Genre Writing and Being Catholic

 

All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost; The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring; Renewed shall be blade that was broken, The crownless again shall be king. - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of The Ring

I'm participating in the NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing) for the first time this year.  For those who aren’t familiar, the challenge of NaNoWriMo is to write a complete, 50,000 word novel during the month of November. And I've reached the halfway point and while I am struggling I'm also learning a lot about writing. 

I didn't blog much during November or work on my etsy shop and, while I did manage to get to Mass and say the Rosary most mornings, my focus on my home definitely slipped.  So, I'm happy to go back to writing at my previous pace.

But the main issue that came up for me during NaNo is the conflict I'm feeling about writing any kind of popular fiction.  Before I came back to the Church I had no issues.  Now, I sometimes feel that I'm writing things that conflict with my Catholic faith. 

This is not to say that Catholic authors can't write genre fiction because, of course, they can.  J.R.R. Tolkien managed it.  And lots of people in the Catholic Writers Guild seem to be managing it too.  

So maybe I'm over complicating it.

I may just need to read more Catholic fiction!