Perspective Regrets?

[BKWildenberg]

Confession Time. 

Last night, instead of editing, putting down new words, or digging myself out of an upcoming plot hole, I got wine drunk and experimented with first-person perspective. I've been reading a lot of first-person lately and so I thought, "Hey, let's re-write the first chapter of The Syndicate and see how it turns out!" 

And folks, I'm sorry to say I might have some regrets with how I've been writing this story... 

There are obviously pros and cons to each approach. Third person is affording me more background on worldbuilding and explanations. It's also what I have the most experience with, so there's a comfort level in play. It's "easier" for me when doing word sprints. 

But man, first-person let me write snappier scenes, and I feel like there's a lot of opportunity to really show off each POV character's personality. It also "feels YA" and I enjoy that. My biggest worry is that it would start to get a little grating or that some of the worldbuilding would be harder to pull off. 

So I'm here, 67k words into a story and flirting with the notion of writing up an alternate first-person version. If nothing else it might be a fun exercise! Has anybody else done this?

How did you decide what perspective to use, and did you ever regret it? 

[Mikiesboy]

20 hours ago, BKWildenberg said:

How did you decide what perspective to use, and did you ever regret it? 

No, no regrets.

I write in first and 3rd. Each have benefits and drawbacks. I think about how i want to write before i start. What will i want to say and how will it be said?  Once i choose,  i  write and i don't look back.

[Carlos Hazday]

On 4/26/2020 at 4:38 PM, BKWildenberg said:

How did you decide what perspective to use, and did you ever regret it? 

Not consciously. I've used first and third both, but have no idea why I did in each instance. The story/MC just calls for it.

Haven't regretted the choices yet. Not once.

[Talo Segura]

I think what you can't do is have the best of both worlds. First person tells the story from one point of view, usually the protanganist, third person is larger, allowing for scenes without the main character present. Of course, some authors try first person head hopping, it doesn't usually work, but you might label it YA, exactly like you might for writing in the present tense. You have to write the story in the way that feels natural, at 67k into a story I wouldn't re-write it, but then my experience is very limited, having never written such a  long novel. When I have launched into a re-write, a sort of story I have here on GA, it's turned out rather complicated and messy. But then it's like seeking input from people, if it's opinions you're after, you will get them, but what do you do when they're conflicting, it gets messy. So, I would leave the present story as it is and employ first person in a new story. First person is perhaps easier to write, but can be frustrating with its restricted view of events, like only hearing one side of a telephone conversation.

[Mikiesboy]

14 hours ago, Talo Segura said:

First person is perhaps easier to write, but can be frustrating with its restricted view of events, like only hearing one side of a telephone conversation.

It's not really easier, imo. Possibly if there is only one character who is talking.

I often write in first.. Changes and Changes, Again were written that way. You have your MC interacting with others. These others you have to show what they think and feel through their actions, descriptions through the eyes of your MC and those other character's words. That is not easy. 

First person pov is more like our real lives. For example, my husband may tell me something, but i can't really know all he is thinking. Third person allows us to write multiple points of view and gives the reader insight into all character's thoughts.  Both are difficult to do well, and again it depends on how you want to tell your story, which you choose.

[Brayon]

I'm a lot more comfortable with third-person point of view, and have been doing a writing project exclusively in first-person. It's hard, it's restrictive, and it doesn't let me do what I want to do as a writer. The project was originally situated for two stories, and now it's going to be three with the first one already completed. However, none will be posted until all three stories are done.

In the first story, I got six chapters in, and realized that I needed to tell one part, which was critical to the story, from the perspective that wasn't the Narrator character. So, for chapter 7 of that first story, I switched to the other character. He was away from the main narrator, and showing events that needed to be told. Then from chapter 8 to 11, it went back to the main narrator. I thought and felt that worked.

So, in the second story I decided to do things a little different. Each chapter now has a different narrator character. I look at my plot, outline, and who has the "most screen time" for that chapter and that's the character that gets tapped to be the Narrator. Out of the seven chapters for the second story, there's been four narrator characters. One has had four chapters, and the other three have each had one chapter as the focus. In most cases it's been like what happened in the first story. The chapter called for someone else to be front and centered, and therefore I did it that way.

Do I regret writing like this? No, because it's working, and I make it clear at the start of the chapter who is the narrator. Is it a challenge that I'm finding interesting? Absolutely, and there are days I'm wondering if I'm cut out to be a first person writer.

[Talo Segura]

@Brayon I think I get what you're describing, but I'll have to read the books when you finish them, because it sounds like it is narrated from the first person only you change heads for different chapters. This all gets kind of confusing, probably because I'm new at this writing stuff and I'm not sure what I'm doing. I had to check my next book to see how I'd written it, guess that's weird. I wrote it as a third person narrative, but the narrator is not a character in the story, the narrator is simply the sort of absent voice telling events. Does that make sense, I'm not sure?

[Brayon]

20 minutes ago, Talo Segura said:

@Brayon I think I get what you're describing, but I'll have to read the books when you finish them, because it sounds like it is narrated from the first person only you change heads for different chapters.

Yup, that's how The Hybrid Twins series is being written. First book, Freedom Station, the main character is Warrant Officer Russell Andrews, United States Space Force, for 10 of the 11 chapters, and the single chapter is from the prospective of Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corp Cadet Trenton Christensen, his half-brother. So far in the second book, Operation Homecoming, Colonel Trenton Christensen, Terran Republic Space Force, has been the eyes that the reader will see through, but also, Colonel Russell Andrews TRSF, Captain Tyler Crawford M.D., TRSF, and Red Deer, Little Person of the Chinook, have a chapter each whose eyes will be what the readers sees through. So, head hopping between chapters. The third book, Victory At Any Cost, will most likely revert back to the first type.

31 minutes ago, Talo Segura said:

I wrote it as a third person narrative, but the narrator is not a character in the story, the narrator is simply the sort of absent voice telling events. Does that make sense, I'm not sure?

Yes it does. That's typical third-person PoV. The Writer is essentially the narrator.

[Thorn Wilde]

The early drafts of my story Storms were in third person present tense. I thought I had to use third person because I had more than one POV character. But when I rewrote it, I tried first and it fit really well. The story has four main characters (though two of them are more in focus than the others), and I write one chapter at a time from each POV, labelling them with the name of the POV character. That story's YA too, though it's set in the real world so there's not a lot of world building involved.

That said, my favourite science-fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin, is written in first person with a single POV character, and that book takes place on a planet where people don't have gender, so there's a considerable amount of world building that needs to be conveyed. (I cannot recommend that book enough, btw.) It's absolutely doable, it just becomes that much more important to portion out the information about your world in a believable way. In The Left Hand of Darkness, the MC is an envoy to the planet in question, and so is learning about them and their customs. In the case of your story, given that Ronnie is learning as he goes, you could have done something similar. (But finish posting the third person version first, maybe? So we can see how it ends. ) 

[Ashi]

I enjoy writing first person.  It puts the reader into navigating through the narrator's head, but nobody else's.  Just like in real world.  You guess what other people are thinking.  You might guess it right, but you might not.  That gives me more freedom to create a more mysterious atmosphere.  That said, it's not necessarily easier to write if you want to keep that mystique instead of just divulge everything out.  Back in college, we had this discussion in a literature class.  My take has always been third person limited POV is the most difficult to write, third person omnipresence the easiest, and first person POV is somewhere in between.  I do enjoy doing that 3rd person limited, but my stories so far have always been first person.  I don't do it because it's YA (and I do love that genre!), but I love putting readers to think empathetically toward the MC. 

Third person limited (narrator talks about this MC person, but he can't read anybody's mind) gives you this weapon called unreliable narrator.  You can do it with first person PoV, but since in first person, narrator and MC are one and the same, the freedom is less to tell a story that's false (intentionally or unintentionally) to lead the readers astray.

Third person omnipresence (narrator is this god-like figure, who can read everyone's mind), like everyone already said, gives you a lot of world building ammunition.  I don't think unreliable narrator technique, while doable, is particularly realistic with omnipresence PoV.

Third person to me is more objective, and first person is a more subjective world view.  And each PoV has its own benefits.  Use that to your advantage.

 

[Sam Wyer]

I didn't ever 'decide' - my first story was in first-person (I hate the head-hopping so stick with just the one character) because it felt easier to write it that way.  I've since been considering a more formal attempt at third person but I struggle with it.  For me it seems more difficult to convey what I want, but maybe that's just because I'm not a very experienced writer.  Having said that, there is some work in progress which is third person, so I'll see how that goes.