Writing 1st person POV
May. 20th, 2016 07:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
birdsofshoreI love to write in 1st person. I think I am a little bit hooked on it, tbh. I have been writing 1st person Draco for ages, but last year I wrote a lot of alternating 1st person, and really enjoyed that, too, and then this year I felt compelled to write 1st person Harry. With debatable results, BUT, I still very much enjoyed writing it, and wouldn't rule out doing it again.
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dracotops_harry fic was quite a long 1st person Draco POV, and I noticed a real trend in the comments to talk about the fact that people had liked it despite it being 1st person. This came up again and again, as if it was a complete rarity to enjoy a 1st person fic. Someone also left a bookmark which really made me laugh:
Usually first-persons are stinkers, but this wasn't.
WOW THANKS :D
Anyway, I mentioned to Mr Birds that apparently people felt mistrustful of 1st person, and he was surprised as well. We googled for a list of novels that were written in 1st person, and what do you know, a ton of my favourite books are 1st person. Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, Lolita, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, To Kill a Mockingbird, Breakfast at Tiffany's, A Clockwork Orange, The Perks of Being a Wallflower are all 1st person narratives. As a reader I find it a stunningly immersive experience, and if the narrator is unreliable or twisted or damaged then I enjoy it even more.
As a fanfic writer, obviously I'm not aiming for anything approaching those novels, but I find writing 1st person an easy way to make a connection, first with the character I'm writing, and then with the reader. I find writing other POVs distances me and the reader from the story that I'm telling. Maybe it's become a lazy habit and I should attempt to get that immediacy by other means, using 3rd person? I don't know. But I feel conflicted - I want to go on writing 1st person whenever it seems appropriate, but readers are telling me that they actively avoid 1st person fics.
Do people mistrust / dislike 1st person in original fic, or just in fanfic? Do you agree that 1st person fics are usually "stinkers"? If so, why? Do you enjoy reading 1st person? In fic? In original novels? Do you write it? Do you avoid it? I have all of the questions and none of the answers!
My
dracotops_harry fic was quite a long 1st person Draco POV, and I noticed a real trend in the comments to talk about the fact that people had liked it despite it being 1st person. This came up again and again, as if it was a complete rarity to enjoy a 1st person fic. Someone also left a bookmark which really made me laugh:Usually first-persons are stinkers, but this wasn't.
WOW THANKS :D
Anyway, I mentioned to Mr Birds that apparently people felt mistrustful of 1st person, and he was surprised as well. We googled for a list of novels that were written in 1st person, and what do you know, a ton of my favourite books are 1st person. Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, Lolita, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, To Kill a Mockingbird, Breakfast at Tiffany's, A Clockwork Orange, The Perks of Being a Wallflower are all 1st person narratives. As a reader I find it a stunningly immersive experience, and if the narrator is unreliable or twisted or damaged then I enjoy it even more.
As a fanfic writer, obviously I'm not aiming for anything approaching those novels, but I find writing 1st person an easy way to make a connection, first with the character I'm writing, and then with the reader. I find writing other POVs distances me and the reader from the story that I'm telling. Maybe it's become a lazy habit and I should attempt to get that immediacy by other means, using 3rd person? I don't know. But I feel conflicted - I want to go on writing 1st person whenever it seems appropriate, but readers are telling me that they actively avoid 1st person fics.
Do people mistrust / dislike 1st person in original fic, or just in fanfic? Do you agree that 1st person fics are usually "stinkers"? If so, why? Do you enjoy reading 1st person? In fic? In original novels? Do you write it? Do you avoid it? I have all of the questions and none of the answers!
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no subject
Date: 2016-05-20 08:39 pm (UTC)Now, if it's someone who I know is accomplished, I'll plunge right into a 1st or 2nd POV fic with no qualms.
I have had people tell me they only read it in short fics or drabbles, so maybe a longer story in 1st or 2nd is an issue?
To be honest, I'm more worried about my other fic squicks to be concerned about the POV. Let's just say if I notice it and it throws me out of the fic then I backclick and it's no harm, no foul. :)
no subject
Date: 2016-05-20 09:03 pm (UTC)I can understand why people can tolerate it more easily in shorter fics. I think I am starting to understand the drawbacks more clearly. I'm quite glad I didn't realise any of this before I started writing 1st person. I'd never have dared to try it!
no subject
Date: 2016-05-20 11:20 pm (UTC)And I just want to be clear, in case I wasn't up there. There are NO drawbacks to YOU writing first person! To maybe flip this so that you can see my point, you wouldn't want me to suddenly question writing second person and consider stopping, right? You wouldn't characterize my doing so as arrogant, right? So just turn that on yourself. It makes me nervous, you talking about 'drawbacks' and 'arrogance'. Just please don't stop writing in 1st person. You know I'll hunt you down (it's not hard! :-P ) and threaten and beg and such! Don't make me. LOL!
no subject
Date: 2016-05-22 10:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-20 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-05-21 02:57 am (UTC)