Lin at Flames and Shadows asked this question for the blog chain this week...
When picking points of view for your fiction, what do you consider?
This will be a fairly short response for me since I'm a new writer and have only finished one novel. Easy answer - first person. I could go on all day about the reasons why I think I wrote it this way but ultimately it's what the story asked for. I started writing and that's how it came out. But since this is a pretty boring answer I'll go into it a little more.
I love reading first person, some of my favorite books are written this way. I like feeling as if I AM the narrator and I really don't mind the limited scope first person offers since I discover things as the MC does. I like the whole element of surprise involved in that both as a reader and writer. I did struggle a little with that very reason in the beginning with making sure I didn't say things Abbey wouldn't know, but it forced me to really dig into the action and dialogue to inform the reader of what they needed to know.
With that being said, I don't have much ground to stand on since I have only written in first person, including the WIPs I have started. Strange huh? I do plan on branching out of that comfort zone and trying it other ways but if I feel the story needs to be told in first person then I'll go back to that. If you don't write from your heart using your instincts whether it be using past or present tense or third or first person POV, I don't think the story will come across as authentic as it could.
Monday: Flames and Shadows
Tuesday: Somewhere Nowhere In My Kingdom
Wednesday: From Elysium
Thursday: here
Friday: Girl With a Notebook
4 comments:
I feel the same way about third person as you do about first. I've never written first person, though I really don't mind reading it.
Good blog
Yes I admire first myself! But we both now the struggle I had with ACM lol!
Now with edits going in third past--it feels soo right and reads way better! Plus with all the characters I can get into their heads and share it with the readers! It's all thanks to Marie Brennan who wrote her books in third that opened my eyes to how well it CAN be done!
It's good to know you prefer first.
Because to be honest, I prefer third, both reading and writing-wise. Yet strangely enough, my novel is in first. I'm just a bundle of contradictions.
I agree that SAGE is better in first. It's better to experience the weirdness through Abbey's eyes, and that's mainly the reason I picked first for my own novel.
I don't like first person, maybe because I like to know what's going on all around and I find this P.O.V very limiting.
I've written in first person as well, and it's hard for me. Maybe when that story inparticular is done it will be easier. It certanily has been a learning experience.
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