Writing 1st person POV

[birdsofshore]

I 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.

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!

Comments

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I have a friend, whom I am currently editing for in the hopes that she can get it published professionally. She's an astonishingly good writer, but at the moment we are struggling a bit, because her MS calls for multiple 1st person povs, and had hard as we try, they all keep sounding alike. The problem is that, like all good writers, she has a distinctive style, a certain way of writing that makes it special to her. The problem with 1st person, is that that distinctive style tends to carry over into that narrative, and becomes a quirk of that particular character by necessity. 1st person narration tend to be stinkers - when it comes to fanfic, anyway - because the writer either hasn't yet developed a style (leaving the narration bland and uninviting), or because the writer's already developed style is nothing like the characters we already know and love. It takes someone really special to be able to match their voice with that of an already established character, and as interpretation is subjective, there's always going to be some people who don't find it a good fit. It's different in original fic, because there the important issue becomes whether or not the writer's style matches with the character they have created, and whether or not that match is then strong enough to carry the weight of an entire novel. Some of the best novels out there are written in 1st person pov, and they're considered some of the best novels because the strength of the character and the author's style have meshed together so well that they become something transcendental and timeless.

(all just my opinion, of course, please feel free to ignore!)

[birdsofshore]

Oh, good luck to your friend. That sounds difficult and frustrating, but I hope she can get through that issue and make it work. I would think being aware of it was half the problem.

It takes someone really special to be able to match their voice with that of an already established character, and as interpretation is subjective, there's always going to be some people who don't find it a good fit

Yes, you're right of course! I don't know many people at all who can make me feel like I'm reading the actual characters from canon. But I adore fanon versions of characters, especially Draco, and as gracerene pointed out in an earlier comment, if your reader agrees with / enjoys your particular head canon for that character, you're probably going to be fine!

Some of the best novels out there are written in 1st person pov, and they're considered some of the best novels because the strength of the character and the author's style have meshed together so well that they become something transcendental and timeless.

I love this explanation. It makes me think of so many of my favourite books and certainly holds true for them.