Denominationalism?

Deboray Gyapong has posed a question at The Master Artist that has been simmering around the christian view and other christian writing groups potts? Denominationalism in our writing.
Deborah asks...

Where do you draw the line in denominational distinctives?
What would turn you off and perhaps deter you from reading a particular author. If you knew the author were a Mormon or Jehovah's witness, would you be as enthusiastic about picking up a book? What about a Catholic? Calvinist? Arminian? Liberal Episcopalian? What are the things in a work that allow you to overcome a leeriness about a worldview you disagree with?

I've been reading comments from other members of the Writers View Forum and didn't think I should post. But I will post a quick response here for Deborah as it relates to christian fiction not self-help or nonfiction.

Where do you draw the line in denominational distinctives?
When it places itself above other Christians. When it seeks to separate or divide us.

What would turn you off and perhaps deter you from reading a particular author.
The denomination wouldn't bother me, but preachy dialogue and propaganda pieces turn me off.

What are the things in a work that allow you to overcome a leeriness about a worldview you disagree with?
Hadn't had that happened yet. But the second I read a character call a black person "colored," the book goes back.The only books that I will allow that is historical fiction or classics. Otherwise, I don't see denomination. I see unapologetic ignorance.

Dee

The Craft: Short Story Creation

I received the current issue of AWP's magazine, The Writer's Chronicle, this weekend at the Independent Small Press Conference and ran across a great article, "How to Write like Alice Munro" by Canadian writer, Kim Aubrey.

The article is seven pages long and chocked full of works cited. I love that. So you will have to pick up a copy to read the article in full detail. But since this my short story writing season, I thought I would a snippet of one point of this article to the blog for a craft exercise--Munro's thoughts on short story creation.

Who is Munro? And why should I care? Click here.

Munro believes that you should tackle a short story(particularly character development) like a novel. "I can't see them just as now, packed into the stress of the moment."

Aubrey buttresses her finding with an interview Munro had with Deborah Treisman of the New Yorker(Telling Stories.) Munro states. "I always think it[her short story] is a novel." You can hear the full interview here.

Craft exercise for the week: Do you have a WIP sleeping under your bed? Take it out and condense it into a long short story. Then email it to me and we will talk about it. I will post mine on the blog sometime this month. Remind me.

Writing to see what the end's gon' be,
Dee