Review of The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction

I read The Art and Craft of Writing Christian Fiction by Jeff Gerke in the summer of 2009 and fell in love with it! There’s a reason James Scott Bell, Angela Hunt and Randy Ingermanson endorse Jeff’s book. It’s practical and awesome!

Here’s the back cover copy :

Artist and Craftsman–as a Christian novelist, you’re both. You know the soaring creativity of the Creator and the serious discipline of the artisan. And you feel the impulse to excel in each.

So grab a steaming mug of your favorite hot drink and come learn the art and craft of Christian fiction from one of its master teachers. You’ll learn:

  • How to find your story amidst all your ideas
  • How to bring your characters onstage the first time
  • How to convert your telling to showing
  • How to handle profane characters in Christian fiction
  • How to use the dumb puppet trick
  • How to write for the (approving) Audience of One
  • And much more.

The Art & Craft of Writing Christian Fiction is the complete school of fiction from Jeff Gerke, popular writer’s conference teacher, professional book doctor, and Christian novelist. It includes and expands upon his influential Fiction Writing Tip of the Week column at WhereTheMapEnds.com.

Jeff has a funny sense of humor and it comes through on the page, making this craft book an easy read. Though it is not just a reference book for Christian novelists. Anyone yearning to write solid fiction can learn from this book. There is no index, but the table of contents is easy to use and very descriptive (kind of makes the index unnecessary). Jeff shares what a writer should do and what a new writer should not do.

The first time I read this book, my favorite section was on show and tell. How you can spot telling. How to change the telling to showing. And that some of what looks like telling is actually description, and that is needed! This section allowed me to finally spot telling and gave me the tools to switch to showing.

Recently I picked this book up again and decided I liked the section on description even better. It gives you the tools to paint your scene, use word choice to set the mood and describes beats so that I finally understand them.

I shared with other writers on the ACFW loop that I loved this book and why. Many expressed concern that Jeff is a fantasy writer and they might not have seen the movies or books he referred to in this craft book. But Jeff made a point to refer to common movies–WALL-E, Star Wars,Pirates of the Caribbean, and Forrest Gump to name a few. I’m a comedy-romance kind of girl and I was familiar with these titles!

Jeff will join us next week for a round of questions and answers, so drop by next Wednesday to hear what Jeff has to say!

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