Write Your First Novel Learnings

A lot of what this book was talking about I already knew from my MFA in creative writing, but I did pick up a few things:

I thought his closing comments on what constitutes Christian fiction were interesting. He said that if the book falls apart without the Christian theme, it’s a Christian novel.

I love what he said about faith and believing in your books, even at the end of your life.

Making each character speak in their own unique way was a good reminder. I don’t often think about how my characters speak when writing.

It was helpful to know that “if you are mostly giving information, tell your reader,” which is contrary to the common advice of “show, don’t tell.”

I also liked the quote: “If you want fiction to help readers, then help them by showing how Christians work out their problems.” Most of my work isn’t Christian fiction, but if I were to write Christian fiction I’d keep this in mind.