Thursday, April 10, 2014

I is for I

No, this is not a joke.  Today I am talking about first-person narration, hence "I."

I have less experience writing fiction in first-person than I do third, but I do write a good bit of it.  In fact, I wrote five first-person flash fics (four of them drabbles) in the span of a few days in early March.  You start to build momentum when you write in the POV for a while.  Perhaps it's because rather than resetting with a different character name each time you start a new story, you always use "I" when writing in first-person.

The danger in writing in first-person is that you have to make sure your characters in different stories have different personalities.  If you get used to "I" being a humorous type it may prove difficult to write a sobering "I."  So far I've been lucky.  The only attribute in common with the narrators from that batch of five stories I mentioned above is a bare sense of youthfulness.  Differences in age, gender, profession, and genre helped a lot.  If you're writing similar stories about similar characters in the first-person, beware.  You probably don't want to turn into a one-trick pony with narrators.

The largest advantage to writing in first is that you can inject personality into your narrator more easily than in third.  See, it's a two-faced coin.  Personality can lead you either way.  But as long as you're careful, your first-person narrators can become some of the most entertaining and solid characters out there.

I try to stick with third-person most of the time, but if the story needs to be told by "I" I let "I" tell it.  Don't limit yourself to one or the other.  In fact, I recommend writing both in copious amounts.  If you'd like to specialize, even a 90/10 split can help your writing.

Because each POV has its advantages and its disadvantages, you can learn how to write certain things better by writing in a POV that handles those things better.  For example, if you feel like your third-limited protagonists are too impersonal, write a few first-person stories with quirky personalities and then go back to writing limited.  You may very well be happy with the difference you see.

8 comments:

  1. Great post. First-person narrative can really liven up a text, particularly if, as you say, you intertwine it with third-person narrative throughout the rest of the manuscript.

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    1. That's actually not exactly what I meant, but yeah, that's most certainly true. Mixing the POVs within the same work can go well.

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  2. Third person is easier to write because you don't have to do the deep development you must for first. But I LOVE doing the deep development needed to have a unique and authentic voice--knowing their inner world enough to know their attitudes, opinions and what kinds of associations they'd make.

    Happy A-Zing
    Laurel
    Laurel's Leaves

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    1. Yeah, they're definitely fun to write, especially when you're writing children's. Happy A-Zing to you too, Ms. Garver.

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  3. Just stopping by to say Hi from the A-Z list and good luck with the rest of the challenge.

    Great post :) I love writing in first person, but all my characters end up sounding like me! lol x

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    1. Thanks. Yeah, as I mentioned, that can be a problem sometimes, unless you're a very multi-faceted person and can lend parts of your personality to different characters without much overlap.

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  4. I usually write in the 3rd person. I have written flash fiction in 1st person, but I don't like being that "personally" involved with a character for very long.

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    1. I understand where you're coming from. Unless I was writing a male my age I'd probably shy away from writing novel-length fiction in 1st.

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