all. The book has accomplished its mission by making Zoe wonder about God.

Christian fiction communicates the truth of love, hope, and everlasting life. Most people consider a novel as something innocuous, but a Christian novel contains truth capable speaking to someone who would never read the Bible. Zoe got angry because somewhere I touched on a source of pain in her life. Someday she might be willing to listen to the answer and discover that hope exists.

Don’t hesitate to pour pain into your character’s lives. Pain might be the one thing that brings your reader to Jesus.

Norma GailNorma Gail’s debut contemporary Christian romance, Land of My Dreams, released in 2014 by Lighthouse Publishing of the Carolinas. She has led weekly women’s Bible studies for 20 years. Her devotionals and poetry have appeared at ChristianDevotions.us, the StitchesthruTime blog, and in “The Secret Place.” She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers, FaithWriters, Romance Writers of America, and the New Mexico Christian Novelists. She and her husband of 39 years have two adult children. More of her writing can be found on her website at www.normagail.org.

Comments 0

  1. My toughest beta reader is a fellow hockey mom who could cuss a sailor under the table. She is not an Evangelical, but does have a Catholic upbringing.
    She can pin-point where I need to tighten things, and can nail me for being to easy on my characters.
    I write about Bosque Redondo and the Navajo Nation, and she’s plowed through both my manuscripts, and asked a tonne of questions along the way.
    She knows that we do not share the exact same beliefs, but she loved how I wove faith into my character’s lives. And she found their transition from their own spirituality to Christianity to be authentic because they saw and felt God in the midst of their turmoil. But no, I did not make it easy, at all!

    One of my goals is to reach Native non-believers with stories of their history told from a POV of one of their own. Considering how many Natives feel about Christians and how they were treated in the past few centuries, this won’t be a picnic.

    Thank you for a great post.

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