Writing a Christian novel can be easily confused with merely writing a family novel, but the two are not necessarily interchangeable. A Christian novel can be for adults only and many a family novel cannot even charitably be called a Christian novel. Essentially, there is just one overriding thematic element that makes any book length story properly termed a Christian: it edifies Jesus Christ as the lord and savior of the human race.
Instructions
Writing a Christian Novel
1. Set to work work on figuring out how the story is going to show Jesus Christ as being the lord and savior. Accomplishing this task is the all-important element in successfully writing a Christian novel. Once you figure out how the characters can reveal that everything good they do and everything good in the world is due to the power of Jesus Christ, then pretty much any subject can be tackled as a Christian novel.
2. Ask yourself one very important question and be brutally honest with your answers. Perhaps the most important question to ask when writing a Christian novel is whether you could take out any references to Christ or God and still have a serviceable novel. If the answer is yes, then what you have written is probably not a Christian novel because a Christian novel is not about direct references to the Lord, but rather about an overall belief that everything that takes place in the action is directly related to the providence of God. The saying -- historically ignorant as it is -- that Xmas is about taking Christ out of Christmas applies in reality to a Christian novel; if you can take Christ out of it, then it's not really about Christ at all.
3. Writing a Christian novel is definitely not about avoiding all references to sinful activity. This is the reason that not all Christian novels are necessarily novels that should be read by kids. With surprisingly few exceptions, a Christian novel can be written about any subject, including not just romance but sex. Theoretically, it should be possible to write a Christian novel about even the most deviant of human activity as long as the author keeps in mind that the theme of the book is about how Jesus Christ conquers all and the book shows that such activity goes against the word of God.
4. Preaching is for a sermon, not a Christian novel. While an author can certainly be successful with a certain segment of the Christian audience by essentially writing a book-length sermon, the average person really does not read a novel to be preached at. Understand, of course, that there is a difference between preaching and evangelizing. You can certainly bring non-believers to Jesus Christ with a novel, but the most effective way to do this is to present them with a rollicking good story and engaging characters and layer that with the understanding that the happy ending is only there by the grace of God.
5. Constructing a Christian novel that is an allegory that contains no direct reference to Jesus Christ does not make that novel un-Christian. C.S. Lewis built an entire career by writing a series of Christian novels that many readers only eventually come to grasp as a Christian novel. In fact, many readers never grasp that fact. Does this failure to understand that what you have read is a Christian novel mean that the novel is a failure on the Christian side of that equation? Not at all. By writing an allegory in which you have a character who is a symbol of Christ who is teaching solid, grounded Christian tenets, you are implicitly accepting that some people simply will not get it. As long as most people do, as long as you have not failed to successfully make the novel about Jesus Christ being our lord and savior, you cannot fail.
