Welcome to another great issue of Faith-Filled Fiction!

The Catholic Writers' Conference Online was a huge success, with 30-some workshops and over 300 attendees. The pitch session was an adventure (the server crashed, locking us all in a single chat room), but everyone did well and several manuscritps were requested. The next conference is schedueld for February 2-11; mark your calendars! We're also looking at a live conference August 2009. More details in the next newsletter. For those looking for a non-religious writing conference online, check out the MuseOnline Conference. It's phenomenal!

I had an interesting experience in June when I attended the Chicago Tribune Printer's Row Book Fair. I shared a booth with the Lost Genre Guild, which is dedicated to increasing awareness (and hopefully sales) of Christian speculative fiction--as Cynthia MacKinnon put it, "Sci-fi, fantasy and horror that respects Christian values."

I love how she phrases that. All too often, people think that religious fiction of any faith means interspersing sermons in the story or casting the hero as a perfect example of the follower: no internal conflicts that can't be overcome with a few moments of prayer or meditation, no wavering in resolve... It's funny: we are glad to accept mega-warriors, complete geniuses who have ultimate knowledge in multiple disciplines, wizards who do miracles--but the morally perfect person? What's up with that?

I think there are several reasons. Linda Hutchinson, writer, reviewer and reader discusses some in her article "Don't Pander to Me." Another is the human perception that perfection means "lack of conflict," yet that's not our human experience. Pulling from my Christian experience, I think of Jesus, the one perfect person because he was both God and Man, who nonetheless trashed the temple, snapped at his disciple Peter ("Get behind me, Satan!") and asked God to not to be a sacrifice for our sins.  His humanness made it possible for him to feel internal conflict--anger, fear, sorrow, maybe even doubt--but his perfection came from moving past that and choosing the right, if harder, path, even to death. That's why we say his was human in all ways except sin. It's also why he's someone we can identify with.

I just completed an assignment where I wrote 12 stories about saints for a Catholic school planner for middle and high-school students. I have to admit that in my research, I tended to skim over the articles that described the saints as "a perfect child, never giving their parents any problems, always attending Mass and devoted to the Sacraments..." and instead tried to find an interesting, defining moment that brought out not just their faith, but their personality. I wanted the kids reading these stories to not just enjoy them but also take with them the idea that living a saintly, or even just a very good, life is not always easy, but it is possible. I hoped in that way to inspire them. 

I think a lot of us who write faith-filled fiction share that goal.

FINAL NOTE: I am looking for articles for the next issue, which comes out in October. See the Submission Guidelines for details.

Guest Columnist

Don't Pander to Me

By Linda J. Hutchinson

Where is it written that a story must contain vulgarity, profanity, or mindless acts of sexuality to be a good read?  You’ll find those requirements in the submission guidelines of most publishers of pornography and some erotica.  There is a readership, and a format, for that type of writing.  It’s big business.

Conversely, there are those whose works consists of endless preaching – that gets in the way of the story-telling – at least as much as an endless supply of foul words and the plunking in of sex acts for no other purpose than to titillate.  Plunking in parables or referencing Bible stories for the mere sake of pandering to one Christian group or another is visible to the reader, and can be just as annoying.

As a writer, and more importantly, as a reader, I believe a good plot and great characterization will carry the story much better.  Often without much, or any, of the aforementioned.

Over the years I’ve worked with many publishers and publicity firms to book guests at The Writer’s Chatroom.  Publishers NavPress and Barbour, and Glass Roads Publicity offer up Christian fiction, with some great writers in their respective stables.  I’m often sent their books to review. 

Even though it is my personal choice to embrace the Christian faith, I don’t want religion, any religion, crammed down my throat.  I will set aside any book whose author is more interested in forcing his or her beliefs on me than in telling me a great story.  It’s fine to let me know what church you attend – or don’t – but don’t preach at me.

Language is ubiquitous.  It can be flowing, flowery, uplifting, succumbing, threatening, hurtful, painful, hateful, diabolical, loving, uneven, untruthful, fact-based and telling.  It can be wordless.

Tell me your story.  Draw me in.  Let me feel what your characters are feeling.  Let me live in their world, but draw on my own experiences to rationalize those feelings.  Let me process what your characters have to say and how they live their lives utilizing my own frame of reference.  Believe that I have some level of intelligence and allow me to use it.

Leave something to the imagination of the reader.  Readers want that license, and expect it, before they will suspend their own belief systems to accept your story.  We, as writers, must be conscious of our readers’ needs regardless of our chosen genre or our personal beliefs. 

Reach as many readers as you can.  Touch them with your words.  Leave them wanting more of your work. 

There may be a convert or two among them - or at least a few who are willing to investigate your religious views on a personal level.

Freelancer Linda J. Hutchinson writes for online and print media about food, parenting, volunteerism, travel, construction, writing, and heavy equipment.  As comfortable on a construction site as she is in an art museum, she’s been told she cleans up real good.  She writes fiction as J’linn Kramer (as opposed to having dual personality disorder).  www.lindajhutchinson.com

Writing Tips

Writing as Translating

By Arthur Powers

In 1969, I went to Brazil as a Peace Corps volunteer.  It was my first serious exposure to intercultural life.  During the initial six months, as I struggled to learn Portuguese and Brazilian culture, I would have been startled had someone told me that being bicultural would become one of the key elements of my experience – and that I would spend most my adult life in Brazil. 

Eight years later, on Easter Vigil, 1977, I was baptized into the Catholic Church.  The two journeys were not unrelated (it was partly exposure to deep Brazilian faith that led me to the Church).  But what I focus on here is a point that faith-based writers, especially those born into a faith community, often forget: Entering into faith is entering into a new culture, a new language.

Approaching faith requires seeing things in an entirely new way.  Think of the scene in which Christ tells his disciples that they must eat of his body and blood.  People turned away, utterly confused and repelled.  Even Peter seemed to be to be groping to understand as he answered Christ’s question: “Lord, where else would we go….?”

Or the hard sayings – such as needing to lose your life in order to find it.  Who, in our modern society, understands that concept at first blush? 
Our secular society has a world view that is very different from the world view of the great faiths.  Concepts such as love, humility, and obedience have almost entirely different meanings for modern culture from those they have in faith. 

Part of our job as faith-based writers is translation.  I have translated stories from Portuguese into English, and I realize that translation is not just the act of taking words from one language into another.  The true translator has to convey an entirely different culture, a different way of thinking – has to capture the tone and spirit of the original.

That is our task, also, in writing about faith to a modern audience.  To take a concept such as submission and put it into language that will convey its inner meaning to a modern person is a daunting task.  Often it is best to alter the words we use (words over time take on meanings that can mask, even block, their original sense).  Usually it is best to convey these messages through images and stories, so that the reader experiences them from inside, not as an outside explanation.  Christ took this approach in his parables. 

To complicate matters, even the secondary language we use can create problems.  As a Catholic writer, for example, I need to remember that terms such as Eucharist, mass, dogma, orthodoxy may mean different things – or nothing at all – to my readers.  (Of course, in my case, it helps to remember before my conversion when these terms didn’t mean anything to me.)
It helps – or, at least, it helps me – to see our work as a form of translation.  I need to have a compassionate understanding of my reader – his/her possible world view, what things are going to create barriers for the reader.  I must have an equally compassionate love of the faith that I write from – the essence that needs at this moment to be conveyed.  I ask the Holy Spirit to help me convey it – then get down to the loving, hard work of showing a portion of the faith-world to those who do not yet know it. 

Arthur Powers has lived most his adult life in Brazil.  From 1985 to 1992, he and his wife worked with the Catholic Church in the eastern Amazon, doing pastoral work and organizing rural workers unions in an area of violent land conflicts.  He subsequently directed Catholic Relief Services in Brazil. Mr. Powers has been awarded a Fellowship in Fiction by the Massachusetts Artists Foundation and several annual prizes for short fiction from the Catholic Press Association.  His fiction, poetry, and essays have appeared in scores of literary reviews and Catholic & Christian periodicals.

Religion Research

Pentecostalism: Writing Beyond the Stereotypes

By Terri Main

Writing about a religious experience which is different from the popular notion of what church is like (i.e. stained glass windows, slow songs, quiet, predictable and comfortable) presents the writer with some challenges. They need to first, be true to that tradition, second, reveal its uniqueness and third, respect that tradition and the people who adhere to its doctrines. In the next few articles we will look at the traditions of the Pentecostal experience which will help you better depict in your writing its rich and energetic heritage.

I am a third-generation Pentecostal Christian, and have seen the stereotypes applied to followers of my faith. In the popular media, Pentecostals are often depicted as being uneducated, poor, unsophisticated, emotional, conservative, legalistic and without a sophisticated understanding of Biblical doctrine.  We're not so easily pigeonholed.

Diversity and a spirit of independence permeate Pentecostal churches. This makes it difficult to discuss Pentecostalism as a whole. Some Pentecostal churches are large; others quite small. Some are pretty sedate, with a highly structured service. Others are more exuberant in their worship and spontaneous. What they each share, however, is a belief that the work of God, the Holy Spirit, continues today in the same way it did in the First Century Church. That work includes supernatural manifestations of power including miracles, healings, prophecies, supernatural knowledge and, most characteristic, speaking in tongues and interpreting messages in tongues.

This same diversity extends to adherents to the Pentecostal doctrine. Pentecostals come from all economic backgrounds.  Many of us have advanced degrees. We represent many occupations. I have known Pentecostals who were school teachers, scientists, bankers and store owners, as well as mechanics, janitors and industrial workers. In my work-in-progress, my main character is a professor of history and psychology at a university on the moon. She attends an Assembly of God church. An intelligent, sophisticated character in your fiction can also happen to be Pentecostal.

Another false image of the modern Pentecostal tradition is that of maintaining an overly legalistic approach to morality. While this was true years ago, it is much less true today. As a child I can remember many activities were identified as being "sinful" without any Biblical backing. These would include: wearing makeup, going to the movies, dancing, carnivals and TV. Some even included drinking coffee and soda in that list. The list varied from church to church and individual to individual. While Pentecostal churches still hold to a "holiness" tradition which encourages people to be cautious about the types of dress or entertainments they allow in their lives, they are less likely to create a blanket condemnation of an entire class of dress or entertainment.

In general, as a group, we are as diverse as the general population.  As with any group we would hope that our uniqueness can be revealed without our members being stereotyped.

The next article in this series will examine how the Pentecostal tradition can provide plot elements for your fiction.

Terri Main teaches communication studies at Reedley College, Reedley, California. She has degrees in speech, English and psychology. She edits WayfarersJournal.com a science fiction e-zine. She attends Fullgospel Assembly of God, Caruthers, California. Her mother, maternal grandmother and paternal grandfather were all Assembly of God ministers. Her spiritual heritage goes back to the Azusa Street Revival on one side of the family and the founding of the Assemblies of God on the other side.