The Didactic Dilemma: How to Include Philosophy in Your Fiction

Fiction that includes instructional philosophy has been around since the beginning of recorded history. In ancient Greece (620 B.C.) Aesop’s fables began teaching us with such memorable lessons as “The Tortoise and the Hare”. Though his stories were simple and each shared a single lesson, they created a long-lasting impression on readers. Enough so, that they are still widely published today.

Modern fiction of all types can include multiple life lessons, so much so that they become recognized as an author’s philosophy. Such are the works of Ayn Rand, author of The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged. From the award-winning science fiction of Robert Heinlein, which includes political and social commentary, to the more obvious mystery work of James Redfield’s The Celestine Prophecy, didactic fiction abounds. It can be used in business novels such as Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World, and Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist, or to promote one’s own pathway to spiritual awareness such as the works of Carlos Castaneda, Richard Bach, and Dan Millman.

Perhaps the wide range of subject matters and premises are the reason that bookstores and distributors often mislabel the genre. Sometimes fictional works dedicated to promoting a philosophy can be found under labels such as: “Mind Body Spirit”, “New Age Fiction”, “Motivational Fiction”, “Didactic Fiction” and “Philosophical Fiction”. Worst-case scenario, these marvelous books end up lost in the “General Fiction” area. Regardless of the labeling pitfalls that go along with creating fiction in this genre, often the works are extremely successful monetarily, and socially stirring.

The Magic Life – A Novel Philosophy is a wonderful example of using a general fiction novel to create a “life changing experience” for the reader. More than just giving the reader a step-by-step instruction, but rather by creating powerful mental images, an author is able to ingrain the reader with empathetic and emotional ties to those philosophical lessons learned.

Adding philosophy to your own fiction is a powerful tool to creating memorable and sometimes even life-changing fiction. Here are seven strong recommendations when writing a piece of didactic fiction.

1. Create the story first

You need a concept. Authors are always told, “Write what you know”. The Magic Life is a story based upon an accountant and a street magician from the very start. Magic and accounting are very familiar grounds for an author with an MBA who spent years as a professional magician. The novel would be much more difficult to write from someone with background in clothing design, or carpentry. But just having the character backgrounds and setting isn’t enough. Knowing that the story must contain conflict, rising action and eventual resolution, an outline for the novel must take shape. As the story evolves, it becomes the comedy, mystery, tragedy and/or the love story that “sells” the philosophy to the reader. The Magic Life was written as a mystery, first; a love story, second; and a philosophy last. You must first create your story within the rules of good story telling if you want to maintain a connection to the reader throughout the entire book. The philosophy must be written around the story – not the other way around.

2. Define the philosophy and what you wish to convey

This is difficult for many people. Most of us rarely take the time to really think about what we believe deep down. Pick the subject you wish to philosophize about. Is it the meaning of life or just how much money is enough? Spend some time sketching out your belief system in short statements. i.e.: “haste makes waste”, “change is good for you”, “you can’t always get what you want”, “the squeaky wheel gets the grease”. If you see statements that conflict with each other, you really don’t believe one of them. Get rid of one. These aren’t necessarily clichés; they should just be your true mind-set about the subject. The Magic Life uses many of these: “You make the choice to be what you are;” “Life is full of happiness and sadness, whenever life is full”, etc.

Next, boil it all down into a single philosophical statement such as, “There is no afterlife, so live for the moment”, or “teaching and learning are the most important aspects of life”. This doesn’t have to be reflected in a single sentence; a paragraph or page is fine for this. But once you’ve done it, you have created much of the story dialogue you need in order to define the philosophy of your main characters.

3. Don’t let the philosophy overshadow the action

Now go into your story and define which characters and/or actions are going to convey this philosophy and how. For example, using “haste makes waste” may be something said by one character in an early chapter and proven when the protagonist makes a huge mistake because he was too hasty in, say, defusing a bomb. Later in the story’s resolution, his lesson is learned and he succeeds (without blowing up a building) only because he takes his time. It’s a lame example, but you get the idea.

4. Use a teacher or mentor character to directly teach the protagonist

The most popular way to communicate your philosophy is to use a mentor character. It is not the only way, however it is a very successful one. Richard Bach used a seagull in Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Marlo Morgan uses an Aborigine in Mutant Messages from Down Under. Of course, The Magic Life uses “Max Vi”, a magician whose name even contains the author's message: to “maximize life”. However, if the teacher spends too much time “teaching” without enough action, the story will lose the reader’s attention.

5. Let the characters’ actions and words reveal the philosophy piece by piece

One reason that fiction does a better job expressing a philosophy than a simple instructional text is that the reader is able to experience the consequences derived from the characters' actions. In The Magic Life, Carl Carpenter, the protagonist’s brother, is shot in a dark alley in order to teach the protagonist to look at all sides of an issue before he makes a judgment. Fill your pages with actions that reveal the philosophy, not just the philosophical words themselves. Avoid becoming a philosophy text.

6. Mix up the delivery medium with memorable parables and quotations

In The Magic Life, the magician mentor tells the main character a parable and at the end of the fable presents a question for the protagonist to ponder. A fable told by one of the characters is a great way to mix up your allegory. It is this “mixing up” of your philosophy into multiple presentations that keeps the reader intrigued.

Don’t forget to put in memorable quotations that can be credited directly to the author. The Magic Life is filled with examples:“If you don’t create your own future, someone or something else will.”; “Everything has a value, but only you determine its worth.”; “Each second conceals within it a lifetime; every minute an eternity.” Many of these will eventually pop up in reviewers' commentary.

7. Let the main character triumph only because he or she adopted the philosophy

The final proof of the philosophy (the philosophical advice that you reached in #2) should be discovered in the victory of the protagonist. This is key to delivering your philosophy to the reader. When the character finally takes the philosophy into his/her or its heart, the reader should also have an epiphany. If you’ve done your writing well, you will have spread your own philosophy to that reader. If you’ve done your writing superbly, you will change that reader’s life. That, my friend, is the ultimate goal of didactic fiction.

Ace Starry is the author of The Magic Life: A Novel Philosophy.