The Art and Craft of Writing Christian fiction by Jeff Gerke is now a forever stay on my bookshelf! This is a must have book for any aspiring Christian novelist. I’ve long wanted to read a systematic, without being formulaic, guide to writing Christian fiction. This.Book.Is.It It covers all aspects of writing fiction, profanity, telling, dialogue, description, things I hadn’t even though about!
It won’t tell you what to write, or what color socks to wear; but it will tell you how to write your story with excellence—and the socks you wear are up to you. The Art and Craft is divided into easy to digest and read sections with a common theme called,”Mega Mastery Clusters”. If I need to check out some extra information on dialogue, I just check out the Dialogue Mastery Cluster. How about Showing Versus Telling? Go to that mastery cluster. The layout of the book is designed for reading straight through like I did, while still retaining the ability to start in one section and read through without needing to read the sections prior.
The Art and Craft is packed full of so many useful tidbits and writing advice, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to master it all. But I can tell you this, armed with The Art and Craft of Writing Christian fiction, I’m well on my way to becoming, God willing, an author with work in progress worth talking about.
