In May of 2016, just after finishing my junior year of college, I found myself staring at the start of an outline for a new writing project. I could feel that the story was stewing with potential—things hadn’t clicked yet, but I was inches away from a breakthrough.

When I get in this mode, I tend to take a step back and just write a list of whatever pops into my head. That night, it looked like this:

Need a book that represents queer Christian teens. Lots of viewpoints—lots of arguing. NOT an...