Because I'm writing in 1st person from a whole bunch of POVs, I never got to write as I write, but as my characters think. It seemed like a good idea at first, but at 50,000 (I'm there... I just have to update the profile), it's like my characters wrote the novel and I had very little part in it.
Does anyone else feel like this when they write in 1st person?
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56,894 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2007 - 22 23
a little, yeah.
I wrote pretty much my whole thing in 3rd person so I could easily change scenes and it wouldn't be confusing to see who was narrating. I wrote the last chapter in first person and was shocked by how much fun it was compared to the rest of them. I thought the rest was a blast to do, the first person bit is awesome. It's like my MC actually jacked my body and when he was done with it, I blinked, looked at the screen and was stunned by the awesomeness that greeted me.
don't worry if your voice isn't there if you did first person, it's not supposed to be. your characters are the narrators, so their voices are the ones that show. maybe next time if you want to see your own voice, you can do a third person one.
55,686 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2007 - 23 23
1st person is the only thing that really works with me- I had to give up on one I started in 3rd, because nothing came out right. Everything flows for me when I write 1st person. Or at least, it does a lot more.
I think that I get a bit of my voice in it, but it is more like the MCs are all just like me in certain ways. Is this good? Bad? I'm not sure. :) But whatever feels right, I guess.
----------74,422 / 50,000
Nov 30, 2007 - 23 44
Does anyone else feel like this when they write in 1st person?
That's why I love writing in first person. It is (for me, anyway) very much like acting. I have to "get into character", rather than reporting on his/her life.
----------I pressed down the mental accelerator. The old lemon throbbed fiercely. I got an idea.
--Bertie Wooster
50,011 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2007 - 01 36
The perspective in mine is all over the place, some is in first and some is in third and sometimes it changes even for the same character. I need to go back and work out which way suits which character best. I need to go back and do A LOT of stuff!
50,234 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2007 - 06 03
I like first person, but actually, even in first person, your MC will have parts of you in him/her anyway. It's like having a "mini-me" to say all of the things I've always wanted to say!
50,333 / 50,000
Dec 1, 2007 - 08 08
I did mine in 1st from three characters viewpoints and it didn't sound like me either, but agree that it's not supposed to. As I revise, I'll probably add some distinctive ways they say things to make it even more different but I'm pleased with the overall result. It was hard to maintain for the whole book! I do like writing in third better. But need the 1st if your going to include any stream of consciousness, which I decided in the first few pages would be needed for the type of book I was writing. Hey, it feels good to have written a draft novel in a month, doesn't it?
62,474 / 50,000
Dec 3, 2007 - 06 45
I normally use 3rd, but this novel demanded first and I've found it very strange. My character took over all the narration work for me, for a long long time he was just going on and on about whatever. But then as I let him do his thing and go to town, I realized that underlying his narration were thousands of choices I had to make about what was happening. What to skip, when to indulge in tangents, when to address things as the narrator-MC and when to address them as the plotted-MC, which required tense shifts and an entirely different way of speaking, and all that other stuff.
I find 1st person really, really difficult. It's too easy to be sloppy. I'm looking forward to writing something in a very cold, detached 3rd person after I finish this one.
----------Matthew
http://literaryrockstar.blogspot.com
"A Man of genius makes no mistakes. His errors are volitional and are the portals of discovery." Stephen Dedalus, James Joyce, Ulysses