There are grammar and punctuation rules -- important, but a low order concern in comparison.
There are style and clarity issues -- things like keeping it all in a consistent point of view and paying attention to the order of words in a sentence so that they are as precise in meaning as possible, often like cutting the fat.
Then there are what I think of as storytelling concerns -- these are the items that would be the same for an oral storyteller as they would for the writer: pacing, voice, use of description, and the awareness of how all of those things make the reader feel at any given moment in the story.
Recently, I've found myself in a situation where the choice between first person and third person point of view is no longer a style choice; it's become a storytelling issue.
I used to write everything in first person when I was a college student because -- duh -- I thought in first person. So writing first person was the moy easy choice. I suppose it helped that in college all of my narrators were spunky, eccentric, feminist, twenty-year-old women with a bit of a cruel streak when it came to sticking it to their ex-boyfriends. I suppose.
These pieces ended up being all about voice: how quirky could I make her voice? how intriguingly awful could I make her thoughts? (Because everyone loves to read about characters thinking the things we all think but are too polite to say.) And I started to think of writing in the first person as easy because I just settled my writing-self right down in my stream of consciousness and typed away ... ahem, I meant the character's stream of consciousness.
But eventually, I got bored writing that same character and I wanted to branch out. But I still thought first person was the easiest, or at least the quickest means of pounding out a story. So when faced with a looming 8:00AM deadline for a completed short story, and not a word written on the page at 7:30 PM the night before, I wrote in first person because I needed all the speed I could get.
The story's gone through many drafts since, gotten shorter, gotten longer, gotten much longer, outlined it as a novel. I've toyed with what person I want to put it in, first or third, but always came back to first. First person sounded better because it was the way I'd originally written the draft, and you can't argue with original recipe.
Then I did something drastic: I rewrote the opening twice, without looking at the original. Once in third person, then in first.
And a magical thing happened. When I was no longer beholden to my previous draft -- or unduly influenced by it -- brand new bits of story popped up that I hadn't been expecting. Particularly in the third person version. [For purposes of clarification I will mention that this is not merely changing all the pronouns from I to she, but changing the location/distance of the narrator and the narrative techniques.]
This is the situation I mentioned at the beginning of the post where point of view stopped being a style choice and started being a storytelling choice.
The story I'd originally written had a very narrow scope of the things which the character thought or wanted to stop and tell us. I worked hard to excise things she would not think about from her first person narration. The third person story could (even though the narration is still close to the main character) employ many of the narrative techniques of storytelling: I can lightly drop in information and backstory without it feeling like a character spilling her guts to us unprompted. And by moving myself outside of her head, the rest of the world essentially bloomed around me. -- Told ya it was a magical thing that happened.
I challenge anyone to rewrite a story from the beginning without looking at the original (and then tell me what happens!) -- you don't have to change person, although that's helpful to get you out of the previous mindset, but you just can't look at the original. Has anyone else tried this -- what were your results? What tools or tests do you use to figure out what person to write a story in?
Photo credit: dogbomb on flickr
11 comments:
I write in third person...not first. But I understand that if you want to be published in YA, it had better be first-person, present-tense.
I write in both first and third person, and agree the third person allows so much more freedom - but it so depends on the story you are telling:)
I used to write all my stuff in first-person, too! It just seemed to flow so much more easily. As I progressed on my writing journey, though, I realized, like you, that I was basically writing the same character over and over again and I tried my hand at third person. Now, I use both. I usually get a feeling when I start writing whether the story is going to be told in first or third.
I used to write only first-person too (and always the same type of main character), but now I'm starting to like reading and writing third-person. I like the distance that you have from the main character- it allows me to see her better- and I like how you can switch from one person's POV to another without it being jarring.
But I disagree with Michael- I know that writing in first-person present-tense is a trend, but you certainly don't have to write it to get published as a YA writer. There are plenty of great YA novels in third-person and first-person past-tense.
(And this is kind of funny because I was just about to write a blog post about this, but I think I'm going to write one about main characters instead.) :)
Indeed being on trend doesn't necessarily mean anything if it's not right for the story.
@Crystal -- good point. The ability/need to have multiple points of view is a big reason for choosing to go with third person.
I guess I was wondering if anyone reading this ever developed a test (or at least a set of reasons) for choosing between the two. I understand that some people use first/third person exclusively, and I'm extremely familiar with the phrase "it depends" (b/c I use it a lot when deciding this sort of thing!) but anyone got useful tools?
The need to be in multiple characters heads is definitely a useful factor in the decision making. I read a Karen Marie Moning novel series where come books 4 and 5 she NEEDED to be in the heads of characters outside her first person narrator ... so she added other first person narrators, and it just felt so awkward. ... and actually I felt a bit like I'd been cheated.
I change pov's in stories if I feel that the story's not quite right.
I changed a recent story from third to first, because I wanted to get into the MC's head and get really intimate. It does really change the story and it's a good technique to use if the story's not gelling.
No tool or techniques, sorry. I do it all on instinct.
I don't think I've ever rewritten the beginning of a story in the opposite person to see if it was better. I pretty much kept it as it was. Maybe I should try though.
I find first person kind of liberating, actually. I'll explain -- I never had the problem of writing basically the same character in all my first person stories. In my experience, first person allowed me to "become" this new persona and I saw that as a challenge. I've written in first person an old man on the brink of killing himself, a young man who'd become unethical to provide for his sister, even a man who was keeping a defining secret from a relative. They were all growing experiences to my writing.
Third person has its place too, of course. Particularly if first person is too limited. But basically once I have a character in mind, and I have an idea of where the story will go, I'll decide when I start composing the story whether it'll be first or third.
I'm visiting from your Short Story Campaign Group, btw!
As a soldier in the writer campaign, I salute you.
I traditionally wrote in first person, but I've been have an illegal amount of fun writing my current novel in third person. The storyline alternates between two people, and the perspective is close over their shoulders, so to speak. I can still have their internal thoughts in italics, and I can escalate suspense by leaving one in danger while switching to the other. Also, it allows the reader to see how the two characters misinterpret and often misunderstand each other.
Best wishes on your writing.
illegal amounts of fun sounds absolutely awesome!
AE Marling, I love your description of what you've been doing! I often find that I can drop in those thoughts without the italics and it still works just as well ... but I'm on a mission to rid the world of unnecessary thought-italics, so pardon me if I come across as a zealot. :)
Thanks for dropping by!
Hi there, I'm another Campaigner finally making it around to your blog!
POV . . . such a tricky choice. For reasons unknown to me, I gravitate to 2nd person of all things.
However, things usually get rewritten into 1st or 3rd, depending on which one the story needs to be told in. If I want the story to be limited to only what the main character knows, then I choose 1st person, but if I need to convey more information, I have no problem switching to 3rd.
This is so interesting. I write in first and third, depending on the story and how I feel at the time. I wrote my first novel in third, but during the process I rewrote the first three chapters into first person and asked a panel of readers for their preferences. Funnily enough it was exactly a 50/50 split.
Just popped in as I'm in the same group as you for the campaign.
Post a Comment