Saturday 4 June 2011

First Person?

My mum always said she didn't like novels written in the first person - she didn't elaborate and now I wish I'd asked her why.

Obviously, there are pros and cons if you are writing in the first person:

The main pro is probably that it's much easier to 'show' rather than 'tell' as you are inside the character's mind...
and the main con is probably that, as the author, you are restricted to that one character's viewpoint, unless you break the rules - my teenage daughter has mentioned that one or two of the gothic teen-type novels she's read recently have...

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on breaking the 'rule' on this!

3 comments:

Morton S Gray said...

Hi,
For my Nanowrimo novel I experimented with first and third person viewpoints. It seemed to work, but we'll see when I edit that book. I recently read 'Kidnapped' by Nicola Cornick and this is first person only. Mx

Rebecca Bradley said...

I'm writing in first person with a few third person chapters thrown in to cover what my character doesn't see. It works for me. I think it comes down to that. What works for you and for the story. Go with what feels right.

Jenny said...

I've read stories that switched 1st POV from chapter to chapter, but that got confusing at times. But I have seen other books where the MC's POV is in 1st, and then there of other character's chapters thrown in from a 3rd POV (The Maximum Ride novels do this).

As to the con's of 1st person...I can't really see any except you're locked into one viewpoint. But that can happen with a 3rd limited project too, so I do think it's just personal preference.

This coming from someone's who has experimented with 2nd POV...