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What Is An Epistolary Novel? & Tips For Writing One

What Is An Epistolary Novel? & Tips For Writing One

In this post we answer the question: What Is An Epistolary Novel? We give you tips for writing an epistolary novel and examples of epistolary novels.

One of my favourite novels of all time is The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick. It is an epistolary novel. Our hero, Bartholomew Neil, has just lost his mother, and he writes a series of letters to Richard Gere (his mother’s favourite) about his life, his loss, and how he moves forward. It is a beautiful, life-affirming read.

We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver is another famous epistolary novel. After her son Kevin is imprisoned for a school shooting, Eva writes to her husband, Franklin. She wants to know if their son was born bad or if it was their fault that he turned out that way.

You can use the literary device of this type of novel in any genre.

What Is An Epistolary Novel?

The word epistolary is derived from Latin from the Greek word epistolē, meaning a letter.

An epistolary novel is ‘a novel told through the medium of letters written by one or more of the characters… it was one of the earliest forms of novel to be developed and remained one of the most popular up to the 19th century. The epistolary novel’s reliance on subjective points of view makes it the forerunner of the modern psychological novel.’ (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

In its modern form, it can be any series of documents, including letters, telegrams, diary entries, newspaper clippings, blog posts, emails, and even podcasts.

It can be told from one person’s point of view (monologic), or from two (dialogic), or more (polylogic) people’s viewpoints. There could be a series of correspondence between two or more characters. You could even mix up the types of documents each character uses to communicate.

If you write it from one viewpoint, remember that you are dealing with the viewpoint character as an unreliable narrator. We only get to see the world through that character’s viewpoint and, more importantly, what they choose to include in the story.

The Pros Of Using This Device

  1. Writing in this format makes the story seem more realistic than most novels. It is intimate. The author of the letter seems like a real person letting you into their lives.
  2. We do not need a narrator to explain anything. The viewpoint characters tell us what they think, feel, and do in their own words.
  3. It is a great way to tell the story of introverted characters who may not interact much with the outside world.

How To Write An Epistolary Novel

According to Writer Mag: ‘Novels written in an epistolary format are often less dialogue-driven, with more emphasis on thoughts, feelings, and emotions. Instead of being in the action with the protagonist, most ‘scenes‘ are filtered through the character and presented as memories.’

This means that you may be doing more telling and less showing in this type of novel. However, this is up to you. Your characters could write their letters like fiction, including scenes with dialogue.

Tips For Writing An Epistolary Novel

  1. Get used to writing in first person.
  2. Decide on whether you are going to use one document type or many.
  3. Decide on whether you are going to use one or more viewpoints.
  4. Develop the voices of each viewpoint character in your novel. This is especially important if you are using a dialogic letter writing format. The two characters must have different personalities that shine through their voices on paper.
  5. Never explain the format you’re using. Just use it. Write an email using email formatting. Write a letter using a letter format. Make it seem as natural as you can.
  6. Make sure you still have a story to tell. Work out a plot for your novel.
  7. Create a timeline.

15 Examples of Epistolary Novels

  1. Pamela by Samuel Richardson (1740) is the story of a servant girl’s struggle against her master’s attempts to seduce her, written in a series of letters.
  2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1823) is presented through the letters of a sea captain who encounters Victor Frankenstein and records the dying man’s narrative and confessions.
  3. The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (1868) uses narratives and statements contributed by various characters to solve a mystery.
  4. Dracula by Bram Stoker (1897) uses not only letters and diaries, but also dictation cylinders, and newspaper accounts.
  5. 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (1970) is a 20-year correspondence between the author and Frank Doel, chief buyer of Marks & Co antiquarian booksellers.
  6. Carrie by Stephen King (1974) is written in an epistolary structure through newspaper clippings, magazine articles, letters, and book excerpts.
  7. The Color Purple by Alice Walker (1982) is told through letters Celie has written to God, and later to her sister.
  8. Bridget Jones’s Diary (1996) by Helen Fielding is written in the form of a personal diary.
  9. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky (1999) is written in the form of letters from an anonymous character to a secret role model.
  10. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks (2006) is a series of interviews from various survivors of a zombie apocalypse.
  11. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2008) is written as a series of letters and telegraphs sent and received by the protagonist.
  12. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga (2008) is a novel in the form of letters written by an Indian villager to the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao. The novel won the 40th Man Booker Prize in 2008.
  13. The Martian by Andy Weir (2011) is written as a collection of video journal entries for each Martian day (sol) by the protagonist on Mars, and sometimes by main characters on Earth, and on the space station Hermes.
  14. Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple (2012) is told through emails, letters, and documents, following a teenage girl who pieces together the mystery of her missing mother.
  15. The Correspondent by Virginia Evans (2025) is about a retired lawyer named Sybil and follows the letters and emails she writes between 2012 and 2022. It won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2026.

If you want more examples, click here: 100 Epistolary Novels

The Last Word

The epistolary novel is a simple but powerful way to tell a story. By using letters, emails, diary entries, or messages, we can show readers exactly what characters think and feel. If you want to create a story that feels personal, realistic, and engaging, this technique is worth trying. And it works in any genre.

© Amanda Patterson

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Posted on: 14th June 2026
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1 thought on “What Is An Epistolary Novel? & Tips For Writing One”

  1. Marina Costa

    I used in certain chapters of my last novel in a tetralogy (I can mention it without being publicity, because it is not written in English, so definitely nobody here is among its readers) letters received by a mother from her son and daughter in law (the daughter in law was the one writing) who were in Europe, while the mother was in the USA. Otherwise, the novel (like the whole tetralogy, a family saga covering the period 1794-1849) is written in first person, from the mother’s point of view (well… she starts as a young teen in the first volume). She is far away from her first son now, when he grew up, married and decided to return, together with his cousins, to their parents’ mother country, to fight again for its freedom (the parents were fighting, in their youth, on the French side of liberte-egalite-fraternite until Napoleon became first consul and they saw the slipping towards dictature, this made them emigrate to the USA, seen as last avanpost of democracy; now, it was the Carbonari time and the youngsters returned to fight… The son tied his fate with Giuseppe Mazzini and followed him in exile to Switzerland and England. They returned home to USA, the ones surviving with their young families, only after the 1848 Revolution was strangled in blood). So, while they are in Italy, they send letters, showing a parallel life, with other kinds of struggles than the ones remaining in the US were facing. The mother receiving the letters is commenting on each of them as if she had just read it and had natural reactions; the written answers are not shown in the book.

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