I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. Matthew 10:16
As a Christian, I know how frustrating it is to pick up a book and then discover the content makes it unreadable… Swearing, explicit love scenes, or morality that leaves you uneasy. But I’ve also had my share of books which were clean and “sweet”… and ended up just being sickly, like an overdose of candy floss.
I started writing romance which I wanted to read… No swearing or foul language, a bedroom door that stays closed (or perhaps there isn’t even a door visible in the story), and characters you can root for. But I also intentionally included mess and grit. In my writing, I’m not imagining some perfect universe… I want to avoid simplistic wish-fulfilment and actually write about characters who grow and change.
When Jesus sends out His disciples as missionaries into the world, He describes them as “sheep” among “wolves”. That’s an interesting picture when you consider the cut-throat world of publishing, the scathing reviewers, and the platforms of Booktok and Bookstagram constantly shouting about spicy or “smutty” content (their words, not mine). It may seem naïve to write clean romance in this context. But I believe there’s a way to write which is both innocent and shrewd.
I don’t write cinnamon roll, perfect heroes. I don’t give my characters lives without suffering. I want to be truthful in my storytelling, and that means creating characters who—while fictional—reflect the real complexities of loving imperfect people in a broken world.
You may prefer stories which are lighter, and that’s fine. I’m just trying to write something truthful about love that I would want to read myself.
Sophie Toovey 