Wednesday 3 April 2013

Perils of First Person

So part of my writing confusion has been in which perspective to write. The novel started in third person which was great I was the all knowing narrator controlling the fates and reactions of my characters.

Part of the way through I decided the freedom of third person was drawing far too much attention from the Heroine of the story, I was getting to caught up in presenting everyone's thoughts and reactions equally that it was taking away from the actual story telling process.

So I decided to switch to first person. Simple enough except for the fact that I had already typed 35 word pages of the story! It was safe to say going back and editing that was not exactly fun and I'm pretty sure I will still find the odd 'her' when I proof read it again. But, now that its finished I have found a whole new writing issue.

Telling the story from one persons potentially ignorant point of view completely removes the beautiful inner monologuing of some of the other interesting characters. Their reactions or thoughts of the situation are suddenly gone, unimportant. In the case of my broody, sometimes snarky or even angry male lead. Is he really just being seen as a jerk? Are my readers missing the entire internal struggle within him to maintain this safe emotional distance, the protective wall he has built around himself.

It's part of the trouble of portraying your characters I suppose, the only indication you get is how the main character perceives their actions and dialogue.

I was pretty certain of my first person choice but as I develop further into the story and the characters become their own I start to wonder if its the right choice and wondering if changing it at this rate is just completely insane!

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