Last week Thursday, I attended one of Jerry Jenkins’ free webinar entitled Eight keys to writing a powerful faith-based book.

Jerry B. Jenkins is the author of almost 200 books and is known for his best selling series, Left Behind that he co-authored with Tim LaHaye.

I have decided to share these tips with you.

1. Reader first

According to Jerry, your first and foremost goal when writing a book about your faith is to put your readers first or think “reader first.”

Every sentence that you write should go through the filter of “reader first.” Therefore, you must know your target audience and give them what they want.

2. Avoid preachiness.

When you are passionate about a subject it is difficult to suppress your emotions.

However, even though it is important that some of your passion must be seen in your writing you must avoid being too forceful about your opinions.

In other words, pay special attention to how you express yourself so that you will not alienate anyone.

3. Impart to your readers the “come alongside” approach in your writing.

You can either point a finger at your reader and preach to them or you can invite them by your side to share your story.

Readers love stories.

4. Resist the urge to explain everything.

You have to give your readers credit to grasp some things for themselves by allowing the story to make its point.

Therefore, you should avoid stating the obvious.

5. Gain credibility through realism by making your character versatile and more realistic.

Not every one of your characters should share your point of view.

6. Avoid insider jargon.

This simply means you should avoid using church cliches or jargon such as “love offering”, “sword drills”, “fill with the spirit” etc.

Hence, you have to find fresh ways to tell about the old truth of salvation by using new language.

7. Include credible skeptical characters.

It is okay to make the “bad guy” in the story a regular family guy with a wife and kids. He doesn’t have to be a drunkard or drug addict.

Make your characters more realistic and accept the fact that not all of them will come to faith in the end.

8. Commit to a rigid writing schedule – whatever works best for you.

This should also include deadlines.

Source: –  Jerry Jenkins

I hope that you will find these tips helpful in your writing.

Share with us your thoughts about these tips.