“So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Corinthians 10:31).
Christian writers have existed ever since Christianity, from the gospel writers to modern-day novelist Chuck Black. Christian artists in general have striven to center their work right around the Lord, like Johann Sebastian Bach, who wrote the initials S.D.G. on every composition–Soli Deo Gloria, or “To God alone be the glory.”
And now it’s our turn to glorify God through our creativity. The tricky thing is trying to figure out how exactly we’re supposed to honor God with our writing. Does it only have to do with the messages in our books? What about our writing routine or our mindset?
We’ve gathered input from 7 Christian authors on the ways they apply the command of 1 Corinthians 10:31 to glorify God in your writing. These authors include the aforementioned Chuck Black, as well as several other novelists and nonfiction writers like Sarah Mackenzie and Shelby Abbott.
There isn’t a one-size-fits-all, but there are certainly a few common threads among the answers, including ways to involve God in your writing process and ways to reveal Him to your readers.
Tip 1: Pray For Your Writing
Philippians 4:6 reads, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
Are you ever anxious about your writing? It’s easy to worry about whether you’re doing enough, well enough, or fast enough. Or even just if you’ll hit your word count goal today.
On the other hand, when the keys are clacking and ideas are blooming, you may be tempted to attribute your success all to your own talent and hard work.
Some authors do things differently. C. J. Milacci and Kara Swanson both write heart-pounding, hope-filled fantasy for teens, while Solomon Schmidt is the self-published author of fun historical books for kids. All three authors have this in common: prayer.
How Solomon Schmidt Prays For His Writing
I pray before I start each writing day, which is something J. R. R. Tolkien did–maybe not every day, but he prayed and then sometimes after he prayed, points of inspiration would come for him.
I don’t think he looked at it as a good luck charm, but it was just part of his faith, part of his walk with God. And I do the same thing, I just pray before I write each day. Then I just write. C. S. Lewis talks about how whatever we do, as long as it’s honest good work, it’s honoring and glorifying God.
And then each day I try to get in Bible reading and prayer. I think God has made us so that when we obey his commands, it’s not just better for our spirit, it’s oftentimes better for our body and our health.
When he was twelve, Solomon Schmidt was inspired to write a book about U.S. history for children that would get them interested in the people and events that shaped America. This book became U.S. History Bites, which now has seven other books in the series. When he is not researching and writing, Solomon enjoys spending time with his family and friends, playing tennis, and participating in Civil Air Patrol.
How C. J. Milacci Prays For Her Writing
I’ve come to realize that nothing I create or write will have any true lasting impact if I seek to do it on my own. So whenever I sit down to write or edit or even work on marketing, I invite God into the process with me. He created imagination and storytelling, and He loves to use stories to reflect Him in different ways.
So I pray and ask Him to lead me, to direct the words I write, and to help the story grow and become all He wants it to be. I also make sure to spend time every day in the Bible. This grounds me in truth, points me back to my God, and reminds me that I can do everything as unto Him and for His glory. When I realize it doesn’t have to be about me and my abilities, but about honoring Him and creating with Him, it changes everything.
There are still days when it’s really hard to write or edit. On those days, I slow down, ask Him to help me and be with me and work through me, and then I push past the struggle and start writing. Over and over again, I’ve seen Him show up and take what I was sure would be a terrible writing session where nothing was accomplished and help me do more than I’d even hoped.
C. J. Milacci writes stories for teens and young adults with heart-pounding action and hope. As a referee, she’s always relearning the hard lesson that it’s impossible to make everyone happy, and she’s discovered that stories can be found anywhere, even on a lacrosse field. She’s passionate about crafting stories of good overcoming evil, finding hope in the midst of seemingly hopeless circumstances, and true acceptance.
How Kara Swanson Prays For Her Writing
I like to pray after I write. I feel like I’d rather pray before I edit because that’s the process of making sure that somebody else can understand it.
I’m not praying necessarily for the right words. I’m praying for a better understanding of what he’s already revealed through my writing.
So instead of praying beforehand for what’s about to happen, I oftentimes like to pray after as a thank you and as a show me how to interpret what we’ve created together.
For me, writing is something that I do with God anyway.
Kara Swanson writes stories about fairytales and fiery souls. She spent her childhood a little like a Lost Girl, running barefoot through lush green jungles which inspired her award-winning Peter Pan retellings, Dust and Shadow.
3 Ways You Can Pray For Your Writing
1. Pray beforehand. Ask the Lord for inspiration and guidance and commit your writing to Him. Start off thanking the Giver when using your gift.
2. Pray during. As Heather Creekmore says, “I feel like I’m praying constantly while writing manuscripts, asking God to help direct my words.” Or if you write a really great line, praise Him for it then and there.
3. Pray afterward. Remember the story of the Ten Lepers Who Were Healed–and how only one of them returned to thank Jesus? Be that one.
“Pray continually” (1 Thess 5:17). Commit your writing to the greatest author of all. Talk to Him about your work-in-progress, your fears, and your adorable protagonist. Talk to him. He loves to hear from His children.
Tip 2: Express Biblical Truths Through Your Writing
One of my favorite relationships in Andrew Peterson’s The Wingfeather Saga is between a rough-around-the-edges tween girl named Maraly and a noble-hearted resistance leader named Gammon. Maraly’s dad Claxton is the head of her clan, but cruel, and when she tries to prevent him from handing her friend over to the evil monsters of their world, he locks her up. So she runs away and finds her way into the resistance that Gammon leads and becomes like a daughter to him.
With Gammon, Maraly starts to understand how it feels to be loved by your father and learns new habits, like kindness and even just taking baths regularly. Then Claxton tries to get her back, stealing her away in a hidden tunnel. Gammon freaks out, overturning tables and banging on walls, trying to find where his adoptive daughter went.
It’s a beautiful stained-glass window into the reality of the Father’s pursuit of us. And while it’s not a strict allegory, it still shines a ray of truth into readers’ lives. They probably don’t even realize what it represents, but perhaps reading this subplot plants a seed of longing in them to be loved and chased after the way Gammon did Maraly.
Sarah Mackenzie, author of homeschooling help books for parents and picture books for their kids, and Chuck Black, author of a myriad of Christian fantasy books for tweens and teens, both understand how important it is to express biblical truths through one’s writing.
How Sarah Mackenzie Expresses Biblical Truths Through Her Writing
For me, the stories that I am most interested in writing or publishing are not necessarily overtly Christian, but woven with Christian truth all through. So I love some of the books written by Jonathan Auxier, for example, or N. D. Wilson, that are published in the secular market.
Readers have no idea that there’s so much truth woven all through those books, but they’re being impacted. They’re being told the truth. Their souls are being nurtured. It’s a little way to shine some light on them. That feels like a great gift. So I think that’s what I’m always trying to do.
In some ways, it’s a harder way to write. It’d be easy to slide in a Bible verse or a lesson or a message and call it a Christian book. But actually what really makes us followers of Christ is that we’re seeking truth and goodness and beauty.
I think our stories have the most potential for good when they reach those who don’t know Jesus. Then we’ll see that there’s this opportunity to just constantly point people back.
Sarah Mackenzie is the author of nonfiction books for adults and picture books for families to read aloud. She’s also the host of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast, which has been downloaded over 12 million times in more than 160 countries. She makes her home in the Northwest with her husband and their 6 kids. Get Sarah’s favorite read-aloud book recommendations here.
How Chuck Black Expresses Biblical Truths Through His Writing
As believers, we only have so many minutes on this earth, and I want to make sure that I am spending as many of those minutes as possible for something purposeful, which means serving the Lord.
I feel an urgency to use up my minutes. To me, if I didn’t have God in the center of my writing, I wouldn’t write at all. And so I try really hard–and I think it comes through in each of my books–to make sure that the focal point of every single story is God. I think the bigger challenge is, How do you write a book about God without it coming off as being preachy?
And so I’ve tried hard to do that, and the use of allegory helps me accomplish this. A lot of feedback from my readers has been, “I love your books because I don’t feel like you’re trying to preach to me like some other Christian books.” I just write the adventure and let the Holy Spirit do any teaching He wants to do.
Chuck Black, a former F-16 fighter pilot, is the author of twenty-one novels, including The Kingdom Series, The Knights of Arrethtrae, the Wars of the Realm, The Starlore Legacy, and Call to Arms. Chuck’s passion is to inspire youth to follow Christ while equipping parents, pastors, and youth leaders to do the same.
3 Ways You Can Express Biblical Truths Through Your Writing
1. Mini allegory: express truth about God. The most obvious ones in literature represent Christ’s sacrifice, like Aslan in The Chronicles of Narnia. But that’s not the only thing that readers need to know about God. What about his wisdom or his grace? The characters that display attributes of God in your book may be perfect, like Ruwach in The Prince Warriors, or they may be imperfect, like Gammon.
2. Human struggles: express truth about us. We’re all imperfect, and we can struggle deeply. Sometimes choices are hard. Sometimes going home, or going to school, or going to church is painful. Many times, books are about the excitement of battles or the drama of relationships. Don’t forget that wars leave scars and relationships are why characters act the way they do. If you’re looking for an example, the Visions of Grandeur collection portrayed the intense struggles of humanity poignantly and vividly.
3. The battle is the Lord’s: express truth about spiritual warfare. Yes, there are things going on that we can’t see. Whether you choose to show this through angels, visions, or the effects of prayer, remind your readers that what we see here on earth is far from the whole story.
Writing is a way we can be Christ’s ambassadors to the world. So use it to pour truth into the hearts and minds of your readers, whether they be Christian or not.
Tip 3: Create a Solid Story
We’ve all read those stories. The ones that show great Christian morals and values . . . only to be undercut by a weak plot and cringy dialogue.
And, to be honest, we’ve all written those stories too.
Oftentimes, we get so caught up in our themes and biblical truths that our story drags and our characters spout blatant sentences that are true, but not realistic.
Anyone feeling guilty right now? 🙋
Another teenage writer (author!) recognizes how fatal this pit can be to a story and offers us some truth of his own to point us in the right direction.
His name is J. C. Smith.
How J. C. Smith Creates a Solid Story
One thing that is important to remember is that you don’t necessarily have to be evangelistic to be creating good, godly work.
You don’t have to be writing a parable or an allegory or a story about Jesus, because God made the world. Just the act of creating things is Christlike and is a godly occupation. We imitate our Father whenever we’re doing something good.
Oftentimes I’ll stress about like, is this pointing to people in the right direction? That’s a good thing because you want to keep that in mind; you don’t want to lead people down the wrong path. At the same time just focus on creating a good story, a story that holds up internally and works functionally.
J. C. Smith is a seventeen-year-old student, author, musician, and visual artist. When he’s not creating or collaborating on stories, Josiah enjoys soccer, music, Sun Chips, and the study and practice of filmmaking. He lives in Grandview, West Virginia, with his parents and three siblings.
3 Ways You Can Create a Solid Story
1. Solid story structure. Make sure you’re hitting the right points of excitement at the right times and constantly building toward that climax. K. M. Weiland has a fantastic blog series about this.
2. Solid character arcs. Remember that it’s care for your characters that keeps your readers flipping leaves. In deeper stories, readers are not only asking, “What’s going to happen to them?” but also, “How will this change them?” and “What will they choose?” Because the truth is that experiences change us. Use your characters’ growth to reveal the themes of your story, instead of stating them outright.
3. Solid prose and dialogue. A jewel can be practically glowing with raw potential, but it’s how you cut it that makes it sparkle. Make sure to practice the basics of showing vs telling, concise action beats, and sizzling dialogue. Make that story sparkle.
“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters” (Colossians 3:23). And as Sarah Mackenzie said earlier, “It’d be easy to slide in a Bible verse or a lesson or a message and call it a Christian book. But actually what really makes us followers of Christ is that we’re seeking truth and goodness and beauty.”
So work hard at making your story the best it can be, and glorify God by doing so.
Tip 4: Remember What Your Purpose Is
In soccer, the point of the game is to score more goals than your opponents. You can juggle the ball 100 times and perform all the fancy dribbling maneuvers that you want, but if you don’t score any goals, the best you can hope for is a tie at nil.
You have to keep the goal in mind.
Writer, podcaster, and publisher Sarah Mackenzie as well as beloved children’s fantasy author S. D. Smith both know that you have to keep the goal in mind in writing as well.
How Sarah Mackenzie Remembers What Her Purpose Is
I have an enormous picture of Jesus right above my desk, right above my computer. When people come into my office, they’re like, “Oh my goodness, it’s so big.” It’s right above where my monitor is. It reminds me who my boss is–who I’m really working for.
I feel like we should be the ones who are the really good storytellers because Jesus taught through stories. Every time somebody asked him a question he answered with a story. He’s our supreme storytelling model and we get a chance to do the same thing. We can use him as our storytelling teacher.
Sarah Mackenzie is the author of nonfiction books for adults and picture books for families to read aloud. She’s also the host of the Read-Aloud Revival podcast, which has been downloaded over 12 million times in more than 160 countries. She makes her home in the Northwest with her husband and their 6 kids. Get Sarah’s favorite read-aloud book recommendations at readaloudrevival.com/recommends.
How S. D. Smith Remembers What His Purpose Is
For me, there is a sort of doxological orientation that’s so much about our identity, about who we are. For a Christian writer–a Christian who is a writer–it’s really important to kind of remember who you are and where your identity is anchored.
And for me, that’s not only thinking about myself in the right way with the right mix of humility, but also audacity together at the same time. Because I belong to Christ, I’m a child of God, I can have this sort of audacity. It’s not all up to me. So I feel like that orients me properly.
I have this audacity, but there’s this natural sort of humility that comes with it. I’m not God, I’m just a child of God with this calling. Thinking about myself in view of eternity, and then also thinking about the readers as human beings made in God’s image as well, reminds me I’m supposed to give them a gift from what I have.
I orient my own heart, my own identity, and then remind myself who they are and what I want to give to them, instead of thinking of them as just like a target or a networking opportunity or a sales opportunity.
I want to serve them. A very practical step in that is before you hit your manuscript, pray for those people. That centers you as you’re thinking about who you are as a child of God and you’re thinking about your audience too as human beings made in His image that you want to serve and love.
S. D. Smith is the author of The Green Ember Series, a million-selling adventure saga featuring heroic #RabbitsWithSwords. His newest novel, co-authored with his sixteen-year-old son, is a thrilling fantasy called Jack Zulu and the Waylander’s Key. Smith’s stories are captivating readers across the globe who are hungry for “new stories with an old soul.”
3 Ways You Can Remember What Your Purpose Is
1. Write your mission statement. This is just a paragraph (or more if you want) defining why you write. The Story Embers Manifesto is a good place to start.
2. Pray over your writing. Because honestly, if you want to please the boss, keep in touch with Him. See Tip 1 for a refresher on the different ways you can pray over your writing.
3. Add a visual reminder. This may be a “Writing for the Lord” sticker on your laptop, a “Child of God” sign on the wall, or a “servant of the Lord Jesus Christ” postscript below your email signature. Put it in a place where you’ll see it daily and use that as your reminder when you forget to remember.
Your Next Steps
As Christians, everything we do should be for God. You now know four ways to glorify God in your writing: by praying for your writing, expressing biblical truths through your writing, creating solid stories, and remembering what your purpose is.
When you let God into the process, he’ll move in it in ways you couldn’t have. Learn to lean on Him, and He will guide you.
The first tip we harped on was about praying for your writing. But you might be wondering, What exactly should I pray for? Just for a good writing session? Or can it go deeper than that?
It can. To help you on your writerly prayer journey, we’ve created some prompts for composing your own writing prayers for every part of your writing journey. You can access it below.
And remember–you’re not a writer who is a Christian.
You’re a Christian who is a writer.
