Perspectives: A Novel View

A big decision in novel-writing concerns which perspective you'll present to unfold the story and/or develop the characters you have in mind.

To find what will work best for your book, consider these questions:

• Whose story is this?

• Can your main character tell the story well or will someone else’s view be needed?

• Would a single viewpoint or multi-perspective be better?

• As a reader, which do you prefer?

My favorite novels almost always center around the viewpoint of a single person I identify with or admire such as Anne of Green Gables, Mary in The Secret Garden, and Christy. In addition, I like to observe people and discover what shapes, guides, and motivates them. So, it’s pretty much a done-deal for me to write from a single viewpoint, staying in the eyes, ears, knowledge, and feelings of one main character who intrigues me and has her or his own story to tell. Therefore, I mainly have to decide whether to use first person (I, me, we us); second person (you) which isn’t likely in my case; or third person (she/he, them, they.)

Regardless of persons, the advantage of this single view is intimacy and immediacy. i.e., You feel as though you’re there as the story unfolds and primary character matures. This makes the book your story too as you read. Or, equally important, this gives you an idea of what goes on in the heads of people like and unlike yourself.

In describing my book, Hand Me Down the Dawn, which I recently revised for its second printing, I’d have to call the novel “character driven.” i.e., The motivations, choices, introspection, and action come from one main character, who’s dealing with a theme of trust as she overcomes hard times and enjoys life-changing experiences in this inspirational romance novel set in Florida in 1895.

That’s the story behind my story, but let’s look at a different perspective on perspectives. In his newest novel, Dancing King, Glynn Young needed multi-viewpoint characters to keep his action-driven story in motion. Besides expanding the view for readers to get a fuller picture of the story movement, this treatment effectively produced a potential television mini-series, especially since the book is the third in a trilogy.

But I wanted to know what Glynn’s thoughts were and why a multi-viewpoint story came to him. When I emailed to ask, he wrote, “It's a big story, ‘big’ in the sense of complex. It's the story of a young man unexpectedly finding himself and his family in an exalted position.”

The size of your story and its theme, purpose, and reach can help you determine the perspective that will work best for your novel.

In my novel, for instance, a young woman grows up and learns what love is. And so, telling her story from her point of view makes sense.

In Glynn’s trilogy, the story of the main character – a priest-turned-king “is the heart of all three novels. In the first, it's part of a larger group of characters' stories, but he remains at the center. In the second, there is a period in which someone else must tell the story because he's incapacitated. In the third, the story is so large that it can't be told by just one narrator. To tell it properly requires the key players.”

The overall effect reminds me of an action movie that cuts from one character and scene to another as each episode interlocks to create a larger story with a huge theme: the need for political and religious reform. If, however, a single character had presented such a global story, it would most likely come across as either too cerebral or too slanted to maintain balance, and so Glynn's novel is well-suited to a multiple view.

Character-driven or story-driven (action)…? Knowing which category your novel best fits will help you to find perspective and get your writing off to a good start. Then, you can let your main character or main story idea lead you to The End.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2018

Dancing King, paperback



Hand Me Down the Dawn, paperback



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Writing fiction for Christians of all ages

First, have a Bible-based theme and purpose clearly in mind. For example, three of my novels focused on Romans 8:28: “For we know that all things work together for good for those who love God.” Each time I used that theme, the stories differed, but my purpose remained the same: to help strengthen the faith of readers and draw them closer to God.

Together your theme and purpose make a thesis statement that you can use later in your book proposal and back jacket blurb. As you write and revise fiction, your thesis statement will also help you to point your story or novel toward a credible ending while developing characters who care enough to act for and against your story theme.

Fiction for Christian readers especially needs a factual foundation with biblical truths acted out on each page. This means being true to Judeo-Christian values and to human nature -- true to the fears, frustrations, anger, worries, and longings people experience over the course of a lifetime and over the course of your story plot.

To immerse yourself in true drama, just look around. Watch people, but also consider the ups and downs in your own life. Most importantly, read the Bible, especially the book of Genesis. In that first book of the living word of God, you will find the beginning of almost every interesting story on the earth!

Those timeless yet timely Bible stories, Bible plots, Bible people, and biblical settings continue to affect every culture and also replay in contemporary lives and homes. To find good models to help you develop your story characters, look at the character development of Abram to Abraham and Sarai to Sarah.

The Bible also offers countless possibilities for developing a story plot. For example, read about the actions-reactions-consequences and outcome (i.e., the plot) that occurred when Abraham took Sarah’s advice and took her maid! See what happened before and after Ishmael was born and, later, Isaac. See if similar sagas might work well in faith-building stories for today’s readers, including non-Christian or secular readers with no awareness of Judeo-Christian values or what might happens when people try to follow God.

Although fiction may not be a “true story” that you’ve experienced or heard about, it must be a truth story -- one in which each character speaks or acts as a similar person would in real life. Sometimes, though, Christian writers believe they have to show a character’s relationship with God in such a positive, upbeat light that non-Christian readers think the resulting fiction is overly sentimental or downright sappy! Inspirational novels and stories do well to end on a word of hope, of course, but each chapter needs some kind of struggle, conflict, or obstacle to overcome, not only to strengthen Christian faith but also to build an interesting and highly credible story readers will enjoy and believe.

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© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. May God guide you in writing biblical truths in Jesus’ Name.

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