Book Review: Writing in Obedience

It’s hard to find a balance between the Christian walk and writing for secular publishing markets, but this book provides solid guidance and wise insights. The two writers come from different places in life and offer two distinct points of view amidst the many short chapters. The text covers a wide variety of topics, including combining faith with professional writing, learning to write skillfully, and understanding how modern publishing works.

The concept of combining personal faith with freelance writing is not a new challenge for Christian authors. Burns and Yezak are able to share basic information and advice in simple terms on how to commit assignments to the Lord, maintain ethical standards in use of language and selection of writing topics, and understand what it means to be “called” to write a book.

Their personal testimonies are shared regarding this last point, for both have been successfully published authors and Burns is also a Christian literary agent.  Burns shares his agenting experience by offering frank information on the hardships of modern publishing, as well as the pro and con aspects of the option to self-publish. He does not lapse into technical terminology or publishing jargon, but, instead, assumes that readers of this book may be at the entry level of writing for publication. His style is more anecdotal, explanatory, and fundamental. Both writers share valuable insights on creating stories with proper plot structure and developing characters that are three-dimensional.

Although compact and succinct, this book is content heavy and nicely focused on how to write with quality, maintain a personal stand for Christ, and sustain an individual worldview that allows for writing in all genres without tainting one’s stand for the Lord.