What Does It Take to Write Quality Amish Fiction?

People who are aware of the popularity of Amish fiction in certain circles tend to laugh at it. Perhaps because the laughers are worldly people whose knowledge of the Amish comes from exploiting 'reality' TV shows. Or in other cases because they are macho-man (or woman) Christian writers who are embarrassed by the importance of the womanish genre of romance in the Christian fiction world. (Women READ. Deal with it.)

But Amish fiction is probably the most challenging of the fiction genres written today. You have to get the details right! Some of the Amish fiction readers have some degree of access into the Amish world--- Amish neighbors, Amish cousins, or they attend a Mennonite church frequented by former Amishmen. Not only that, but although the Amish rarely read fiction, a few have tried Amish fiction. So a newbie Amish fiction writer who gets the details of the Amish world wrong will soon be found out. Don't be that writer!

The Amish fiction genre was 'born' in 1997 when author Beverly Lewis wrote 'The Shunning'.  Beverly Lewis was born in the heart of Pennsylvania Dutch country, and her mother came from Plain roots. Judging by the acknowledgements in her books, she also currently researches her subject matter through direct contact with Amish and formerly Amish friends. Beverly Lewis's Amish fiction sets the bar for the rest of us.

If you were to decide you wanted to write Amish fiction someday, how would you prepare yourself? Here are my suggestions for how to go about it.

1. Cultivate your connections to the Amish world, if you have any. This means Amish or Mennonite neighbors, family members or whatever you can get. Even the more worldly 'high' Mennonite churches may be a way to get started on these connections. If you live near an Amish community, visit their roadside produce stands and patronize their other businesses. But be very respectful of the Amish way of life while you do it.

2. Do research by reading books about the Amish. Use discernment, since many of the useful authors are worldly sociologists who study the Amish the way they'd study a bug in a bottle. Read as many of these books as you can. Buy your own copies of the most useful works, once you are well informed enough to know what those are.

3. Read all the Amish fiction by Beverly Lewis. Read each book 2-3 times each if possible. When that is done, you can sample other Amish fiction authors and decide which of those authors are good role models for your writing.

4. Learn German. The Amish speak a German dialect, Pennsylvania Dutch, among themselves, and use standard German when they read the Bible and sing hymns. How much German do you need? I think it's best to study enough that you could read a German book that's relatively simple, or well-known to you (the Bible) without much problem. 

5. Learn a little of the Pennsylvania Dutch language. How much you need of it depends on how much access you have to real-live Amish people. If you interact regularly with Amish friends to the point you might be invited to Amish events such as church services, you should probably put a little effort into it. 

6. Know about Mennonite history and theology. (I kind of lucked out in that regard, my first college was 'high' Mennonite.) The Amish are a branch of the Mennonites and have similar history and theology.

7. Know your own theology and the history of your church. If you want to get a standard Amish fiction book published by one of the publishers that does that sort of thing, you had better either be some sort of Evangelical Christian, or know the beliefs of Evangelical Christians pretty well. If you are not a standard Evangelical--- particularly if you are something weird like Catholic, Lutheran or Mormon--- you thus have to be knowledgeable about 3 denominations: Amish/Mennonite, Evangelical and your own.  This knowledge is necessary to connect with the average Evangelical reader, the main customer for Amish romance, and to connect also with readers of your own denominational background if that differs from Evangelical.

8. Amish fiction is rural fiction. You must know about rural life--- REAL rural life, not the distortions put out by people with various agendas. If you don't live in a rural area or within convenient driving distance of one, consider a vacation in farm country (if you do the vacation thing). If you look online for your rural connections, be aware that many of the best 'farm' web sites are those by hobby farms who don't make any part of their income from their farm enterprises. The guys that really farm for a living often have a crap web site that hasn't been updated in 3 years. (My experience from shopping for breeding goats online.)

9. Be prepared to think through the whole 'romance' thing in modern fiction and move beyond it in a Christian way. It's not enough to just take out the sex scenes you'd find in an ordinary romance. Avoid pushing the whole idea that following one's 'falling in love' emotions blindly is the only right way to choose a spouse. When 'falling in love' emotions are toward an unsuitable person, one can learn to dismiss them as mere infatuation feelings. 

That's a lot of work, isn't it? And all to produce something which the world will look at dismissively. But it's kind of like that for any worthwhile fiction--- you have to work hard, and study various topics, to competently write something that those who know will recognize as a worthy effort. 

A side question: Can you write Amish fiction if you aren't a Christian? Wouldn't it be an unfair rule to say that only Christians could write Amish fiction?

Well, isn't it unfair that only Black people can write the novels that are included in an 'African-American Literature' college course? Amish fiction as we know it today is a subdivision of the Christian fiction genre, and the rules of the Christian fiction genre demand that the writer be a current, practicing Christian, in the same way as the rules of 'African-American Literature' demand an African-American writer. 

But certainly a writer of any faith or no faith can use Amish characters and settings in fiction, and do it well. Just do a 'lite' version of the preparation steps given above to get the basic knowledge you will need. As a non-Christian, your work will not fit in the typical 'Amish fiction' slot and so you must find your own readership. And you must market your work carefully so that no one expects your work to be ordinary Amish fiction--- especially if your novel breaks the rules of Christian fiction (no sex, no swears), or has negative things to say about the Amish or the Christian faith in general. No reader wants to be tricked into buying a book that they think is one thing that turns out to be another.

Have you ever read Amish fiction? Do you think, reading this list, that it might be too difficult a genre for you to write? What might you need to study to be able to write well in your own favorite genre/subgenre?

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