Do you ever feel like you think too much? I know I do. Lately I have been thinking too much about first person point of view. I've found it's really problematic in my story and I think I'm going to switch to third. I wonder if anyone else has similar issues?
It's partly because my narrator changes during the story, and I would expect those changes to be reflected in her 'voice' as the story progresses. I don't think I can handle that kind of technical challenge, and that's why I'm going to switch to third. But thinking about the voice issue lead me onto wondering about who is 'I' talking to? Is she talking to me or is someone writing it down? Why is she telling the story? Is it even a story at the point she's talking, I mean - OMG, writer meltdown - when is she telling her story? Is she at the end of the story - does she know what happened? No, that would give a totally different tone, it would be very knowing, almost omniscient, like she was an old lady sitting in the conservatory and talking to her grand-daughter. So if she's telling it on the hoof in the here-and-now, then how does that work? Is it supposed to be almost like a running record of her thoughts - except without all the minutiae and visits to the toilet and whatever? Is it almost like we're eavesdropping on someone's thought processes?
You see. Thinking too much. Does anyone else have thoughts about first person PoV?
Here's my universal answer for meltdown...
Take a break... and take as long as it needs.
I slipped up and did a whole lot of revision and editing in a superceded document (should have marked the header "Archived" but had forgotten to)... Then I had done some more revision and editing in the correct document... AAAARGH!
The only thing to do has been to manually combine the two documents... A seriously horrific job. The solution has been to do it a bit at a time over the last week,,, Do as much as the brain can stand in each session - sometimes only a few paragraphs.
Technically - I set the documents side-by-side on the screen - then I coloured the version I was working to red and the other one blue... As I completed each bit of the red document I changed it back to black - and deleted that section from the blue copy... This appears to have worked. :-)
I now have a boiled brain!
So - the thing to do is to take a break.
As for POV and which person... Give it time and let it sort itself out... I don't know how - but these things usually do - when they are given time.
David
I wrote a 1st person pocket novel in a stream-of-consciousness style and found the POV a challenge all the way through. My character is merely talking to herself in her head and reacting to everything around her so it's present tense and there is no omniscience. I think there are a lot of benefits to that, possibly the most important being that everything that happens has very little foreshadowing so, regardless of subject matter, the story is a more gripping read as you really have no idea where it is going next.
I think the number of restrictions 1st person places on the way your story is told can make you more creative in the way you tell it and bring great immediacy to your story line, but it's not for everyone.
Can you think too much about POV? I don't think so. It's as important as light to an artist.
I think it's technically difficult to write in. I don't read much of it as I'm not really a fan yet I've read every Dick Francis thriller, all 1st person!
It can also be limiting in terms of the scope of your novel - the reader can only know what you yourself, as main character rather than simply narrator, know. Having said that it can help a reader to identify strongly with you as MC.
I prefer third person POV but still write from individual perspectives rather than have an 'omniscient' narrator. I feel comfortable looking at scenes from a few selected viewpoints, rather than hovering overhead with a pair of binoculars and an ear trumpet ;)