Who's telling this story?

In a story someone has to be the storyteller and it seems to me that that's a place where writers have tough decisions to make.

It's as easy as can be to take on the role of storyteller, the old sage holding everyone in his or her spell at the evening campfire. The storyteller knows everything.

But a more realistic story has the various characters know this and that and never the whole picture.

It's more realistic because that's how we all are. We know only what we experience ourselves, what we learn from others, and what we research (or snoop out).

I once wrote a book with an old bloodhound, Ernest, as an important character. The actual main character, a widow named Maggie, adopted Ernest from an old-dog rescue facility. 

She wanted to know his background. But no one knew where he came from. He was found out on the streets. 

I could have created a coincidence and someone who had seen him lying in the gutter might have known the person who left him there. But that would have been an altogether different story.

So how could I have Maggie learn his history? Truth: I couldn't. So I decided to let the reader know.

That way the reader can be in on important parts of Ernest's story, and realize that Maggie is about to discover something important that changes her relationship with the dog. They're in the know. They feel a rise in tension even before Maggie is aware there's anything to feel anxious about.

This dog has been through a lot, things that make a difference going forward. And the reader knows what happened that makes these next moments full of peril. Possibly full of peril or maybe not?

As Maggie starts to fall in love with Ernest, she asks him, "Where have you been? What has happened to you?"

But Ernest can't tell her. He can't even tell her his name is not Ernest.

What I choose to do in the end was to write Ernest's whole story, but I did it from the points of view of all the people who had come in touch with him through the course of his life, one at a time.

Each chapter is labeled with the storyteller's name, and then we hear that storyteller's experience with the dog we call Ernest. 

And the puppy who became Ernest also tells his story, as I imagine he experienced things in his young-dog way. This happened. And that happened. And this is where another dog lay down. And this is a good place to do my business.  And I'm hungry. And that man scares me. 

This way the reader can see, for example, what it was like the first time the young dog saw a young child. And that turns out to be a big moment, as we will find out soon.

From the chapter called 'Marie' (his first owner) through other owners and trainers and friends, we follow the dog who will become Ernest one person, and one point of view, at a time. Until the last chapter, which is called 'Ernest'. 

And thus Ernest's story unfolds.

If you'd like to read Ernest's story, it's called Becoming Ernest. It's available on Amazon as a novella, but you can also get it free in a box set of the whole Maggie saga (called Always Maggie.) The 3 Always Maggie novels and then Ernest's story are packaged together as an e-book (Kindle) series, at a savings.

Speaking of points of view, you have an important one, your own. This is why YOUR story is so important. I hope you're writing it.

And if you do read Becoming Ernest, please leave a review on Amazon. And subscribe to our emails for more posts like this one by clicking Our Worlds.