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I am not far in to the story, which is a good thing because earlier today I was thinking about how the narrative should be written. It's in the 3rd person currently, but if feels way to impersonal. I really want to delve as deep as I can in to this character, and show through his words how confused, upset, angry, disappointed, hurt and rejected he feels. Those feelings are not coming across well in the 3rd person.
A scene I've just written involved a birthday party, so what I plan to do now is re-write this in the first person and see if I feel more comfortable with the narrative. But from the beginning, I knew the character wouldn't last until the end, and that's really where my main confusion lies with writing in the first person. If the man or woman telling the story happens to die, can the viewpoint change at this point to another character, or indeed change to the 3rd person, observing the aftermath through another characters eyes?
Any general advice on writing in the first person would be very much appreciated. Thanks.
I think what you plan to do is the right thing. Try a scene or the first chapter and see how it goes. I see no problem with changing POV if the narrator dies. I've seen it done before, though my memory is so poor I couldn't tell you in which book.
I'm not sure about killing off the main character. I think that would do me in - as a reader. I'm still reeling from the death of Dumbledore and hoping it's all been a mistake :)
Looking at my post, I realised I forgot to ask something. When writing in first person, is it usually done as if the character has already gone through everything, and has now decided to let everyone else know about it? I will obviously be writing in the past tense, as I have been doing in the 3rd person. A book I'm reading at the moment, which is called Divided Kingdom and written by Rupert Thomson, uses a first person viewpoint throughout (with the same character). It's written as a recount of events, from when the character was a boy all the way through to his adulthood.
I'm curious to know how many different ways there are of adapting the voice of a first person narrator.
I don't envisage the main characters death to be the end of the story. I'd like to carry it on by switching to the viewpoint of his mother, because his death will have a massive effect on her. I started the novel by writing it in her viewpoint, so I have a solid understanding of her character. The reason I have now decided on a different viewpoint is because I feel it will show the story in the way I imagine it to happen.
Bud, thanks for your comments. They got me thinking quite a lot about how I want to convey the story. The thing is, I don't see the story as something that has already happened. I see it more as a group of unknowns, whereby what happens next must have current, rather than past, sensations of fear, guilt, depression etc. The story is not going to work any other way. So does that mean that the present tense could work quite well?
For example, if I was to write the line, "I felt as if everything was against me" then that would be past tense wouldn't it? And "I feel as if everything is against me" would be present tense. I know their not good examples, but the latter stands out more to me.
Basically, the story is about a boy who is struggling to understand aspects of his life. And because of that, I think the feelings he has inside of him need to come across as raw and confused, rather than sounding like something he has been thinking about for a while. Does that make sense? Any advice would be great. Thank you.
Milhouse.
For the novel, I don't think the method Alice has used would work. I have a feeling I am over complicating things in my head, but I know at the heart of the novel there is something special, which can only come to fruition once I find the ideal way of telling the story.
I have realised who needs to tell the story, and I'm confident that first person narrative is how it needs to be presented. But having gone away and thought about it, I think writing in the past tense would sound better than the present i.e. 'I walked' instead of 'I walk'. I'll try it this way first to see how it goes.
I think the only reason I see the story going on after the main characters death is because I have already spent a lot of time with another character. I feel I know her quite well, and would like to end the story overlooking her thoughts, rather than actually being her (first person in other words). Something simple but important will happen after the main characters death, and it directly involves her. My main character will make a lot of judgements about her, and I would like the reader to have the opportunity of seeing just how she thinks and feels about certain things. For the end, Im looking for clarity more than anything else. I see her as being the only one who can provide that.
I first started the novel under an omniscient viewpoint, but it wasn't working at all. I wanted to focus on one character, instead of jumping between several. Basically, as it stands now, I have a main character who is confused about the things going on in his life. I want to show his struggle, and have him wondering what other characters are thinking and feeling, instead of just showing every characters emotions. There needs to be some unknowns in order to create moments of suspense and surprises.
I need to just start writing it now, and see if it works in the way I envisage it in my head. I've known for a while that what I want to do is very ambitious for someone who has never written a novel before. But I have characters here that are incredibly real to me, and the circumstances surrounding them feel natural i.e. they created their own issues without me labelling them with specific problems. They're thinking for themselves.