Writing, Books, and Life

So, I was musing about my writing process recently. Not the school essay writing process, which is mostly driven by thought, "How do I get an A on this?" but the creative writing process. I'm thinking about it because of that bit of fiction I wrote that I posted awhile back. I have a lot of started stories like that bumming around on my hard drive. I tell myself that I will go back to them someday. Every now and then I do. Sometimes, when I'm bored or curious about the Katie-brain-of-months-ago, I go back and read through them, but rarely end up writing or adding anything to them.

Sometimes I think writing is a bit like cooking. Dash of this, experiment with this, let it boil, and see if anyone chokes on it when you feed it to them. I think I let things boil a long time. I always have multiple burners going, some with the contents charred to the bottom of the pans. I think 90% of my writing ends up like that.

This recent work of fiction I've been toying with and you were able to sample comes into my mind occasionally. Particularly when I'm thinking about  what persecution is like now in the United States. Honestly, apart from occasional "you're an idiot" glares from nonbelievers, and maybe the occasional court case regarding religious freedom (usually on the news because they are fairly rare), we really don't have anything to complain about at this point. Not really. There are no thought police, we don't have to meet in secret churches, no one is going to arrest us if we are caught with our Bibles or a stack of Christian music CDs in our car. Some people in certain countries are not that privileged, and we must remember to keep them in our prayers. I think we may see persecution of the kind other people suffer within our lifetimes (I already think about how Cooper and I will raise our future children to live in a time like that, because it will likely be daily reality for them), but for right now, God has blessed this very undeserving country with freedom millions of people around the world can only dream of. But it's a curious topic for me, a personal one. I wonder how I will act under extreme persecution. Frankly, my rap sheet hasn't been terribly stellar yet, and I have not been extremely persecuted. Oh, thank God for grace.

But I digress. I guess the main thing I was thinking about is I don't often know where something is going when I sit down to write it. This is the case with this recent fiction. I have some characters, a challenging setting they must live in, and some ideas for some difficult moral dilemmas. Other than that though, I think I will be discovering right along with those characters where their lives are going. Maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that will make the story more authentic.

You know, I like to read Christian fiction, and there are some talented authors out there. I'm especially a fan of Randy Alcorn, Francine Rivers, and Frank Peretti. But I have a few problems with Christian fiction, and I'm wondering if God will give me some writing that will allow me to fill a niche that just isn't being filled. Here are my primary complaints:
1. A lot of Christian authors insist on writing their stories in historical time periods, particularly pioneer America. Now, I don't have problems with historical fiction in general, in fact, I enjoy it immensely. But it seems to so overwhelm the Christian fiction genre that it almost suggests, especially to those on the outside looking in, that Christianity belongs in these "simpler" time periods, not in messy 2010. And frankly, I don't blame them for thinking that. But there seem to be few novels addressing, in a serious way, Christian issues in modern times. Randy Alcorn and Frank Peretti have tried this, and I applaud them for it. So has Francine Rivers. But they are few and far between. A lot of modern Christian fiction is just chick lit with Jesus in it. I read a book like that once. Some girl is single, in her 30's, waiting for Mr. Right, does too much shopping, and, oh, maybe occasionally sticks in the fact that she's a Christian (kind of). It was so vapid. And really irrelevant.

2. A lot of Christian fiction can't stay away from being some sort of romance. And that gets annoying.

3. A lot of Christian fiction refuses to deal with "hard stuff" (the authors I mentioned deal with "hard stuff" all the time, which is one of the reasons I like them). They kind of make it out that live is rated G and easy and everyone gets into their fluffy beds at the end of the day having things figured out. But that's just not the case, with Christians or anybody. And even the books that do deal with "hard stuff" sometimes do it in a way that makes the characters seem 2D...this character represents "the atheists" and this character represents the "Christians" and there is little individuality in these characters. They are too comfortable with archetypes, so sometimes the stories are more like fables than the stories of real people. Even the authors I like fall into this sometimes.

So my goal as a writer is to try to fix some of these problems that have always bothered me about Christian fiction. I'm not sure if I'm cut out to do it,  but I'd like to try. And if I get something published, great. If not, that's cool too. But maybe I can use this writing ability that God has given me to do something for Him, and maybe that's to help make those on the outside looking in a little more curious about what Jesus has to offer, knowing that they don't have to fit the "denim jumper homeschool co-op mold" to be welcomed into His kingdom.