Scary Title Alert: The Discipline Of Reading Fiction
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Feb 11, 2013
Readers get inoculated by “fun” fiction, and no longer approach stories as vehicles of ideas, shown not told. When we as Christians do look for meaning, we are primarily looking for a Christ figure and a picture of redemption. We rarely dig deeper.
Teaching Story Transitions 5: Middle-Grade Exploration
Jared Moore, Feb 10, 2013
As parents transition children from the early tools of discernment, they may challenge middle-grade children to discern more on their own.
When Science Fiction Meets Fairy Tale
Jeff Chapman, Feb 8, 2013
At first glance, science fiction and fairy tales appear to have little in common. They’re like water and oil. What could tales about nasty step-mothers and magic share with stories of high-tech gadgets and trips to other worlds? For starters, both address themes of human experience through the fantastic, and both bear the imprint of the culture of their time.
Fiction Christians From Another Planet! V: Pagan Straw Men
E. Stephen Burnett, Feb 7, 2013
Lame theology may lead to alien non-Christian characters. They’re made of straw that’s been cut from official-ministry “manuals” about how pagans think and built on un-Biblical foundations of “ministry platforms.”
More About Characters
Yvonne Anderson, Feb 6, 2013
The subject of characters in Christian fiction has been coming up on this blog a lot recently. I’ve appreciated E. Stephen Burnett’s excellent series “Fiction Christians From Another Planet” — Patrick Carr’s guest post about writers using real people as […]
The Kingdoms We Build
Christopher Miller, Feb 5, 2013
Last Thursday’s post reminded me of a great work of fiction I discovered several years ago by the incomparable Francine Rivers. No, it’s not speculative fiction, but And the Shofar Blew is a powerful and (dare I say) prophetic story for the church in America.
Books To Love
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Feb 4, 2013
I recently talked with a friend about a book I was reading and enjoying. The question came up: why was I enjoying it? What was it about this book that made it a satisfying reading experience?
Stealing Faces
Patrick W. Carr, Feb 1, 2013
I firmly believe that the human desire to create, the creative drive of the novelist, musician, craftsman, etc. is evidence of the existence of God.
Fiction Christians From Another Planet! IV: Terror Of The Megachurchians
E. Stephen Burnett, Jan 31, 2013
If we only ever meet in Christian novels pagan characters overcome by platitudes like “Really? There’s a God who loves — me?”, the author has gone beyond corny. Worse, our Hero and the Gospel look ridiculous.
Offended
John Otte, Jan 30, 2013
One day, while I was still attending Seminary, one of my professors came in and admitted to doing something heretical. I remember it well, even fifteen years later.
The Mystery Of Love and Writing
Christopher Miller, Jan 29, 2013
Writing a book, like finding love, is a sacred pursuit. No one can tell you how to do it any more than they can tell you how to fall in love. It just doesn’t work that way. It’s not a […]
Realism And Twenty-first Century Stories
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Jan 28, 2013
If all characters are victims of disaster, I suggest readers or viewers stop caring and start looking for the “out.” Will the character die and come back? Have a narrow escape? Have a death that only looks like death? In truth, all the arguing and betrayal and refusal becomes–predictable and boring and unrealistic. Soon the characters seem more like caricatures because none acts with nobility or courage or hope. All display their flawed selves with so little inner struggle. And this, we’ve come to believe, is realistic.
The Christian Writer and Fiction
Thomas Clayton Booher, Jan 25, 2013
Fiction is not very good fiction, if fiction at all, without ‘flawed characters and narrative.’ As such, the gospel-story (narrative) is the story of sinful men and women (flawed characters) coming to repentance and faith in Christ, the Redeemer, whose sacrifice atones for their sins. The narrative does not stop at the point of conversion but continues with how such persons struggle with the remaining sin within them (flawed characters, again) and the sin in the world around them.
Fiction Christians From Another Planet! III: Voices From Beyond
E. Stephen Burnett, Jan 24, 2013
You want a Christian-fiction notion that makes pagan readers cackle and other Christians cringe? Then exalt voices-from-beyond as the only way God daily guides His people.
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
Yvonne Anderson, Jan 23, 2013
When we strum chords to accompany the song in our hearts, or sand a tabletop to release the wood’s beauty, or write a story that echoes God’s, I expect He’d call that the sincerest form of flattery.
Screwtape on Redefining ‘Realism’
E. Stephen Burnett, Jan 22, 2013
“Your patient, properly handled, will have no difficulty in regarding his emotion at the sight of human entrails as a revelation of Reality and his emotion at the sight of happy children or fair weather as mere sentiment.”
The Christian And Stories
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Jan 21, 2013
Should we seek to win the hard drinking and hard swearing jock by writing stories filled with drinking and swearing? Since real people do drink and swear and assault people and have affairs, since real people are prostitutes or frauds or terrorists, shouldn’t our stories show them in all their ugliness and need?
Winter Writing Challenge Winner
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Jan 21, 2013
We have a winner in the 2013 Spec Faith Winter Writing Challenge–Austin Gunderson
On The ‘Throne Of Bones’: A Q and A With Vox Day
Vox Day, Jan 18, 2013
“A Throne of Bones” epic-fantasy author Vox Day discusses how he’s moved from columns to fiction, controversial novel content, and his criticism (not imitation) of “A Game of Thrones.”
Fiction Christians From Another Planet! II: The Blind Ones
E. Stephen Burnett, Jan 17, 2013
Why do many characters in Christian novels have little regard for God’s “novel,” the Bible? Worse, why do some authors adore characters who have wide, naïve, alien-like, unseeing eyes?
Ask Me Anything!
John Otte, Jan 16, 2013
Every now and then, when I’m leading Bible study at my congregation, I like to play a game I call “Stump the Pastor.” I throw open the floor to questions from the participants about anything or everything. And those are […]
Write In Pursuit Of Something. (A Blog Post and Pseudo Film Review Of Zero Dark Thirty)
Christopher Miller, Jan 15, 2013
I’m writing this post after having just returned from the theater for a late night showing of Zero Dark Thirty. It’s a film that has attracted a lot of attention for its portrayal of the events surrounding what is arguably […]
Spec Faith Winter Writing Challenge Finals
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Jan 14, 2013
I’ve reposted their entries below, followed by the official poll to determine the 2013 winner. You will be able to vote only once for only one entry to determine who will receive the $25 gift card to either Amazon or Barnes and Noble. The poll closes at midnight (Pacific time), Sunday, January 20.
Marcher Lord Press And The Hinterlands Imprint
Jeff Gerke, Jan 11, 2013
Could I publish a book with vulgarity, nudity, and sex? That was the real question. What would my mom think, you know? What would all the awesome homeschooling moms who love MLP think? What would my other authors think?
Fiction Christians From Another Planet! I: Invasion Of The Child-People
E. Stephen Burnett, Jan 10, 2013
Why do some Christian novels keep presenting only equivalents of kid-Anakin or Wesley Crusher, instead of Han Solo or Captain Picard, and expect readers to like them?
May I Have A Word?
Yvonne Anderson, Jan 9, 2013
It’s easy to use the word word, but hard to define it with words. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? A sound with meaning? Not really.
Are You Sitting Down For This? (Why I’m Taking A Stand For Writers Everywhere)
Christopher Miller, Jan 8, 2013
Chances are if you are reading this post, you are sitting down. And if you are like most Americans (we writers are some of the worst) you’ll probably spend at least 12 hours of your waking day sitting on your […]
Winter Writing Challenge – Phase 2
Rebecca LuElla Miller, Jan 7, 2013
In this phase two, visitors here at Spec Faith have one more week to read the one-hundred-to-two-hundred-word entries and give a thumbs up and/or comment to as many as they like.
Every Bit Of My Heart
Shannon Dittemore, Jan 4, 2013
I no longer knew how to love God with the creative side of me. Life had changed. I was different, but part of my heart was dedicated to an old dream, a child’s dream. And I didn’t love it for God’s sake.
Less Screaming, More Swashbuckling
E. Stephen Burnett, Jan 3, 2013
Christian ministries and parents: let’s have less “they’re coming after our children!” screaming and more faith-based Godly swashbuckling.
