• Skip to main content
  • Skip to after header navigation
  • Skip to site footer

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World…Word by Word

The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Interview with Steve Laube
    • Statement of Faith
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Guidelines
  • Authors
    • Who We Represent
    • Awards and Recognition
  • Resources
    • Recommended Reading
    • Christian Writers Market Guide Online
    • Christian Writers Institute
    • Writers Conferences
    • Freelance Editorial Services
    • Copyright Resources
    • Research Tools
    • Selling What You Write
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Twitter
  • FaceBook
  • RSS Feed
  • Get Published
  • Book Proposals
  • Book Business
  • Writing Craft
    • Conferences
    • Copyright
    • Craft
    • Creativity
    • Grammar
  • Fun Fridays
Home » Writing Craft » Page 15

Writing Craft

Does Faith Limit Creativity?

By Dan Balowon May 12, 2022
Share
Tweet
7

No, it doesn’t. Look at nature or biology or astronomy and see how creative our God is. If anything, a Christian can see things clearer and be inspired to even greater creativity than someone who is not a Christ-follower.

But, I think writers of Christian books have limited their vision for what they can write about; and maybe, just maybe, publishers have a role to play in limiting creativity.

A couple of things to consider:

  1. Christian writers write from within their biblical worldview.
  2. Christian publishers should not be expected to violate their biblically based mission only to satisfy an author’s desire to be creative if #1 is not apparent.

All books (not only Christian) are classified under the BISAC system, and at the top of the categorization “tree” are 53 main subject headings.  Only one of the 53 is specifically Christian, as Bibles have their own heading. Another heading containing some Christian books is “Religion,” which contains all religions. There are subcategories under a few others to accommodate Christian books.

Here are the 53 topline headings from BISAC:

  • Antiques & Collectibles
  • Architecture
  • Art
  • Bibles
  • Biography/Autobiography
  • Body/Mind & Spirit
  • Business & Economics
  • Comics & Graphic
  • Novels
  • Computers
  • Cooking
  • Crafts & Hobbies
  • Design
  • Drama
  • Education
  • Family & Relationships
  • Fiction
  • Foreign Language Study
  • Games & Activities
  • Gardening
  • Health & Fitness
  • History
  • House & Home
  • Humor
  • Juvenile Fiction
  • Juvenile Nonfiction
  • Language Arts/Disciplines
  • Law
  • Literary Collections
  • Literary Criticism
  • Mathematics
  • Medical
  • Music
  • Nature
  • Performing Arts
  • Pets
  • Philosophy
  • Photography
  • Poetry
  • Political Science
  • Psychology
  • Reference
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Self-help
  • Social Science
  • Sports & Recreation
  • Study Aids
  • Technology & Engineering
  • Transportation
  • Travel
  • True Crime
  • Young Adult Fiction
  • Young Adult Nonfiction

So much for blaming writer’s block on a lack of something to write about.

God is present in all of life. He is a creative God, and Christian writers can and should focus their worldview into all of life. Look again at the list above; and, using your imagination filtered through a Christian worldview, every one of them could be a potential category for an interesting book.

As a side note, it is unfortunate the Christian publishing world (which includes me) decided to leave poetry over to the secular writers. Might be time for publishers to reconsider that stand.

The best Christian books never come about as a result of strategic planning or a research project asking what readers want. They are always the result of an inspired, creative spark placed in the heart and mind by the ultimate creative source, the Holy Spirit.

Here’s a creative exercise.

Consider the above list and the not-so-apparent “Christian” topics like antiques & collectibles, mathematics, and true crime. How might a Christian writer approach these topics? Let’s see how creative you are!

Leave a Comment
Category: Creativity

Six People You’ll Meet at a Writers Conference

By Bob Hostetleron May 11, 2022
Share
Tweet
15

As an author and literary agent, I’m often asked for publishing advice. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, my standard response to such queries is, “Have you been to a writers conference?” Because, for most of us, that is a major and necessary step toward writing for publication, for many reasons. One of those reasons is the variety and quality of people you’ll meet at a writers conference, …

Read moreSix People You’ll Meet at a Writers Conference
Category: Conferences

L Is for Libel

By Steve Laubeon May 9, 2022
Share
Tweet
8

by Steve Laube

 To libel someone is to injure a person’s reputation via the written word (slander is for the spoken word). I wrote recently about Indemnification but only touched on this topic. Let’s try to unpack it a little further today.

First, be aware that the laws that define defamation vary from state to state, however there are some commonly accepted guidelines. Anyone can claim …

Read moreL Is for Libel
Category: Book Business, Contracts, Publishing A-ZTag: Libel, Publishing A-Z

What Are You Doing This Summer?

By Dan Balowon May 4, 2022
Share
Tweet
6

Writers conferences have been scrambling to maintain a connection to writers in two years of COVID restrictions, but maybe we are working our way toward a day when most can meet in person and get back to the best part of conferences: the planned and unplanned conversations that lead to inspiration and encouragement for everyone taking part. How will I spend some of my summer this year? May 11-14, …

Read moreWhat Are You Doing This Summer?
Category: Conferences

Your Character’s Key Words

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon April 27, 2022
Share
Tweet
10

We all need passwords to log onto websites that we can hope to remember, right? So we are likely to choose configurations that mean something to us but not to others.  Here is a fun exercise you can use to think about your characters. Pretend your character needs a password, whether for a shopping site today or a safe stored under the floor in the year 1877. What word or number combination would …

Read moreYour Character’s Key Words
Category: Creativity

I Is for Indemnification

By Steve Laubeon April 25, 2022
Share
Tweet
6

Publishing is not without risks. Plagiarism, fraud, and libel by an author are real possibilities. Thus within a book contract is a legal clause called indemnification, inserted to protect the publisher from an author’s antics. The indemnification clause, in essence, says that if someone sues your publisher because of your book, claiming something like libel (defamation) or plagiarism etc., …

Read moreI Is for Indemnification
Category: Book Business, Contracts, Copyright, Legal Issues, Publishing A-ZTag: Contracts, indemnification, lawsuit, warranty

How to Make Me Stop Reading

By Bob Hostetleron April 20, 2022
Share
Tweet
41

Once upon a time, I finished every book I started reading. I had to. I felt an obligation. If I didn’t finish it, it wouldn’t “count” as a book I’d read. Right? Then, maybe ten, maybe twenty years ago, I changed. I think I realized how many books there are in the world that I want to read and how little time I had left in life to read them. And I reasoned that plowing through a book I’d lost (or …

Read moreHow to Make Me Stop Reading
Category: Book Proposals, Craft, Writing Craft

Writers Groups

By Dan Balowon April 13, 2022
Share
Tweet
19

Writers need good, personal support structures because so much of the work is done in solitude. Christian writers conferences, whether they are held online or in person, are part of this structure, as one receives training; exposure to different ways of thinking; critical review; advice from people with experience they lack; and, most importantly, relationships. But another level of support is …

Read moreWriters Groups
Category: Communication, Conferences

Cover Bands Don’t Change the World

By Steve Laubeon April 11, 2022
Share
Tweet
14

by Steve Laube

I had been reading and thinking about creativity when I came across the title of today’s post as a chapter by that name in a book called The Accidental Creative: How to be Brilliant at a Moment’s Notice by Todd Henry (2011). It stopped me in my tracks. I knew he was right. A cover band plays other people’s music. Often it is a new interpretation of a familiar song and sometimes …

Read moreCover Bands Don’t Change the World
Category: Art, Craft, Creativity, Writing CraftTag: Creativity, Writing Craft

Today Is a Good Day to (re)Read

By Steve Laubeon March 28, 2022
Share
Tweet
35

by Steve Laube

What was the favorite book you read, cover to cover, in the last year or so? Why is it your favorite? (It can be fiction or non-fiction. Faith-based or not.) Feel free to tell us in the comments about yours.

Read it Again

Now that you’ve identified the book. Read it again. As Vladimir Nabakov wrote:

“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A …

Read moreToday Is a Good Day to (re)Read
Category: Art, Craft, Reading, Writing CraftTag: Reading, Writing Craft
  • Previous
  • Page 1
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 13
  • Page 14
  • Page 15
  • Page 16
  • Page 17
  • Interim pages omitted …
  • Page 85
  • Next
  • Home
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • Interview with Steve Laube
    • Statement of Faith
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
  • Guidelines
  • Authors
    • Who We Represent
    • Awards and Recognition
  • Resources
    • Recommended Reading
    • Christian Writers Market Guide Online
    • Christian Writers Institute
    • Writers Conferences
    • Freelance Editorial Services
    • Copyright Resources
    • Research Tools
    • Selling What You Write
  • Blog
  • Contact

Copyright © 2025 · The Steve Laube Agency · All Rights Reserved · Website by Stormhill Media