So much great conversation has ensued following Realm Makers 2016. One person I’ve really enjoyed chatting with about RM, the Christian speculative community, and related publishing trends, is author and founder of Uncommon Universes Press, Janeen Ippolito. Janeen had some interesting (and I think, important) observations about the conference and where the Christian spec community could be headed. So I invited her to share some of her thoughts…
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I’m honored that Mike opted to share his platform so I could do a little brainstorming on a topic close to my heart: growth.
I’m all about the educational learning games services, whether it be in faith, in education, in understanding, or in profit (dare to dream). As an entrepreneur married to an entrepreneur, growth is a buzzword in our conversations about new ventures.
- Is this project growing?
- Has that endeavor increased in reach and marketability?
- What about this venture? Is it moving forward or stagnating?
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Crossover appeal is what I’m here to talk about. Specifically, the future of a unique conference like Realm Makers when sandwiched between two major markets: CBA and ABA.
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First off, major applause to the organizers and supporters of buy research peptides Makers who have given their all to see this tiny but mighty conference grow over the years. They have the guts and drive to do the impossible, and that deserves a ton of respect and commendation. Every year, the conference improves, and every year, the masterminds behind the conference express their willingness and openness to see this niche market of Christian speculative fiction grow and expand.
Bravo for all the hard work!
Now for the less fun part: how is this thing, this peculiar bunch of faith-based speculative fiction fans (or junkies, as Mike says) going to grow? The conference is a flourishing plant, breaking through some hard soil, but it’s about to hit two big rocks:
- The larger Christian market, which will still require a lot of education to understand the place of speculative fiction in their worldview
- The general market, which is hit or miss at best for indies and already has plenty of their own conferences and conventions to attend anyway
There are people who declare that the up and coming geeky generation of Christians will push the tide of Christian fiction towards the speculative. That each year, the market is growing, regardless of what the CBA says. This could be true. Certainly the general trend towards speculative fiction in culture hasn’t died off the way people said it would. But with this understanding, Realm Makers will continue to serve an exclusively Christian speculative fiction market, perhaps creating its own prosperous bubble right next to ACFW. Speculative fiction by Christians and for Christians.
Is this the endgame? To became the newest, strongest flavor of fiction on the Christian shelf of the bookstore or in the Christian category online?
Another view promotes ‘crossover writing’ with Christians writing for the general market. This is where things get complicated. First of all, my personal opinion is that many Christians aren’t comfortable enough to write for the general market, where story trumps theological ‘rightness.’ There are underlying tropes, concepts, and ideas within that subculture that people from a Christian subculture won’t necessarily get or even understand how to include.
Realm Makers included sessions on the Crossover Novelist, which brings up whether the conference is considering this market as well. Are attendees from other faith or lack-of-faith backgrounds considered part of the target market? Should they be? Or is Realm Makers trying to be a sort of training ground for Christians seeking to reach a general market audience? Should the purpose of this conference be two-fold? Can it be?
A Realm Makers crossover market appeal could follow a couple of schemes:
- Making a Christian conference so good everyone will want a taste. The thing is, people in the general market come from a lot of backgrounds and are rather sensitive to being preached at, and it seems that many people treasure the strong faith aspect of Realm Makers. Could a ‘taste and see’ method work? Possibly. I’m never going to say never. But it would require a lot of focus in terms of building relationships as well as continuing to pursue excellence and quality in conference presentation.
- Creating Realm Makers as a more theologically neutral safe space with buzzwords like ‘clean.’ Again, I’m not sure how viable this is. A lot of people know ‘clean’ is a buzzword for ‘a certain kind of morality’ which is fair since worldview will come through in writing no matter what. In trying to go ‘clean’ Realm Makers might just end up in a lukewarm place with zero audience.
- Making Realm Makers an educational powerhouse where people are taught how to do excellent writing. Period. There would be the faith aspect, but there would also be a high level of faculty and content so that people might come, even a la carte, just to get solid instruction. This goal is harder than people think, because it has nothing to do with hitting every major point of whatever favorite theology someone holds to and nothing to do with long discussions about whether we really need magic. Instead, this type of track would have everything to do with teaching writers of all levels how to nail down an excellent speculative story. Not a “clean version of this author/genre” book that puts cleanliness up there with good editing, but a well-written story with great plotting, characterization, themes, and editing that is tight and genre-appropriate and reaches the target audience in a fresh and memorable way.
Do I have any answers for the Realm Makers conundrum? Not particularly. Ultimately, all of these decisions rely in the hands of the fearless, driven entrepreneurs who dared to ask ‘what if’ and then went ahead and did. And kept doing, sacrificing time, money, and sleep (ohhhh, sleep) in pursuit of making this Realm Makers thing happen. I applaud their efforts. And as someone whose eyes are always on the growth and who wants to see awesome endeavors leveled up, I’m hoping and praying the fearless leaders make wise decisions regarding the future of this quite particular little conference that could, look at the company reviews online.
What about you? Any brainstorms about the place of Realm Makers?
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Janeen Ippolito is an idea-charged teacher, reader, author, and the Fearless Leader of Uncommon Universes Press. She writes nonfiction reference, including World-Building From the Inside Out and speculative fiction laced with everyday humor, horror, and cultural tensions. Her co-written illustrated novella, Thicker Than Water, releases on October 29th. Find her online at JaneenIppolito.com.
I’m not sure what the RM conference will become, but I’m confident in the conference organizers, who seem so willing to search out what God is doing and meet Him there, rather than shoehorn their own immovable ideas into a conference space. The article resonated with me because it laid out my own journey as a writer who happens to be a Christian. First, I wanted to be a ” strong, new flavor” on the Christian shelf. Then, I considered what “clean” meant and had to ask myself if vague parameters affected my writing in positive or negative ways. The article mentioned that a Christian author might struggle to understand ABA tropes, etc but that is not an issue for me. Now, I am writing for the ABA market, producing a “well-written story with great plotting, characterization”, etc. (She said, hopefully) If I were to be published in my chosen market, however, I would attend Realm Makers as time and finances allowed, because I would want to participate in continuing ed, discussions, and be around spec lovers from faith-based backgrounds. As always, thanks for great blog posts on this topic!
Thanks for your thoughts! I’m glad the article helped you reflect on your own writing journey. This who writing/author thing is a rather complicated mess for Christians, I’ve found–but oh so worth it.
OK, it happens to be the case I have some strong opinions on this topic. First, Realm Makers is about community, as much as that may sound like it isn’t a hard-nosed entrepreneurial asset. It does have entrepreneurial aspects though–RM gives a writer an opportunity for a writer with a specific interest to find a specific publisher, allows publishers of a particular sort to find writers, allows book cover artists to find people interested in making books, and many other similar interactions.
The community aspect isn’t just about selling books. Or not directly anyway. It allows authors with a particular interest to realize they are not alone in what they want to do. It removes a sense of isolation that not only can be emotionally encouraging, it allows an author to see what else is happening with writers having similar interests. Such exposure to other people’s work allows some natural “cross-pollination” where I might take on projects I would never otherwise do unless I saw someone else doing it. (Personally, that means I’ve written a few horror short stories I probably would not have written unless I’d been exposed to Christian horror writers at Realm Makers.)
Note that “community” begs an immediate question, a community of what? And what should Realm Makers do beyond what they are already doing to promote community? Well, perhaps they could make more of an effort to discuss specific genres and sub-genres and make sure everybody feels welcome, which is rather in line with your “so good everyone will want a taste” idea. But that aspect, the conference being so good that everyone wants a taste, I’d say is already going along pretty well at RM and simply needs to continue in a similar vein.
But back to community, I think we need to be actively defining what our Realm Makers community is FOR, what we are trying to achieve. Being deliberate instead of haphazard. That means exploring our theological distinctions and laying out what we mean in an atmosphere of respect and mutual tolerance. That’s really quite different from being a “theologically neutral safe place.” It isn’t quite the opposite, because I think we should be having friendly discussions about what we believe and think, while the opposite of a “safe place” would be a nightmare of antagonistic argument about everything.
I think the discussions that are already taking place about the role of magic in Christian fantasy (or aliens in science fiction) and the use of horror and what is appropriate and what is not and when and why (etc) are very important elements of Realm Makers. RM definitely needs to include this aspect, because people who show up at this conference for some reason or other self-identify as a Christian interested in writing speculative fiction. They don’t need to be told what to think, but DO need to be exposed to a variety of thought about how these things can and should work and have the opportunity to develop themselves and decide for themselves what kind of writer they want to be.
So, I think Realm Makers needs to be a sort of university. Sure, we definitely should be equipping people to become better writers. That’s an excellent goal. But I am not in agreement that RM should be “where people are taught how to do excellent writing. Period.” No. Writing is an extension of thinking and people need to explore WHY they want to write what they do and how to apply what they believe in stories, which includes theological meaning (as well as allegorical and metaphorical and scientific and even other kinds of meaning).
So, to summarize my thoughts on your three suggestions. 1. Already happening, needs to continue. 2. No, wrong approach. 3. Yes, we need to teach writing, but NO not “period.” That would be a horrible mistake. Theology as in what we believe and how we apply it to our stories is a crucial component of who we are as a community.
The theology and big idea conceptual aspect of Realm Makers is key to its existence in my view. And should only be increased, not minimized (though in the right way, of course, with mutual understanding and tolerance).
Looking back at my own comment, I realized I focused on on the “crossover” aspect of the post more than I should have. To clarify myself, I don’t think we need to build an exclusive brand of our own fiction, I DO agree that we need crossover appeal.
But I don’t think we need to make a conference have crossover appeal in order for our writing to reach out to people and find a larger audience. In my honest opinion, we need to help people understand what they are doing as Christian writers. What I was calling the “university” approach to RM needs to continue and develop even more. In other words, teach those who do come to the conference to be the best writers possible while thinking about and discussing the Christian aspects of their writing.
Long-term, if the conference attendees succeed in building audiences for their work (with the help of RM) then the conference itself will also grow over time. From fans of successful works by attending writers, as well as new writers joining both the conference and the speculative fiction genre.
“In other words, teach those who do come to the conference to be the best writers possible while thinking about and discussing the Christian aspects of their writing.”
Exactly!
Rachel, your summary makes me feel a bit excessively wordy. Though I did mean a bit more than that, yeah, you got me in a nutshell. 🙂
Yes, Rachel – I love your summary!
Well said, Travis!
Yes, thoughtful comments, Travis.
I think the camaraderie and knowledge sharing can’t be understated. When a bestselling, widely-read, widely-traveled author like Davis Bunn comes to your conference and states that he was so immersed he lost track of the time, then you know you’ve created something special. One of the other attendees posted about how Davis was chatting with them about Star Wars because “no one wants to talk about it at Oxford”…I mean, that’s just cool. And it could only happen at something like Realm Makers.
I had a similar neat moment when I first met Davis. I started blabbering on about my series, and eBooks, and how important I think it is to have well thought out back matter that points readers to the next book and where to buy it. Davis nodded and said “Yes, I really need to do that too. Thank you for mentioning it.”
How strange….ole smiling founder me telling a bestselling author how to sell more books. But again, where else but RM?
ohmygosh, Kerry! I love that so much!
This is exactly right, Travis. The three options in the blog post don’t fit with what RM is currently about, nor should they, as far as choosing one exclusively goes. If it was just another “learn to write well” conference like 3 suggests, which is clearly Janeen’s choice (and not a bad one, truly), it wouldn’t be RM. The community IS an end AND a metric. Yes, there needs to be excellence in writing content. But if that’s all it becomes, the thing we love about it will have been lost. There are other conferences and workshops we can attend for that, with less expense. But the fact that this isn’t /just/ a conference community — that the Consortium isn’t exclusive to attendees and is active year-round — makes a huge statement about the niche that RM is filling.
How many times have YOU heard someone say, “I found my tribe!” about RM?? I’ve heard it over and over. That’s amazing!
Travis Perry, have strong opinions? Never! 😉 Thanks for your thorough analysis and response! You bring up a lot of interesting perspectives, including the value of the philosophical discussions. I’ve been rather spoiled on that end, having attended many college classes consumed with worldview and motivation and the ‘big questions’ (literally, one course was all about ‘the big questions’) and then being able to engage with those questions through other avenues as well. Certainly having that opportunity of discussion at Realm Makers is a valuable resource to many people. Although I would say that at Realm Makers, theological big questions tend to trump all the others (allegorical and metaphorical and scientific and even other kinds of meaning). Inevitable at a Christian conference, but I enjoy variety in intellectual discussion. I’m also one of those students in the class who’s there to learn the material and can get annoyed at rabbit trails by the spunky/clever types in the front row, but that’s my personal preference. 🙂 Recognizing value in open discussion is important as well. It almost seems like you’re calling for Realm Makers to have a strong ‘worldview university’ component as a whole, which I have to say would be quite different from general market conventions–not saying that that is a good or a bad thing, but it is certainly a different direction.
Janeen, a “worldview university” is an elegant way to put what I said in many more words. 🙂
Yes, I think that would be helpful. It actually already happens to a small degree at RM. But isn’t systematic. I think we’d benefit from being more deliberate about that.
I appreciate this article and Janeen’s careful thoughts on this. I’m inclined to say, keep Realm Makers main attraction faith based….but let me explain why. As Janeen referenced, there are lots of good secular conferences, so I see little need to create another one. The thing that attracts me to Realm Makers is the Christian camaraderie.
That being said, I am the author of the article, Why I kissed Christian Fiction Goodbye, and I write science fiction and fantasy for the general market. My fiction is NOT clean or family friendly, but it does wrestle with theological topics. Is God good? Why would a good God allow pain and suffering? How do I persevere in my faith against powerful doubts?
I’m a Christian, and although I write for a general audience, I still enjoy the fellowship of believers when it comes to my passion for writing. I love to hear what everyone else is doing/thinking/wrestling with, and maybe add a thought or two. I strongly believe Christians need to write for a general or cross-over market. We need to be influencing the wider world and not writing fiction that is confined to a bubble and is only found on the “Christian” shelves in stores. HOWEVER, we do need fellowship and encouragement from fellow believers.
That’s why I’m attracted to Realm Makers (though I’ve just recently found out about it)
Yes! Looks like we’re of the same tribe 😉
I’ve had some similar thoughts since coming home from Realm Makers. But I have to say that one of the thing I enjoyed most this year was the awareness of the divide. There is a definite CBA camp in our group–those who want to find a place for spec-fic within the CBA. And there is a definite Crossover camp–those who want to write outside the CBA, keep things more subtle, but not feel we have to completely hide who we are from the world.
I fall into the Crossover camp, but that doesn’t mean I think the CBA camp is somehow “wrong” or “less” or should be abolished or something. I think BOTH camps need to exist, and RM is where we CAN exist side-by-side and work together. We need to be the place where the bridge between CBA and ABA exists. For too long, there has been such a sharp division. CBA conferences are so highly focused on working within their own market, and ONLY within their own market. So, crossover authors are forced to go to secular conferences and learn about writing alongside occultists and erotica writers.
I love that Realm Makers is the place I can find Christian writers from both camps, with more than one purpose. If we feel we have to narrow things down, or water things down, then we’ve lost what makes us different, and imho, needed. Just like in church, there is a need to feed the congregants *and* reach out to the unsaved. But far too many churches end up focusing on one or the other, and you end up with either elitist Christian clubs that only focus on their members, or outreach churches that can burn out because they neglect their members. Christians need both: church for the churched, and church for the unchurched. And speculative fiction needs both: fiction *for* Christians and fiction *by* Christians that reaches outside the bubble.
In some ways, this can cause friction (like the magic vs no magic discussions that always ensue) but it also helps us see where we have common ground. What is the core of our belief system that holds us together? How do we stay a united front of Christians and yet reach into both markets? I don’t want us to further divide. I want us to learn to support each other in our differing focuses. I want to be able to cheer on the CBA authors who are finding success in that market AND cheer my fellow Crossover authors.
What Kat said!!
Thanks, Meg!
Agreed 🙂
This is a great point (I didn’t even think about how there might be two different camps). Because there should be a place where Christian writers can all come and grow together, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to have the same audience—especially if the conference is set on combining the importance of craft and how it effects culture.
As an author who has no intention of writing for CBA and who doesn’t consider myself crossover because I’m not crossing anywhere, I appreciate these thoughts. I’m all for open and civil discussion between the ‘camps’ – again. I applaud intentional discussion about differences as well as similarities. And I want to keep the discussion on writing good stories above all.
Yes, definitely–the major point is good writing! What I want is for writers of all different types of Christian spec-fic to support each other in their different market goals, while learning how to create great writing. Some write for other Christians, some want the secular market, some have strong messages, some write strictly for story. But we are all Christians at the core, and that should bind us while we discuss and applaud our differences, recognizing that we are all there to improve our writing for whatever its purpose.
Good points by all. Kat, you got to the root of it. Christians won’t have significant cultural influence if we confine ourselves to one camp.
This is an interesting article. Though I haven’t had the opportunity to be a part of the Realm Makers experience yet, I’ve had fun watching it grow, and been very curious about this exact question. Where is this going?
As a Christian author who is published in the general market, I know what I would like to see it grow into but I’m wondering if I’m dreaming too big about something I know very little about. However, a girl can dream, right?
So, the Dream: I would just LOVE to see it become what LDS Storymakers has become to the LDS community (here are their goals: http://ldstorymakers.com/sample-page/). It could be a safe place for lovers of Yeshua to congregate and perfect their art, create goals for their work, and debate the place of Christian art in the world, with the ultimate end of shaping authors that can compete with top writers in the Speculative ABA (many of which are, btw, Mormon and frequent the above conference), therefore filtering the true message of love and salvation into the world (as we should be doing) rather than staying in the self-made echo chamber that CBA has become. Over the years I’ve realized there’s this huge chasm between what Christians call the sacred vs the secular, and that chasm has been what keeps most of the Church out of the world’s artistic culture (which is just a tragedy). We should be at the forefront. In quality and awareness. We should be intentional. The real question of a Christian looking at a piece of their own artwork shouldn’t be, “Did I use the right brand of paint?”, but instead be: how can this message become more effective?
We can still mull over theology and rolls of different markets, but in the end our goal should be to become the best creators we can be. Quality. Remember, our own savior was a creator, he was a builder, and I tend to think he was more worried about the quality of his own craftsmanship than which people in the village he was making that chair for. 😉 Whatever we create, it should be done with perfection (as much as can be).
As a writer in the general market, I have to speak to crowds that don’t think like me, don’t know me or my beliefs, and don’t really care when it comes down to it. All they care about is if I’m a good story-teller or not. In the end I need to be seen as someone who can be taken seriously. But still, being in the darkness, trying to shine a positive and Loving light, it’s exhausting! It’s lonely and makes me miss my tribe. But then on the CBA side, when I enter that world, I’m seen as a sort of tainted thing, as if I’ve been playing about in the pee-pond. Perhaps I’m not a proper Christian writer? I don’t, after all struggle over the theology I put in my books. It is a very scary thing to not have a home where one feels safe, that they can be their whole true self in. That’s what I would love to see Realm Makers become. And I know there are a LOT of Christians out there in the general market, writing and creating, that live in the shadows, and would love a shelter to huddle in every once in a while, where they can grow and learn and be challenged, and maybe help others along the way.
But that’s my constant soap box. Craft is king. Be an awesome writer that’s a Christian, not a Christian writer. Plus, I’m jelly of the LDS because they get Brandon Sanderson AND Orson Scott Card. 😉
You’re speaking my love language Rachel… well said 🙂
I am really loving this discussion, Mike and Janeen, so thank you so much for putting this blog together.
“It is a very scary thing to not have a home where one feels safe, that they can be their whole true self in. That’s what I would love to see Realm Makers become. And I know there are a LOT of Christians out there in the general market, writing and creating, that live in the shadows, and would love a shelter to huddle in every once in a while, where they can grow and learn and be challenged, and maybe help others along the way.”
In terms of our goals, Rachel hits the nail on the head here as to what we’re after in terms of the community at the conference.
Now, the trick will be, while we continue to host authors from both the CBA and ABA camps, to foster an environment of mutual respect, even if the most conservative side of the spectrum considers writers who use magic systems on dangerous ground, and those on the general market side chafe at the parameters CBA-oriented authors stay within.
I have never hoped that the entirety of the Realm Makers community would agree on these deeper points of why we include or exclude content from our stories. But I do want to offer that safe place for ideas to be explored, across the spectrum. And in fact, I would be concerned if we all agreed, because that is the point at which individual growth is won’t to stop.
It sounds like you guys have been doing a great job fostering diversity at RM. And I very much agree with this: “And in fact, I would be concerned if we all agreed, because that is the point at which individual growth is won’t to stop.”
Plus, when everyone agrees, it’s boring. 😉 I’m looking forward to seeing the fruit of your labors continue! Hoping to make it to Nevada!
*wont
Yes, autocorrect. I meant wont.
LOL…the demons of autocorrect strike again
Love these thoughts, Becky and I’m glad you’re cool with this explosion of questions I threw into the ring. 😉 I think the development of Realm Makers along those lines, as a place of community for all, makes a lot of sense and will see growth and repeat visitors who need a safe place to be weird and controversial in their own special ways.
Sounds like a great dream and purpose, Rachel Marks. So glad you shared! I’m enjoying reading through all of these responses.
I agree with what Kat is saying. The awareness of that divide was something I actually loved about RM – that CBA and ABA authors (and trad, small press, indie, the whole gamut!) were fellowshipping together, building each other up, and being encouraged to follow the calling GOD placed on their hearts, reaching the audience HE is leading them to reach. Maybe there was more friction than I was aware of, and discussions I didn’t overhear that were contentious?…but I love that RM is and can be that bridge, a community where Christian spec writers of all flavors can fellowship together and – like Travis said – know they are not alone, and “cross-pollinate” and bounce ideas off each other for growth. I have faith in the Lord and in His Spirit dwelling in the church enough to trust that differences do not always have to mean division, and don’t necessarily spell doom or an automatic split for a Christian organization. As Kat said, “I don’t want us to further divide. I want us to learn to support each other in our differing focuses.”
Just being encouraged in my spec writing, *in the faith*, was what I loved most about my first experience at RM. I feel like it would lose so much if it lost its distinctly Christian flavor. I am with other commenters, though, in suggesting that it could become a Christian spec conference, a place for readers and spec lovers as well as authors. That could be really neat. But I would hope for a strong writing community to remain. Perhaps it could become a meeting place for other kinds of fantastical Christian storytelling and art as well – film, art, and so forth. We already see a taste of this with jewelry and some art being sold in the bookstore.
But to be honest I am not quite sure what the fear is here. I have a lot of questions (mostly rhetorical, perhaps). Is the main concern that RM won’t grow enough? – or, if it doesn’t grow, that it will simply die? Why does it have to be one or the other? If RM is currently “the little conference that could,” is it only a good thing if it becomes “the great big conference that did”? If it doesn’t become “big,” why is that a problem? I think it can grow, don’t get me wrong – I have big hopes for it too! But even if it merely continues the course it’s on, they are already doing great things. 🙂
I believe RM is a huge blessing to the Christian spec fic community. The Minors and other coordinators are dedicated to following the Lord in this endeavor, and seeking His guidance, so I’m really exciting to see where He takes them – and all of us. 🙂
Edit: I am not suggesting people on this thread don’t have trust in God or the Holy Spirit’s power. 😉 Worded that poorly. I hope no one took it that way!
Bethany also makes a good point. While I don’t think we’re close to finding all the writers for whom Realm Makers could be a benefit, we also went into this knowing that we are catering to a niche. If the conference never gets “huge,” that’s ok with me. So long as our reach is thorough and we are serving those who do turn out well, then I consider it worth doing.
Great point about the size and growth of RM. I, too, want it to grow–but more importantly, I want it to *work* and to succeed in God’s plans for it. That may mean it never gets huge. Again, like churches, sometimes overgrowth becomes the downfall. Slow and steady is what I’m hoping for. Cohesiveness and focus. To continue to be a place to connect and support each other.
Great contributions! I appreciate the acknowledgement of where the conference stands and what it’s purpose is. My innate mindset is always ‘grow, grow, grow’ because that’s part of who I am, but at the same time, there is certainly a place for a solid community of writers. I just like to know where people stand and what the intentions of things are. As I’ve mentioned to others: “I only poke (with questions) the things I enjoy.” As I mentioned in my article, if Realm Makers becomes the kind of strong community that ACFW is (in the special way of spec fic people) and provides a unique brand of support for them, then that’s a direction and there’s nothing wrong with it. I do admit to using the ‘bubble’ word, which is loaded with negative connotations, but bubbles aren’t always a bad thing and can exist for good reasons within a larger whole.
Also, as an aside:
Ms. Ippolito said, “…many Christians aren’t comfortable enough to write for the general market, where story trumps theological ‘rightness.’ There are underlying tropes, concepts, and ideas within that subculture that people from a Christian subculture won’t necessarily get or even understand how to include.”
This is an extremely sad statement. I desperately hope it’s not true…
Note that I am not saying this is a good or a bad thing. I believe authors should first and foremost be driven by their convictions, by serving the reader, by hitting the market, and by honoring their worldview. Super easy, right? 😉 And I’ll never condemn any Christians writing any kind of fiction informed by their beliefs about language, sexuality, violence, or other mature content. But since convictions are part of what guide a writer, if an author’s convictions include the belief that all stories must hit the major points of their denomination’s theology, or Christian theology in general, then that isn’t going to mesh with general market. Their need for ‘rightness’ as defined by their convictions will make the idea of going more underground or subtle repellent–and there’s nothing wrong with them choosing to be open, any more than there’s something wrong about general market people like me choosing to go for story. I don’t think it’s necessarily a matter for sadness or happiness. It’s just about what market a writer is comfortable hitting and what speaks to them–the same way a romance writer might not go for fantasy or a horror writer might not go for children’s picture books. Each genre has particular conventions, tropes, and beats that people who aren’t knowledgeable about that genre won’t even know how to hit. At the same time, bringing a fresh take into a genre is a great way to make a statement. It’s a reason why people recommend both reading within AND outside of your genre.
Also worth considering – theological rightness (in a good sense, not a self-righteous sense) should MAKE for good stories, not the other way around. If integrated theology leads us to poorly written stories…there’s a problem with our theology.
Bethany, to agree with you, H.G. Wells’ point was to opine on colonialism in the War of the Worlds and he took on what he saw as the potential evils of medical experimentation in The Island of Dr. Moreau. Isaac Asimov explored what a society would be like with robots and what it would mean if you could scientifically predict the future, many, many writers examined what it would mean to meet extraterrestrials, and numerous others pondered what sort of future we may have. The greatest works of especially science fiction have always revolved around ideas. This also true for other genres in speculative fiction, but science fiction writers have for as long as the genre has existed been speculating on possible horrors of the future, on the role of technology in relation to humanity (including deliberate alteration of humans), on what it would mean to meet extraterrestrials for the first time, etc. etc. Idea-based story concepts are vital to the genre.
Christianity also can be seen as a framework of concepts, idea. Christian writers bring a perspective to the ideas that form the basis of much of speculative fiction that should be intrinsically different in some ways that what a non-Christian writer would think. What I have to say about the end of the world or extraterrestrials or predicting the future should be distinct from what someone who believes the universe generated itself via evolution would say. At least to a degree.
So yes, theological understanding should feed into a story and be part of its framework. Even though that in and of itself doesn’t constitute a story worth reading, it is the ideas that underpin our stories that makes the group of writers at Realm Makers distinct from the rest of the writing world. In my view.
Becky, and others, my take: The “faith-friendly” element is what makes RM distinct. I could see tinkering with that, broadening our understanding. But I don’t believe we could diminish that distinctive without denying the essential vision of the organizers and the people who have made this thing grow. So for me, the “faith friendly” distinctives are non-negotiable.
However, I definitely do see those “rocks” Janeen spoke of. At the recent conference, I had several hard discussions about “safe,” “family friendly” fiction. Many CBAers simply see this as intrinsic to Christian stories. I’ll never forget attending a ACFW, challenging these strictures in a workshop, only to have one man stand up, turn beet red, and rebuke my line of thinking. To which he received great applause. Same goes true for certain theological strictures. Point being, while I think maintaining the “faith friendly ” distinctive is essential, I agree with Janeen that a clash between CBA and ABA enthusiasts MAY be inevitable.
So many of these comments have resonated with me. It’s a delight to see our differences, while also perceiving how similar we are. It’s our differences that enrich us, but it’s also true that they present the opportunity to clash. What we do with that opportunity is up to us.
Difference do not necessarily divide. Jesus ministered to the despised outcasts, the self-righteous, and to his own disciples. His love reached both insiders and outsiders without distinction. The early church debated whether it was acceptable to preach Christ to Gentiles. They united to reach beyond themselves, even though that meant walking among those with vastly different world views. (For which I am profoundly thankful.) Some reached mostly Jews, while others reached mostly Gentiles, but they did not alienate one another because their ministries were different.
Whether Realm Makers becomes a conference divided between markets or remains a conference united across markets, is up to us—to each of us and to all of us. Let’s choose the higher, united road. Others have succeeded. We can too.
Okay, so maybe it’s because I’m still in post-conference-reentry-syndrome because of back-to-back conferences or maybe it’s because I’m a fairy at heart and quite simple. But man, there are a lot of words in these comments! Ha!! For me, I love Realm Makers for a few reasons:
1) I found my tribe
2) great workshops & teaching
3) knowing it’s totally okay to love Jesus and write weird stuff
4) the costume banquet (heh)
Personally, I don’t see a reason to look ahead and be afraid of what the future may hold. Let this baby grow naturally! Sure, be wise in planning and anticipate the possibilities, but for zombies’ sake, let’s not get crazy. And now, I’m taking my wings and going to bed. Autistic kids love getting up early and mine is no different. 🙂
I understand Janeen’s point about narrowing down our niche. But I feel like we’ve already got a pretty tight niche. From the first, we’ve taken care to describe Realm Makers as a conference for *Christians* who write speculative fiction. (As opposed to people who write *Christian speculative fiction.*) That’s a pretty narrow niche, actually.
So the bull’s eye of our target is serving these Christian writers, and I think you see that in the kinds of workshops we offer. They’re mostly focused on writing well, on our Christian faith, and the intersection of those two things.
The outer rings of the target are what we do after we’ve written: pitching agents and editors, self-publishing, cover design, marketing … There’s room on the target for all those things.
I don’t see the conflict between CBA and ABA and self-publishing as a problem. Because neither CBA nor ABA nor self-publishing is at the center of our niche. The center of our niche is Christ. Our devotion to him is the most important thing we do, and as long as we maintain that, I believe God will continue to grow this thing in accordance with his will.