Story Element: Message

With this article, I begin discussing something it took me a long time to get a firm grasp of. Sometimes, I still despair of ever fully understanding the process of finding the message for a new novel.

Let me begin by saying one of my favorite authors is the Scottish writer, George MacDonald. I first encountered George MacDonald’s writings in the late 1980s, when author Michael Phillips began editing them for the modern reader and republishing them through Bethany House.

I was struggling with my own writing at the time, wondering whether it was an entertaining but useless hobby or something I could really sink my teeth into.

MacDonald’s historical, Christ-based novels about the men and women of 1800s Scotland were exactly what I needed exactly when I needed it. In those novels, I found the inspiration and enjoyment inherent in the kinds of stories I hope one day to write. Many of them are still available through Michael Phillips’ web site.

Many years passed between my first discovery of these wonderful tales and my next encounter with them in 2009. Reading them that summer was like getting re-acquainted with old friends. I devoured them and looked for others at the local library. As happened the first time, I found new insight into the craft of writing in reading MacDonald’s work. As a result, I began looking at my writing in a different way.

George MacDonald always centered his novels around one or two central Christian themes and often-times, the characters present very challenging questions to each other and, subsequently, to the reader. For example, in The Curate’s Awakening, the question asked of the curate and which gets the story going is “do you really believe everything you preach?”

The idea that my writing (and my art) are tools God has given me to use in the expansion of His kingdom is something that had been slowly dawning in my awareness for some time. I’ve always treated my painting that way, but writing? That’s always been more for my own entertainment than anything else, though there is that latent hope that something profitable comes of it eventually.

As a result of all this reading and pondering and some excellent sermons at church, I began seeking messages around which to build my own stories. Something more meaningful than whodunit or will the boy get the girl. Some very thought-provoking ideas were presented and, in some cases, I knew the characters who asked the questions.

All stories present a message of some type. No writer ever writes without hoping to convey his or her point of view, regardless of protests to the contrary. Whether deliberately woven into the story or merely the result of it, there will be a message.

Writers who are Christians first are even more aware of this imperative which is also an opportunity. What is the message woven into your story? Forgiveness? Grace? Mercy? Redemption? Is it the main plot or does it run through the subplots of the story? Do you have to know what the message is before you start writing?

Ah! There is the real question.

Unfortunately, there isn’t a carved-in-stone answer for that. Every writer strikes upon the message of their story differently. All I can do is share what has worked for me and for others who have struggled with the same issue.

Many writers do not start a story without first identifying the guiding scripture. Personally, there are several passages in the Old and New Testaments that beg me to be turned into a novel. If a particular scripture speaks to you, explore ways to illustrate that scripture through fiction.

Do you struggle with something in your own life? Is there some besetting sin you are forced to confront over and over, sometimes on a daily basis? I know of at least one author who whose first Christian book dealt with an issue she was dealing with herself. Through the voice and actions of her main character, she explored her own weaknesses and God’s great love and abounding mercy. That became the message for that book and that book became the first of a four-book series.

For many stories, though, the message is something that is more the responsibility of the reader than the writer. After you’ve told the best story you can tell, your reader will take from it whatever is closest to their personal needs at the time.

Since I’ve recently seen The Fellowship of the Rings again, let’s consider it as an example of message.

The first time I saw the movie, I was aware of the main goals and main desires in the story. The main desire is so clearly stated (more on desire next time) that it’s next to impossible to miss.

But the message?

I don’t remember that I came away with a message the first time I saw the movie other than the basic message to never give up. That message was still there this time, but I clearly heard another message, as well.

In one scene, after a violent confrontation, Frodo told Gandolf he wished he’d never been given the One Ring and that he would give anything to make things go back to the way they’d been before.

Gandolf told him he had the ring because he was supposed to have it. He was in the time and place he was supposed to be in. The only question he had to answer was what he did with that time.

I don’t remember that the first time I saw the movie. It was such a major impact this time around that I can still see the scene and I can still feel my own tears in response in watching the movie this time. Why? Because I’ve wondered why I’m living these days and why I seem to have been given work I’d really rather not have. I am in Frodo’s shoes in some respects, so I heard Tolkien’s message just as clearly as Frodo heard Gandolf’s.

In another day and time, that message might mean little or nothing and another one will be important.

I don’t know if J.R.R. Tolkien planned his story that way or if he was just writing. I do know God used his work to convey a wide range of messages. I believe He uses the writing of every Christian and, yes, every non-Christian writer in the same way. What impacts one reader will be irrelevant to another.

So what’s the conclusion? Just this. If God has given you a clear and concise message for your book, go with God in developing it and writing it. If not, don’t despair. Of all the things that readers find in stories, the message is the most varied and, sometimes, ethereal. Don’t worry if you don’t have a clear idea of your message to begin with. There are things you will need to be concerned with more than that.

We will begin discussing those by talking about Desire (with a capital “d”) next time. Until then,