First, have a Bible-based theme and purpose clearly in mind. For example, three of my novels focused on Romans 8:28: “For we know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” Each time I used that theme, the stories differed, but my purpose remained the same: to help strengthen the faith of readers and draw them closer to God.
Together your theme and purpose make a thesis statement that you can use later in your book proposal and back jacket blurb. As you write and revise fiction, your thesis statement will also help you to point your story or novel toward a credible ending while developing characters who care enough to act for and against your story theme.
Fiction for Christian readers especially needs a factual foundation with biblical truths acted out on each page. This means being true to Judeo-Christian values and to human nature -- true to the fears, frustrations, anger, worries, and longings people experience over the course of a lifetime and over the course of your story plot.
To immerse yourself in true drama, just look around. Watch people, but also consider the ups and downs in your own life. Most importantly, read the Bible, especially the book of Genesis. In that first book of the living word of God, you will find the beginning of almost every interesting story on the earth!
Those timeless yet timely Bible stories, Bible plots, Bible people, and biblical settings continue to affect every culture and also replay in contemporary lives and homes. To find good models to help you develop your story characters, look at the character development of Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.
The Bible also offers countless possibilities for developing a story plot. For example, read about the actions-reactions-consequences and outcome (i.e., the plot) that occurred when Abraham took Sarah’s advice and took her maid! See what happened before and after Ishmael was born and, later, Isaac. See if similar sagas might work well in faith-building stories for today’s readers, including non-Christian or secular readers with no awareness of Judeo-Christian values or what might happens when people try to follow God.
Although fiction may not be a “true story” that you’ve experienced or heard about, it must be a truth story -- one in which each character speaks or acts as a similar person would in real life. Sometimes, though, Christian writers believe they have to show a character’s relationship with God in such a positive, upbeat light that non-Christian readers think the resulting fiction is overly sentimental or downright sappy! Inspirational novels and stories do well to end on a word of hope, of course, but each chapter needs some kind of struggle, conflict, or obstacle to overcome, not only to strengthen Christian faith but also to build an interesting and highly credible story readers will enjoy and believe.
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© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. May God guide you in writing biblical truths in Jesus’ Name.
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March 29, 2012
March 15, 2012
Writing devotionals
Devotional writing begins with devoting daily quiet times to praying, Bible reading, and meditating on what God says to us and wants us to say to others. This way of getting closer to God may receive more emphasis during Lent, but for devotional writers, these quiet times become a way of life especially appropriate in a Christian writer’s life.
Not every Christian poet, writer, or Bible lover will be drawn to devotional writing, but if you are, you probably like to read the Bible! You probably remember to pray, and you probably have insights that come to you as you spend time with God.
To get ready to write, keep a notebook handy for those inspired thoughts God puts on your mind. Better yet, get a wide-margin Bible in each of your favorite translations, so you can interact with Holy Scripture and respond by taking note.
In addition to shaping those fresh thoughts into devotionals, you might have poems or articles that, with a little tweaking or revising, would fit this pattern for short devotionals:
Title – For short devotionals that you plan to send to a magazine or other periodical, the title will usually be a short phrase or single key word. For a full-length, one-year devotional book, your title needs to reflect your 365-day theme and purpose such as Devoted to Marriage: Devoted to God. Each day’s devotional would then use the date as the title.
Bible verse – After the title comes a Bible verse from which the entire devotional flows. If you’re writing for Catholic readers, the New American Bible (NAB) makes your safest choice for quotes, but the Revised Standard Version (RSV), New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), and Good News or Today’s English Version (TEV) usually work too. For evangelical Christian readers, the main choices will be the New American Standard Bible (NASB), New International Version (NIV), English Standard Bible (ESB), or King James Version (KJV.) For interdenominational choices, consider the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), New Living Translation (NLT), or new Common English Bible.
If you’re writing a book of devotionals, be aware, too, that each translation comes with its own set of rules for permission. Most of the above translations allow you to use 250 verses without having to get permission from the publisher, but some let you go up to 500 verses or more. To find out, look in the front matter of the edition you choose.
Text – With your chosen Bible verse to guide you, the main body of your devotional might be a poetic flow of insight or a true-to-life episode to illustrate that particular verse. A “take-away” will then show your readers how to apply the verse in their lives, but most importantly: This will show, not tell them!
Prayer – In one or two sentences, a prayer ties together all of the above and helps readers to seek God’s guidance in that area. Also, a full-length book of devotionals needs to have a consistent format, and the closing prayer is no exception. So, decide at the start if you will use first person plural (we/ us/ our) or second person (you/ your.)
First personal singular (I/ my/ me/ mine/) can make a devotional seem all about me-me-me, while second person can sound, well, preachy! First person plural can help to unite you and your readers since we are all in this together. Before you decide on a perspective to use in your devotionals, try them out to see which seems most natural to you. If, however, you know which publisher you hope will accept your manuscript, follow their guidelines.
If you do not know who publishes what, you will find annually updated editorial contacts and guidelines for your devotional articles, books, poems, novels, children’s books, and more in The Christian Writer's Market Guide, a highly recommended book that lists traditional publishers who just might be highly open to your work:
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© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved. If this article helps you to encourage a Christian writer-friend or someone in your church to write devotionals, just acknowledge this source. For fresh views of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary.
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Not every Christian poet, writer, or Bible lover will be drawn to devotional writing, but if you are, you probably like to read the Bible! You probably remember to pray, and you probably have insights that come to you as you spend time with God.
To get ready to write, keep a notebook handy for those inspired thoughts God puts on your mind. Better yet, get a wide-margin Bible in each of your favorite translations, so you can interact with Holy Scripture and respond by taking note.
In addition to shaping those fresh thoughts into devotionals, you might have poems or articles that, with a little tweaking or revising, would fit this pattern for short devotionals:
Title – For short devotionals that you plan to send to a magazine or other periodical, the title will usually be a short phrase or single key word. For a full-length, one-year devotional book, your title needs to reflect your 365-day theme and purpose such as Devoted to Marriage: Devoted to God. Each day’s devotional would then use the date as the title.
Bible verse – After the title comes a Bible verse from which the entire devotional flows. If you’re writing for Catholic readers, the New American Bible (NAB) makes your safest choice for quotes, but the Revised Standard Version (RSV), New Jerusalem Bible (NJB), and Good News or Today’s English Version (TEV) usually work too. For evangelical Christian readers, the main choices will be the New American Standard Bible (NASB), New International Version (NIV), English Standard Bible (ESB), or King James Version (KJV.) For interdenominational choices, consider the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), New Living Translation (NLT), or new Common English Bible.
If you’re writing a book of devotionals, be aware, too, that each translation comes with its own set of rules for permission. Most of the above translations allow you to use 250 verses without having to get permission from the publisher, but some let you go up to 500 verses or more. To find out, look in the front matter of the edition you choose.
Text – With your chosen Bible verse to guide you, the main body of your devotional might be a poetic flow of insight or a true-to-life episode to illustrate that particular verse. A “take-away” will then show your readers how to apply the verse in their lives, but most importantly: This will show, not tell them!
Prayer – In one or two sentences, a prayer ties together all of the above and helps readers to seek God’s guidance in that area. Also, a full-length book of devotionals needs to have a consistent format, and the closing prayer is no exception. So, decide at the start if you will use first person plural (we/ us/ our) or second person (you/ your.)
First personal singular (I/ my/ me/ mine/) can make a devotional seem all about me-me-me, while second person can sound, well, preachy! First person plural can help to unite you and your readers since we are all in this together. Before you decide on a perspective to use in your devotionals, try them out to see which seems most natural to you. If, however, you know which publisher you hope will accept your manuscript, follow their guidelines.
If you do not know who publishes what, you will find annually updated editorial contacts and guidelines for your devotional articles, books, poems, novels, children’s books, and more in The Christian Writer's Market Guide, a highly recommended book that lists traditional publishers who just might be highly open to your work:
~~
© 2012, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved. If this article helps you to encourage a Christian writer-friend or someone in your church to write devotionals, just acknowledge this source. For fresh views of Bible topics, see Blogs by Mary.
~~
March 8, 2012
Does one Bible fit all Christian readers and denominations?
When translating from ancient Hebrew, Greek, or Aramaic languages into contemporary English, variations occur because of the synonyms translators choose from and also because of archaic phrases that would puzzle readers today. Some translators convert each word into English, but most choose to render old idioms or colloquial expressions into current thoughts or contemporary phrases, rather than translating word for word.
If you plan to write Bible stories, Bible studies, church curriculum, or other Bible-based poems and manuscripts for Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox readers, you’ll do well to compare the many fine translations on the Internet, or, better yet, get a copy of every English version of the Bible you can find.
As you see how biblical scholars translate a familiar verse or story in a truthful but fresh or unfamiliar way, you’ll broaden your view of God’s word and better understand where your readers are coming from, regardless of their denominational beliefs.
Whether you use Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox editions of the Bible, all of the books of the New Testament will be the same and in the same order. In the Hebrew Bible or “Old Testament,” however, the number and placement of the books may vary, depending on whether the translators accepted the Septuagint – the Greek Bible that most Jews and Christians read up until the first century or so.
After the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, the Jewish leaders agreed to accept only the books written in Hebrew as they canonized the Bible, but the early church continued to use the books in the Greek Bible too, referring to them as deuterocanonical.
Then, after the Reformation, the deuterocanonical books were removed from English versions, including the King James Version, which originally included them all. After this, the “extra” canonical books were generally referred to as apocryphal, which means hidden.
Those books remained hidden from many of us until recently. But then, just this week as I researched information for the new posting “Which Bible would Jesus choose?” for the Bible Reviewer blog, I discovered that almost every translation of the Christian Bible now offers all of the books!
Bible book publishers may still refer to the “extra” books as the Apocrypha, but who cares as long as you know what to look for in the bookstore. You also might enjoy, as I did, the joy of discovering those “hidden” books for your personal reading. More importantly, perhaps, Christians who once again have all of the books in common might be less apt to think of ourselves according to denominations but according to our solid word-for-word translation into the Kingdom of God through our one Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
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© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. If you want to share the information in this article, be sure to acknowledge the source and website. For more information on the many wonderful translations of the Bible, visit Bible Reviewer. May God bless your Bible reading and your Christian writing life.
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