I'm Right and You're Wrong!

By Karen Rees

Our church holds worship services in the afternoon in a rented 6th floor YMCA room so we use Sunday mornings for other activities like practicing Christmas specials. Since our congregation is made up almost entirely of imported Filipina household servants and music flows in their veins, we have great specials.

While I was at the Y's 4th floor roof garden one Sunday for a Christmas practice, I chatted with a Hong Kong Chinese woman who had attended the first service of another church that meets on the 4th floor.

Once that church's second service finished, I expected to talk with a Sri Lankan Tamil former-Hindu asylum seeker family and a young African woman, originally from Rwanda but now a Canadian citizen, both of whom attend there. I also hoped to talk with another attender and friend, an American businessman.

When I went up to the 6th floor for our afternoon church services, I saw an Indonesian Muslim friend who, like the Filipina church members, is an imported household servant. On her Sundays off she teaches the Koran to fellow Indonesian Muslims in the morning and does volunteer work at the Y in the afternoon.

So what does this list of people I saw on Sunday have to do with being a novelist? They represent a wide variety of perspectives.

While point of view focuses on who is telling the story, perspective focuses on how a character views and processes events. At the most fundamental level perspective is about culture.

Here's a cultural question. In a conflict of interests, does the rights of the group or the rights of the individual take priority? A person with Asian values will answer one way; a person holding Western values will answer the opposite.

In a novel, will the heroine accept the less than desirable husband that her family wants her to marry? Or will she defy her family by running away with her true love? It all depends on her cultural perspective.

Ask someone to describe God. The answer will differ according to whether you ask a Hindu, a Muslim, a Christian or someone who grew up following Chinese religion.

Since our perspective determines how we see the world, it affects the decisions we make and how we react to the decisions of others. This is equally true with fictional characters.

History has shown that clashing perspectives can even start wars. While none of us relish conflict in real life, it's a necessity for novels.

So, in our stories, give each character a different perspective. Conflict is guaranteed.

About Karen Rees

Karen Rees and her second-generation missionary husband, Benjamin, have served in Hong Kong since 1975. Besides her involvement in the mission work, Karen loves history, quilting and writing. They have two children, Matthew and Megan, and two grandchildren, Hadessah and Arthur.

THE RUBY RING won an Indie Excellence Finalist Award in Religious Fiction.

DEVOTION - Conflict: Great in our stories and not so fun in real life

by Narelle Atkins

One thing I’ve learned as a fiction writer is that I need compelling conflict in my stories. My characters need to have conflicting goals and face obstacles as they strive to achieve their story goals. It’s a universal truth in storytelling and true for all fiction genres.

Like many new writers, I discovered early on that my stories lacked conflict. I write romance and romance readers want to journey with the hero and heroine, experience the struggles they face, and cheer as the characters overcome problems on the way to their happily-ever-after ending. Conflict is an essential component of a story. Whilst fiction writers must learn to make life difficult for their characters, to make them suffer and struggle to achieve what they want, we’re not usually comfortable with conflict in real life.

In 1971, Malcolm Fraser, a former Prime Minister of Australia, made a famous quote: ‘Life wasn’t meant to be easy’. We live in a fallen world and, at times, we all make selfish decisions that hurt others. Our world is full of suffering and we can often feel powerless to instigate change and show Christian love to our neighbours. World peace is perceived to be a worthy but unobtainable goal as conflicts arise within and between nations. We have polluted our environment and many of us wonder if it’s too late to reverse the ecological damage. As Christians, we will have conflict in our relationship with God during the times when we are rebellious and sin instead of following God’s will for our lives. Thankfully, Paul reminds us in Romans 3:23-24 (NIV) ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and we are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.’

Peace is one of the fruits of the spirit that Paul mentioned in Galatians 5:22. In Matthew 5:29, Jesus said ‘Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.’ In the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Philippians 4:6-7, he said ‘Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ.’

It can often feel like God’s peace is elusive in our busy and chaotic lives. Conflict arises in relationships and sometimes it can be a matter of opinion where there’s no clear way to discern who is right or wrong. In a recent sermon at my church, we were asked to consider the following question: Is the issue or the relationship more important? The Apostle Paul said in Romans 12:18 ‘If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live in peace with one another.’ Conflict is inevitable and my prayer for you is that you’ll live in peace and follow God’s will for your life.