Christian Writing for Secular Market

Welcome to AW! When God calls, it always pays to listen. Congrats on the first draft. That's a wonderful accomplishment. I don't have any advice, but I wish you the best and will certainly say a prayer. I don't write YA (I'm more into romance) but my writing buddy does and she has the same concerns you do. My daughter is 9 and loves to read. I'll have to look for your book- hopefully it will be available when she reaches the target age. Good luck!

P.S. I "followed" your blog.

Congrats on completion of the rough draft, Fran! I'm wondering, have you been able to try it out on your daughter, or better yet, any of her friends for a test response? (Family might not be the best test subject!)

I echo what Callalily says...even though it feels done, you're just at the beginning. (But a great beginning.) It'd be extremely beneficial to share a few selections or chapters with a local writers' critique group (or even on our password-protected youth writing forum on AW) for some constructive feedback concerning pacing, plot structure, dialogue, etc. Then after honing and rewriting/editing as much as you can, get hold of Writers' Market 2011 or a current agent market book at your local bookstore to find the best-matched agents/publishers for your work. Nowadays commercial book publishing is most easily accomplished through an agent; and we have some threads on AW also dedicated to which agents/publishers might be good to avoid, too. Don't miss those.

Looks like you have access to plenty of good input, then!

Revising and editing is a not the most fun part of the process!

What helps me is to leave the work alone for as long as possible, and that makes it easier to see things to fix. It helps to go in with "fresh eyes."

As an atheist, I will tread lightly here. My question is in regards to writing "for the secular YA market". The "secular" folk are reading things because they like them. Don't get overly preachy. I'm guessing Narnia or something like that would be a good thing to shoot for. Not that I ever finished the series.

Good to hear. I wish you luck!

Fran, write where the Lord leads you. If it's the secular arena, you'll find yourself in good company: John Grisham, Dorothy Sayers, Dean Koontz, Walker Percy, Flannery O'Connor, Graham Greene, and many other Christian writers found their niche writing for primarily non-Christian markets ... including yours truly. Blessings on your journey.

I'm a Christian and I thought a direct allegory of Christ's death and resurrection was the preachiest thing I'd ever seen. (I love Lewis and Narnia rocks!)

Before I even thought about viewing this section, I just happened to check out the New York Times best sellers for Childrens Chapter books. Four of the five top books are about witchcraft or mythology. It is alarming. I agree, I believe that more Christians do need to write for the secular market.

I'm also Christian and writing for the secular market. I have one WIP that is YA and one that is kind of in between YA and adult (people are calling this "new adult now") with a nineteen-year-old heroine. The YA book does not deal with religion at all, and the other deals with it as a side issue. The male lead is a practicing Christian (Russian Orthodox) while the heroine is not, and there is a conversion that takes place but it is far from the main plot line of the novel.

Religion enters into mainstream books all the time. Fae Kellerman writes mysteries with orthodox Jewish characters. The Brother Cadfile (sp) books were sold mainstream. As long as the book does not force the idea that the character's beliefs should be the readers' beliefs, then it is fine.

As a Christian, I understand the desire to write "cleaner" fiction, and I praise you for that. Even as an adult, I do not like racy content in my fiction. I can't relate to promiscuous or drug using characters. And I really couldn't as a teen.

I recently had a conversation with a family member like this about my writing. I'm a Christian writing with faith/religious components in the plot, but I'm still hesitant to call it Christian Fiction because of the fantasy element. In one novel the faith component is more evident, but in the second one it's there as a way of reference or character development more than a plot-mover. A MC in one of the novels is a demon, and there are psychic characters within the story, too--elements of fantasy more so religion (unless you go Old Testament and call 'em Prophets), but it seems no matter what I write there is a subtle (sometimes not-so-subtle) hint toward faith or forgiveness. If I can ever succeed in making either one query-ready, do you think it'd matter if I attempted to market them as either Secular or Christian?

Hi Fran, welcome to the great world of writing. I too write YA for teens and for the same reason. Gesh!! Too much sex and icky stuff!! I've learned that edgy doesn't have to be sex, cursing or new age stuff, but edgy is just basically Showing a character get out of trouble. Edgy is more of getting into a character's mind, or feelings about the situation. It means digging deep into God and into ourselves.

As for advice, well imo, learn, learn, learn the craft of writing. Each lesson I learned is like another tool in my toolbox. My dad always yells at me b/c I don't use the right tool for the right job. I use a knife for a screwdriver and a shoe for a hammer. Gesh!!! Boy do I ever hear it!! So the more tech you learn, the more you can use, the more you can tweek, the more you can break, the easier it is to write, the better a read. I'll jump over to your blog and be a follower. Hang in there, God has a plan.

FranYoakumVeal said:

I'm new to AW and a newbie writer. I believe God is calling me to write for the secular YA market. My daughter is 12 and I've been appalled at some of the stuff that she and my teen nieces have come home with. Surely one can be edgy without being a vampire, werewolf, or sex kitten. I've finished the first draft of my WIP and I am looking for advice, encouragement and prayer.

Blessings!

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I have the same situation. My story is also fantasy - christian fantasy is really growing! - and it also has faith elements in it. It's like LOTR, where you 'see' the faith stuff, but it's underneath the story. I'm trying to sell it as a christian novel, but if that doesn't work then I'll sell it to the secular one. It's interesting, b/c the unsaved folks who have read the first book in the series loved it, but didn't 'see' the christian elements. The saved folks did. I think it could go both ways, which is good. It has a larger market. Publishers love larger market books called crossovers.

Receding Waters said:

I recently had a conversation with a family member like this about my writing. I'm a Christian writing with faith/religious components in the plot, but I'm still hesitant to call it Christian Fiction because of the fantasy element. In one novel the faith component is more evident, but in the second one it's there as a way of reference or character development more than a plot-mover. A MC in one of the novels is a demon, and there are psychic characters within the story, too--elements of fantasy more so religion (unless you go Old Testament and call 'em Prophets), but it seems no matter what I write there is a subtle (sometimes not-so-subtle) hint toward faith or forgiveness. If I can ever succeed in making either one query-ready, do you think it'd matter if I attempted to market them as either Secular or Christian?

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Dancre said:

It's interesting, b/c the unsaved folks who have read the first book in the series loved it, but didn't 'see' the christian elements. The saved folks did.

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I'd watch out with these terms, especially if you want to write for the secular market. They seem pretty condescending to me.

@Topic, in my view, the Narnia books were a bit too preachy. Especially towards the end, the message becomes 'anti-life', devaluing life on earth and completely focusing on an afterlife. Also, the girls' (forgot her name) sexuality is demonized (when she wears stockings).

LOTR on the other hand was great because I never really noticed any Christian component; you only see it if you really look for it.

How is that condensending? I'm just making an observation that pretty much amazed me. I was expecting the unsaved folks to say, Is this one of those religious books? But they didn't, which surprised me, but also was a bit of relief in that I'm not excluding the secular group.

WalkingContradiction said:

I'd watch out with these terms, especially if you want to write for the secular market. They seem pretty condescending to me.

@Topic, in my view, the Narnia books were a bit too preachy. Especially towards the end, the message becomes 'anti-life', devaluing life on earth and completely focusing on an afterlife. Also, the girls' (forgot her name) sexuality is demonized (when she wears stockings).

LOTR on the other hand was great because I never really noticed any Christian component; you only see it if you really look for it.

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Dancre, I think WalkingContradiction is referring to the terms "saved" and "unsaved." It would be less offensive if you said "Christian" and "non-Christian." If you don't believe that you need to be saved, then it seems condescending to be called "unsaved."

And I don't see how the end of the Narnia series was "anti-life", it was about continuing life in a new and better place. Lewis's philosophy was that our current life and earth are shadows of Ultimate Reality. Not that they don't matter, but that they are only the reflections of what we're really made for.

Yeah I did mean the terms saved/unsaved. I know it wasn't meant in a bad way.

inckyinc said:

And I don't see how the end of the Narnia series was "anti-life", it was about continuing life in a new and better place. Lewis's philosophy was that our current life and earth are shadows of Ultimate Reality. Not that they don't matter, but that they are only the reflections of what we're really made for.

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Well that's kind of the point. 'A new and better place', which devalues the life here, right now. And if it's the only life we have then that's a problem. Of course I'm talking from a secular perspective here, but I can imagine even some Christians finding it somewhat problematic.