I recently wrote this post asking the question "Are you reading the wrong Christian fiction?" and I was encouraged by the response it received on Facebook. Maybe I'm not the only one standing alone on my soapbox, and there are more of you out there who are dissatisfied with the state of our stories.
Recently I read the blog post of a nineteen-year-old young woman who claimed she had stopped reading Christian fiction, especially romances, and one of the reasons she cited was that they were often blatantly inappropriate.
While I believe it is important for women to find the genre best suited to them, and what a nineteen-year-old and a woman in mid-life might think appropriate are two different things, she has a point. Any fiction that causes women to be dissatisfied with their husband (or their vision of what a husband might someday be) because of the "perfect" image of a hero in a romance, is not appropriate and should be avoided. But what the young woman doesn't realize is that there are some pretty complicated reasons why this is happening, and changing things is not going to be an easy, overnight process. But she's right about one thing.
We HAVE to stop buying or even just reading fiction that doesn't measure up to the standards we should have for our literature.
I say this with trepidation as an author, because I know I am putting myself on notice. It is one of my passions to pass along this commitment of reform to other authors. I can see that some of the authors I used to enjoy have "sold out" under the pressure of the demands of traditional agents and publishers. I know by my dealings with some of the people on the inside that it really doesn't matter what kind of writer a person is. If they aren't willing to cave to the formula expected (that will make money), they have no future in traditional publishing.
I believe we are on the edge of a new way of doing things. I firmly believe that agents and publishers have readers wrong. They are convinced that what we want as readers is what we are getting, because that's how they are making money. But I don't think it's necessarily the truth anymore.
Right now, this new way of doing things and thinking about Christian fiction is largely unorganized and haphazard. But it's time for us to roll up our sleeves and get to it. So what is a practical place to start for all of us as readers? For me, and others like me, as authors?
What I promise as a reader of Christian fiction:
I promise to be thoughtful in my reading choices, to raise my standards to those that bring me closer to Christ, and to have a voice in this reforming process happening right now.
This means we promise to stop reading or buying books that don't change us. That contain fairy-tale notions of romance that give us unrealistic expectations of our own lives. We agree that literature is critical to our thought-developing process, and important to our state of being. We promise to be open to new ideas, new genres, new authors and new ways of obtaining our stories.
We promise to find the authors that are writing with their whole heart and ability, for the glory of God, and help them get the word out, because they are doing it all themselves and cannot hope to succeed without the aid of readers.
What I promise as an author of Christian fiction:
I promise to write with my whole heart and all my ability, for the glory of Christ.
This means, ultimately, I promise not to write what pleases me, or what pleases other people, but what pleases Christ. I promise to edit carefully, with every resource, perspective and tool I can reasonably obtain. I promise not to let a book reach your hands before I have prayed over it and prayed for you, its readers. I promise first to have sculpted and shaped it, listened carefully to the perspective of other knowledgeable writers and readers, and changed what must be changed.
It doesn't mean you won't find a typo or two, or an awkward sentence here or there. I don't have all the resources of traditional publishing to ensure a perfect look and feel. But I will use my perfectionist tendencies to make sure you don't regret buying a book I have written. (Or getting it free on kindle once in awhile!) :)
This doesn't mean it will be written in the same style as the traditionally published books. After all, that's the point of reform. I consider very deeply what readers want, but it is not my highest authority. Sometimes we don't know what we want until we get it. And we don't all respond to the same things. From me, you will usually get something that pushes the edges of genres. I love romance, and I love historical, but not at the expense of a bit of mystery, adventure and maybe even a sprinkling of supernatural.
I love authors who look at things in a more detailed way, leaning in and focusing a bit more on any given scene. I want to explore what the characters might be thinking and feeling as they move through the story. This is one of the reasons I didn't fit in the traditionally published world, because the demand of the mysterious masses is that authors rush through a story as efficiently as possible so that everyone can be on their way. Don't get me wrong, I know we're all busy! I keep our shorter attention spans in mind when I write, and I try not to waste words. But I am searching for readers who would love to open the box with me and climb out to see the possibilities. I'm writing for the curious, for the imaginative, for the thinkers and feelers, and for the explorers. That person that sits for an hour staring at a painting, trying to unlock every secret, and who hates to get up and leave when the art museum closes? That's the reader I'm looking for.
My promise also doesn't mean that you will always agree with everything I write in a story. If you did, it wouldn't be much of a book. The purpose of art is to help us see different perspectives. To make us a little uncomfortable as we consider something we wouldn't have considered on our own. (Think about how disturbing a picture some of the Bible's stories paint for us!) A writer's job is to tell a story that communicates something - some idea important to understanding the nature of God or the nature of man. But I will make it my goal to present possibly bigger ideas in entertaining and fun ways.
I hope this post has inspired both readers and authors of Christian fiction. I hope we can all move toward a better place in order that we can all have a bigger impact for Christ.
What about you? What are you reading? What are you writing? What authors come to mind when you think about these things?
