How to Be a Christian Writer
It’s not easy, but it is simple.
As an author, I’m frequently asked how I became a writer. I find that people are intrigued by the process and curious whether there’s a pattern they can duplicate for themselves. It seems that lots of people have a little nugget of an idea they’ve dreamed of turning into a book someday. But there isn’t a secret ingredient or a magic bullet to make you a writer, let alone a good writer.
Writing makes you a writer.
Writing often makes you a better writer.
Writing to turn readers to Jesus makes you a Christian writer.
Write Like a Writer
I didn’t become a writer when I began drafting my first book in 2016 or when I started a blog in 2004. I didn’t become a writer when I took creative writing classes in college or wrote a short story for my English class in high school. I became a writer when my parents gave me a diary with a lock and key in 1989. I was eight years old when I began scribbling in that diary, keeping it well hidden between my mattresses. When the pages were full, my parents supplied me with journals until I was old enough to be picky about the paper quality and the ratio of lines to page. I’m forty-three now, and I’ve got an entire bookshelf filled with notebooks chronicling my life. But I became a writer when I wrote the first word on the first page in that very first diary my parents gave me. I became a writer when I decided to keep writing.
If you want to know what makes a writer a writer, it’s not aspiration or education. It’s writing. It’s the act of putting pen to paper, or your fingers to the letters of your keyboard. Writing makes you a writer.
Write Often
That said, if writing is what makes you a writer, then writing often is what makes you a better writer. The only way to improve your craft is to employ it often. Long before I was a published author, I made writing a standard part of my day. Whether it was writing in my journal in the early morning hours or typing away on a blog post during my son’s naptime, I created daily space in my life to flex my writing muscle. I also read books on writing, joined a writer’s network to learn from others, and I read a lot of fiction to help develop my vocabulary. But in the end, to grow as a writer, I had to sit down and do the work of writing. I wrote like it was my job, even if it was only a hobby and a form of creative catharsis.
Think of writing like a gym routine. You won’t grow your quads or biceps if you only lift weights once a month. Muscles need the regular stress of heavy weights to grow. Muscles don’t grow overnight, though. I’ve spent enough months in the gym this year to know that body recomposition is a long game. My muscles need regular work for a long time for me to become stronger. My motto on difficult weight training days is this: “You can’t rush this process.” The same is true with writing. Growing in our skill with words takes regular effort for a long time. We can’t rush this process.
These days, as an author with a few books under my belt and more in the queue, writing is my actual, everyday job. But I still have to protect my time and block hours each day for nothing but writing. Like a lot of writers, I work from home, but when I’ve got a list of publicity articles to write or a new chapter to outline, nothing seems as demanding as the dishes in the sink or the laundry mountain waiting to be folded. I’ll answer emails or scroll social media and tweet about writing before I open that scary blank Word document and stare at the blinking cursor! The temptation to procrastinate is very real.
Treating my writing like a job, even before it was my job, prepared me to guard my writing time as though I were clocking in and out of a regular desk job. I don’t schedule appointments or meetings during writing hours. I turn off notifications, force myself to sit in the chair, and ignore the dishes in the sink. Lately, I’ve been using an app that utilizes the Pomodoro method to help me focus with planned breaks. Writing is more than thinking, researching, reading, writing, rewriting, and editing. Sometimes writing means pacing the room, praying, opening my Bible, flipping through old journals, and talking out loud to myself. If you were to peek inside my home during a block of writing time, you might find me tapping away at the keyboard, but you also might find me doing other things that don’t look like writing but that are crucial to the process of getting good words down on paper.
In order to give out good words, though, I need to be filled up with good words.
Write Like a Christian
Before I am a writer, I am a believer in Jesus Christ. And there is nothing for me to say without telling you about Him. All my writing, in some fashion, has to turn a reader to Jesus, and that means I must know Him well if I want to move a reader’s gaze His way. I don’t have anything good, wise, or helpful to say as a writer apart from what God has provided in Scripture. God’s Word is the well I draw from, not just for writing but for living. Much of what I write for readers, whether it’s in book form or in an article or blog post comes directly from what God has been teaching me in His Word. Good writers write, but good Christian writers saturate their minds and hearts with God’s Word so that we can give our readers what they most need. If I am not lifting your chin to gaze on the beauty of our triune God, then I am failing you with my words.
Our goal as Christian writers isn’t to simply catch the reader’s eye. It’s not only to craft a well-written sentence. Ultimately, the goal of a Christian writer is to be a creative conduit of grace and mercy. It’s to use powerful sentences and colorful prose to glorify Jesus, to use compelling storytelling to highlight Scripture’s redemptive arc, to grab the reader’s face and turn it to the eternal hope of glory that we have in Christ. You’re not bound by genre. Fiction, poetry, memoir, creative nonfiction—whatever your literary bent, you can utilize your gift with words to point your reader to the Author and Finisher of our faith.
Is there a secret sauce to the Christian writing life? I don’t think so. The Christian writing life is neither glamorous nor magical. It simply requires that you live closely to God’s Word with an inquisitive mind and pen in your hand. Walk faithfully with Christ and write what you learn. Write! Regularly. Daily. Generously. Fill up your heart with Scripture, pray for your readers, and give away the words that have encouraged you. You’ve heard it said, “Write what you know,” but I’d encourage you to write what you learn. Steward what you learn from God’s Word and His created world and shape it into sentences and paragraphs that will encourage your readers to look to Him.
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Amen! Writers simply keep writing! Thank you for the encouragement to keep going, Glenna!
I appreciated considering what I do in these three "easy, but simple" spheres of the writing life. "Often" (likely because of focusing issues) is my biggest challenge. I have found that using a timer is helpful; there are also some fun timed writing sprints on YouTube.