Christian element in WIP

writingismypassion · May 13, 2011

Hopefully I'm asking this in the right place. Sorry if this is a little long...

At this point I wouldn't consider my WIP to be Christian Fiction. However, there is a Christian element to it. I am considering making some changes, but I want to make sure I'm considering all the pros and cons of doing so, from a reader's perspective and a publisher's.

Here's a little more detail: My MC's best friend is raised a Christian. He goes to church every Sunday, and his beliefs impact decisions he makes. There are a couple moments where the reader sees him praying. My MC doesn't really become a Christian until the last part of the book, and it's mentioned more as a side note. The thing is, the focus isn't on her becoming a Christian. It's just something that happens later on in the story.

I think I can make the book about her Christian journey, but that wasn't the purpose of writing the story so I'd prefer not to do that. My original goal was to write about a girl who grew up with neglectful/abusive/alcoholic parents, she's raped by a family friend, and then she has to get past all that for her own well-being. And of course her best friend helps her do that.

So back to my questions. From a marketing perspective, where does this fit? I'm not sure it has enough emphasis on God for it to be considered Christian Fiction but might publishers be hesitant to put it anywhere else? As a reader, would you mind finding this in a different section, and would you read it? If you need more info about the story, feel free to ask.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Victoria · May 13, 2011

I don't read Christian Fiction, but....
Does the belief system of Christianity help her overcome? Is it a main element of her healing? If so, then it is possible editors might label it Christian Fiction. You say that the emphasis isn't all that great, so is it even necesarry to the plot? If using it as a character develpment tool, I don't think editors will consider it Christian Fiction, but as I mentioned, I'm not really sure what that entails. Goodness, I think I asked more questions than I gave suggestions. Sorry that I can't be much help. Good luck.

writingismypassion · May 13, 2011

Victoria said:
Does the belief system of Christianity help her overcome? Is it a main element of her healing?

Not as is.

RJK · May 13, 2011

It's hard to tell without reading the story. It would depend, as the others have said, on how heavily your character is influenced by the Christian character, and how much preaching that character does.
From what you've told us so far, I'd tend to believe it belongs on the Christian fiction shelf.

bluntforcetrauma · May 13, 2011

Prayer is a super-private part of the Christian's life. Unless he's to be revealed as a hypocrite later on, I wouldn't have him praying where he'll be seen. Even at meal time, a quick lowering of the head, disguised as picking up a fork, etc, will suffice. Subtlety in these things is the key.

And make sure this fellow has plenty of faults and setbacks. Otherwise, it'll read false.

veinglory · May 13, 2011

I am a little curious as to how converting to Christianity would not be a fairly major event for the character and thus in the book?

quicklime · May 13, 2011

veinglory said:
I am a little curious as to how converting to Christianity would not be a fairly major event for the character and thus in the book?

this is a good point.

On the other hand, in Desperation a kid takes up the Bible and becomes borderline obsessed with prayer for no apparent reason and is the "biblical good guy" for most of the book, and a slackass takes up the cause very late in the book and converts, but I don't think that (or The Stand, also heavy on christian themes) would ever be called Christian fiction because their other genre trappings are far stronger.

writingismypassion · May 13, 2011

veinglory said:
I am a little curious as to how converting to Christianity would not be a fairly major event for the character and thus in the book?

I have considered, and struggled, with that question.

MatthewWuertz · May 13, 2011

If I were you, I think I'd just drop the Christian element altogether. Why retool the entire story to make it about something that it's not? I'm Christian, but as a reader, I wouldn't want to read about a character becoming Christian as a side plot anymore than reading about a chracter going to the bank. It's just side plot and therefore not integral to the story.

If you want to make the focus of the story entirely on becoming Christian as the destination of the protagonist's journey, then you're correct that you would be changing the story into something else.

Whichever way you want to go on this is up to you. I wouldn't spend too much time thinking about which plots would be accepted or even how it might be marketed (that's up to marketing anyway). The important thing is to have a well-told story.

rwam · May 13, 2011

Not to get off track, but I've always felt the best Christian fiction gets published as mainstream because its underlying message or moral is subtly hidden. Not to badmouth Christian fiction, but if there are parts of your novel that seem too preachy or syrupy, then it's going to be branded as Christian fiction. Not that this is a bad thing.....however, if it really IS Christian fiction, then your pool of prospective agents has dwindled considerably. I was facing a similar dilemma a couple years ago when my WIP (due to a religious artifact being a key element in the novel) meant I had a lot of Christian subject matter in it, though the MC wasn't really one of those chliche Christians that seem to pop up a lot in Christian fiction. Long story short, my query had a lot of religiousy stuff in it and I think it struck mainstream agents as "Too Christian" and Christian Fiction agents as "Too Mainstream".

It's a hard line to toe.

The fact that your MC has a conversion experience, however, tells me that agents could assume this is Christian Fiction. If you're not wanting your WIP to be pigeon-holed as Christian Fiction and that conversion has no real bearing on the story, then maybe you leave it out?

Ladyhawke_18 · May 13, 2011

I have a YA fantasy WIP about a Christian character. Because he is a Christian, when he encounters a seemingly hopeless paranormal being, he is driven to help the being find hope as well.

Christianity isn't a side note. I just write what the MC does, how he goes about his life, as if praying, church going, etc is the norm.

I do worry that the story will be too Christian to be commercial or too fantastic to be Christian. LOL, but I guess we shall see.

I'd never advise a Christian author to remove all Christian references from a WIP. Don't sell out. You just have to figure out how much the Christian lifestyle needs to be a background reality in your piece or more central to resolving the conflict. Discover whether your piece is an inspirational/ Christian story, for that market, or whether it is for anyone, and oh yeah, some characters are Christian.

What worries me is the character's conversion seems minor. Either it needs to be major or why convert at all? Maybe just mention the character starts to attend church, too? A life changing conversion isn't something minor.

Libbie · May 13, 2011

I'm no expert, being a hardcore atheist who is working on a novel about being an atheist (meta!), but it seems to me that Christian fiction as a genre is more about the experience of being or becoming religious. Certainly having religious characters or a character who has a conversion wouldn't preclude a book from being considered mainstream fiction, as long as that's not the primary point of the novel.

VoireyLinger · May 13, 2011

bluntforcetrauma said:
Prayer is a super-private part of the Christian's life. Unless he's to be revealed as a hypocrite later on, I wouldn't have him praying where he'll be seen. Even at meal time, a quick lowering of the head, disguised as picking up a fork, etc, will suffice. Subtlety in these things is the key.

Respectfully disagree. Prayer personal but not necessarily private. I was always raised in a family and church that didn't hesitate to pray in public. This might be a denominational difference.

Oh, almost forgot to answer the OP. If it's not about the spiritual journey then highly doubtful it would be marketed as Christian fiction. The Christan publishers and bookstores have very strict criteria on what they accept as "Christian" and marketing/publishing as such without their backing is difficult to say the least.

jimbro · May 13, 2011

Libbie said:
I'm no expert, being a hardcore atheist who is working on a novel about being an atheist (meta!), but it seems to me that Christian fiction as a genre is more about the experience of being or becoming religious. Certainly having religious characters or a character who has a conversion wouldn't preclude a book from being considered mainstream fiction, as long as that's not the primary point of the novel.

1. That's my opinion, too.

2. I think other references to religion do not, by themselves, make a book a religious book, even if there are several. Now, if it is the major plot point, then we're back to point #1.

Jamesaritchie · May 13, 2011

Christians pray in public all the time, so I wouldn't worry about that at all. And no Christian prays while pretending to pick up a fork, at home, in a restaurant, or anywhere else. This makes it sound like a Christian is embarrassed to have anyone know they're praying.

Saying grace over food is common practice everywhere, not only in the real world, but in TV shows and movies.

Without reading it, I don't know whether this novel would fit into the Christian market, but if it does, what's wrong with that? It's a huge market, and many books in it sell like mad.

dpaterso · May 13, 2011

I'm not sure if this thread would get a better (?) range of answers if posted in the Christian writing discussion forum. Check that forum out, if you haven't already, and if you want the thread moved there, just shout.

-Derek

Calla Lily · May 13, 2011

Jamesaritchie said:
And no Christian prays while pretending to pick up a fork, at home, in a restaurant, or anywhere else.

Um... no.

It's called praying privately. I personally know dozens (yes, that's a correct figure) of people who do this.

Cyia · May 13, 2011

The presence of a Christian element doesn't make a book automatically Christian fiction any more than a book with an Atheist MC is automatically Atheist fiction or a book with a Jewish MC is Jewish fiction.

It's all in how you handle the material and where you put your focus. I've got a teenage girl in my WIP who's staying with relatives who are practicing Catholics, but she's not. She makes comments that let you know their faith is present in their lives, but it's not a religiously themed book.

What I mean is something like this:

There's a scene in a hospital and as she's walking down the halls, she mentions that it's decorated to match up with lines from the 23rd Psalm. Then when she gets to the room she's visiting, she says they call it the "angel room" because there's a large painting of an angel outside the door.

me said:
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Uncle Paul, who knows these kinds of things, said it was a painting of St. Michael, who knocked Satan out of Heaven.[/FONT]
[FONT=Times New Roman, serif]I took that as a good sign. Mitch, as I called him, certainly looked like he was capable of protecting a fifteen-year-old kid. If he'd already defeated the devil once, maybe there was a chance it could happen again.[/FONT]

Even though she's talking about things with a religious context, it's not a religious story.

Also:

callalily61 said:
Um... no.

It's called praying privately. I personally know dozens (yes, that's a correct figure) of people who do this.

QFT.

IceCreamEmpress · May 13, 2011

This may totally be a matter of your trying to be concise in a brief message board post, so forgive me if this is a totally inaccurate characterization.

What I saw (and again, this may just be because you were trying to be brief) in your post was the use of language and concepts specific to a certain group of Christian denominations ("becoming a Christian," for instance) as though they were universal to the world's 2 billion Christians.

I will tell you that as an active Christian of another denomination (Episcopalianism) I would be a bit put off if I read a book that wasn't from a CBA-focused publisher which used Evangelical-movement-specific terminologies ("becoming a Christian" etc.) as though they were used in every Christian denomination and tradition.

If your book is strongly based in an Evangelical perspective (and the more power to you if it is! It's so great for people to write from the perspectives that move their heart and soul), it is probably best suited for the CBA market. The fiction with strong Christian elements that has traditionally done best in the mainstream US market is the fiction that is equally accessible to readers from every religious background, and from no religious background--Jan Karon's books, for instance. When the characters and/or the author are motivated by a strong Evangelical perspective, or a strong Catholic perspective, or a strong Dutch Reform perspective, or what have you, it works best when those spiritual orientations are depicted without using denomination-specific language and concepts.

CAWriter · May 13, 2011

Your story sounds a little like Mary DeMuth's "Watching Tree Limbs." Some similar story elements, the MC isn't a Christian through most of the story (a strong supporting character is) and the story is far more about her coping with her life circumstances than about her journey of faith, although that is in there. You might want to check out how she handled those elements.

I think there's a misconception that Christian fiction is "spiritual journey" based. I've read several books in the last year (published by mainstream Christian publishers) that had very little (and in at least one case, none) of that.

PinkAmy · May 13, 2011

Depends what your goal is. Your book does sound more like christian fiction, more so than general fiction. If you want to make the book more marketable, you might want to cut back on the christian angle. There's a big risk that potential readers in the general market might overlook your book if they aren't of that faith. If you want your characters to be true to a certain belief system, and are willing to sacrifice fewer potential sales to do so, then go for it.

Lord of Chaos · May 13, 2011

Just to add my two cents, having Christian characters and a character who converts doesn't make it Christian Fiction in my opinion unless the story is focusing on how becoming Christian helped your MC heal. I look at it in the same way I view something like The DaVinci Code. That book is filled with religious doctine and beliefs (in addition to the controversial aspects people got angry over) but the book is in no way religious.

As others have said, without reading your ms it's hard to judge, but from your description, I don't think it's Christin Ficition.

Adobedragon · May 13, 2011

I work for a Christian church. And we get loads of flyers and brochures from Christian publishers and distributors of Christian books in the mail, every week. It looks like a pretty healthy and active market to me. It may be a niche market, but it's probably one where a writer could sell quite a few books and make a name for his/herself.

My point being ... it may not be a bad idea to put a bit more emphasis on your protagonist's spiritual journey, and try selling it as a Christian book.

Lady Ice · May 13, 2011

I'd say that it sounds like Christian fiction from your description, as her conversion to Christianity seems to be her conclusion of her problems. Otherwise why make her convert?

Mark W. · May 13, 2011

You could query it as General/YA/Whatever Fiction first. If it doesn't catch, retool the story to enhance the Christian angle and then query it as Christian Fiction (or vice versa).

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