On Writing: I Can be God

Years ago, a friend asked me why I enjoyed writing fiction. Somewhat facetiously, I said that writing fiction wasn’t as restricted by reality as nonfiction. That statement was truer than I realized.

The artist recreates reality in his vision of what is important and significant. It is in this sense that when I write fiction, I can be God.

As a simple example, if I want to use a quote to illustrate a point when writing nonfiction, I must typically spend hours and hours conducting research to find an appropriate quote. When writing fiction, I can simply make up the quote. In nonfiction, I can only report what a person actually said. In fiction, I can put words in a character’s mouth.

The ability to do this gives a novelist tremendous power. He can recreate the world in his own vision. Or, he can create a completely new world, as Rowling, Tolkien, and countless others have done.

When writing nonfiction, we must deal with reality as it is. Certainly, we can advocate for policies that reflect our view of what should be, and we can project what the results will be. However, in nonfiction, we are telling the reader the expected consequences. In fiction, we can show the reader.

As an example, in Dawson Town (book two in the Shattering Paradigms series), I show the results of protecting the rights of the newly freed slaves. This is far more powerful than simply telling the reader what the results would be. The reader can see the cause gradually lead to the effect.

Developing the characters in a novel involves many choices. The characters can be virtuous, or they can be villainous. The heroes can be principled, or they can be compromising. An author makes these choices, and his decisions are based on what he regards as important and significant. The Bible claims God created man in His own image. And that is precisely what the novelist does.