YA & Christianity discussion

I understand this won’t be used for a while, and I already added a topic under general called author tips, but I figured we could promote books here or give writing advice or just talk about our books in progress and see what we could do to make it better. Add whatever topics you want cuz idk what to add 🤷‍♀️.

Love this section, thanks for making it! I’m currently an author in progress, hoping to come out with my debut Christian Romance novel next year.

I’m curious if there’s anything you appreciate or you think are overrated about Christian romances that I can consider for my project? Thanks 🤗

Ahh oh my gosh thats so cool!! I think for Christian books a lot of them are really cheesy and my favorite ones arent as cheesy if that makes sense lol. But keep us updated on how it goes! Id love to read it when it comes out!

Welcome Kay! I’m also an aspiring author, and I’m not super familiar with romance novels, but I’m looking into reading one. My mom is trying to convince me to read her favorite book: The Lady and the Lionheart. So I might try that out soon. But one thing I always hate is when it’s tagged Christian fiction and then the author goes and puts a bunch of cuss words or whatever that do not align with Christianity. Make sure to keep us updated and when your book comes out I will totally buy it.

Aww thank you so much!! I couldn’t agree more with you both on the cheesy and swearing!! I’ve read a bit of Christian romance and honestly it’s hard to get into. I’ve been enjoying the YA books and so I want to implement that in my book without compromising my beliefs and values.

I post updates on my TikTok if you’re interested in following @klc.author

And I love to meet aspiring authors 😍 especially Christian!! Are you working on anything at the moment?

Yes! Me and Presley are writing a YA dystopian novel. We are about halfway through the first draft and we would LOVE some tips if you have any! (No pressure ofc)

Ohh that’s amazing! Love dystopian. Currently reading To Cage A Wild Bird and loving it!!

I haven’t been writing long but some things I wish I would’ve done for my first draft is getting someone to only read the first chapter. Chapter 1 is soooo crucial in a book (literally just learned this)!

I’ve heard it said that the first page alone is your “contract” with the reader - so it should have 4 things:

1) Person - do we know who is speaking?

2) Prose - do the words apart from dialogue make sense? Are they necessary? Can they be saved for later so that the first chapter isn’t filled with backstory?

3) Problem - does your MC face a problem? It doesn’t have to be related to the main conflict. It could be the mc is running late, or maybe they said the wrong thing that just got them fired.

4) Promise - does your first page leave a big question that you’ll answer by the end of the book?

Yes we definitely needed this. Our first chapter is probably one of the worst in the whole book 😬
I appreciate the advice!

Thank you so much for this!

No worries at all! I’d love to beta read if you need any help! 🫶🏼

That would actually be amazing. Thank you so much!

Thank you! We are only halfway through draft one but we should be finishing draft two by next spring. We will definitely update if you are still interested!

Sounds great, can’t wait!

I've written four Christian YA books, two are in a series, and two Christian middle grade historical fiction books, also a series, the second of which, Collywobbles, just came out today! So, I'm super excited about it!

And if you want to see real life woes of an author, Collywobbles by me, Christina Shaw, newly released on 9-1-26 is currently not under my profile here on Goodreads. It's under a different Christina Shaw's. This pretty much happens every time I publish a new book. But I put in a ticket and eventually I'll see it on my author dashboard. Still, it makes me a little sad because it's not there immediately.

Also, if anyone is interested, currently two of my books are free on Kindle from 9-1-26 to 9-5-26. The White Lilac and Light-Bringer.

That’s actually so cool! I will totally check one of them out soon!

Presley wrote: "That’s actually so cool! I will totally check one of them out soon!"

Awesome! Feel free to let me know what you think!

I totally will. I’ve started “Light-Bringer”, and I think the concept is so cool. I can’t wait to finish it!

Presley wrote: "I totally will. I’ve started “Light-Bringer”, and I think the concept is so cool. I can’t wait to finish it!"

Aww thanks! I really enjoyed writing it. I hope the rest of it lives up to your expectations!

@Christina:

I loved it so much! It was so good. The ending was my favorite part ❤️

Presley wrote: "@Christina:

I loved it so much! It was so good. The ending was my favorite part ❤️"

Yay! Awesome!! And thanks for leaving a review! I'm always in need of those. lol

Of course lol

Presley wrote: "Of course lol"

What about the ending did you like?

I just loved seeing Alethia meet God and seeing the whole town turn to the light

Presley wrote: "I just loved seeing Alethia meet God and seeing the whole town turn to the light"

Thanks for letting me know!