Writing About Writing: Point of View

By On August 2, 2010 · 6 Comments

Point of View by mikecpeck @ Flickr

Editor’s Note: Welcome to one of our new weekly columns! Most of the writers here at TDF like to write fiction, and a few of us have even been published. Since the fangirl/geek girl community is so full of talented writers, we thought we’d start a dialogue with our readers about writing. –TDF Pamela

I’ve been writing fiction ever since I was a little kid, and I wrote a lot of fanfic from my late teens through my twenties. Last year, I took a creative writing class that was a bit like NaNoWriMo stretched into three months. We had to write 50,000 words of first draft material for a novel over the course of a semester, and I figured, hey! Maybe this’ll be the perfect thing to kick me into gear. I’d been wanting to write a long piece of fiction for a long time, but I’m the world’s worst procrastinator when it comes to things like that. Even long pieces of fanfiction would lay around unfinished for years (I still have several of these floating around my hard drive).

Well, I nearly hit 50,000 words. I wrote enough to get an A, because I’m a Hermione Granger kind of girl, but I certainly didn’t come close to finishing the novel itself.

And the poor thing has been languishing ever since. I’ve re-read it several times, making small edits, but I haven’t finished it up. And I know one of the major problems I’m having with it is characterization. See, I spend a lot of time in my own head. I’ve probably got five complete novels crammed into dusty file cabinets in the back of my brain. I think them out, play with them, and most of all, develop the characters in my head.

My problem? Getting those characters to be as fleshed out on the page as they are in my head.

Which brings me to my topic: point of view. So far, I’ve written my novel in third person. I tend to prefer third person as a reader, too; I like being able to jump from character to character, and a lot of first person fiction tends to grate on me. There are some authors who can write first person very well. Patricia Briggs comes to mind, as do Richelle Mead and Marjorie M. Liu. They can write in a character’s voice, and it never comes off as trite or contrived.

On the other hand, I’ve read some first person books that were exercises in maintaining my sanity. The character’s internal voice grates, or otherwise, she constantly thinks about ridiculous things. For example, a book that shall remain nameless had a protagonist who detailed her shoe and bra size in the first chapter. I have to admit, I very seldom think to myself that I’m slipping on my size 8 Converse knockoffs (I’m not telling you my bra size), but this character “told” us about her five inch stilettos in patent leather and her 36DD breasts. I couldn’t finish reading the book.

Third person is typically a more objective point of view; you can typically trust the narrator to tell the truth of the story (though this isn’t always the case). In first person, the storytelling is more subjective, because you’re hearing what happened through the protagonist’s mental filter. Both of these methods have their merits and their disadvantages. I often like books with untrustworthy protagonists, because it’s fun to try to see through their manipulation (purposeful or otherwise) of the story. Unfortunately, it all depends: on the writer’s talent, on the story itself, on the character, even on the genre.

So, here’s my dilemma. My poor characters aren’t as fleshed out as I want them to be. I’ve been toying with the idea of switching the story to first person, but a major problem is that there are two protagonists. I have read books that switch between two first person narrators, I’m also very wary of that kind of switcheroo. I’ve actually moved back to wanting it in third person now, but I’m still curious about what other people think about POV.

What do you think? Do you prefer first person or third person narration, whether you’re reading or writing? Why?

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About The Author

TDF Pamela

The Discriminating Fangirl, who is more likely to answer to Pamela if you shout it at her, is the proud owner of an MA in English, focusing on children's/young adult literature and popular culture. She's now not using that degree to work as a project manager for a mobile app company. She reads voraciously, loves geeky movies and tv shows, reads comic books as long as she's not pissed off at Marvel, and when she's procrastinating, she enjoys playing video games. She can be contacted at t.d.fangirl @ gmail.com and followed on Twitter @tdfangirl.

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  • Tarte Amandine

    Any writing that I do is going to be 9 times out of 10, in third person. Usually I prefer to read it as well because I think it works better to help me imagine the world I’m in and the characters that I’m seeing. Of course, it’s entirely possible to do this with first person, but I prefer third for the reason I just stated.

    I don’t blame you for dropping that book where the female protagonist described herself right off the bat like that. *shudder* That just screams badfic.

  • Finn

    I write in both – publish in both too. My choice has always been story dependent. There are some stories where more than one POV is required and I’m on the same train as you – switching first POV between two characters is ick-worthy. Not to say it can’t be done, just that the books I’ve read that way are not my preference. There’s no right or wrong way and I’ve talked to plenty of authors who will write a chapter both ways to find out which works better or see how they have a better feel for. Reading-wise I’ll read either – I don’t have a preference. I won’t not read a book because it’s in 1st or 3rd.

    BUT, I will say this – while I don’t know figures (as that’s not my business), in conversations I’ve had, I’ve learned that 3rd person tends to sell better than 1st.

  • http://www.undergroundgeeks.com Dawson (@professorsmind)

    As promised (on Twitter) my (long-winded) thoughts on POV:

    As was already stated, 9 times out of 10 third person is probably a good bet. There are a couple exceptions when first person is a better choice:

    1. When your main character needs to constantly defend themselves. This is a typical system for handling flawed or even evil main characters. When you write in the first person they constantly have the ability to “spin” things in a positive light. It also means your reader will connect with them emotionally, softening the blow of their flaws/evilness.

    2. When you want to add some mystery. First person is limited to what one person knows (obviously) and provides a great system for injecting mystery into a novel. In third person your narrator should know everything, and sometimes that’s not what you want. Instead, you want the reader to experience things in a limited fashion and slowly bring them along to the reveal as the main character finds out.

    3. Connection. Pure and simple, first person is about creating a special connection between a character and the reader. To an extent, the reader becomes that character, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, and taking this journey inside their head. This can be incredibly limiting, but also incredibly powerful.

    In terms of creating connection with your two protagonists, it’s not necessary to switch the POV. There are many techniques for achieving it that can be created in third person. Most of it is about the scenes you write- you have to create scenarios that expose the reader to how it FEELS to be said character. Forget description, forget talking about it, you want to create a gut-level reaction in the reader by what your character says/does/thinks/feels. This happens by putting them in difficult situations and demonstrating what KIND of people these characters are…hopefully with as much detail and nuance as possible. That’s what creates connection- that’s why readers feel for characters.

    I will say, one option you could explore would be write it in the first person, but use someone outside the two main characters. Again, this is a risky gambit (can absolutely ruin a perfectly good narrative), but done correctly can show the readers your two protagonists through the filter of a character who can set a tone/mood for the reader with how they respond to your protagonists.

    It’s true what you say- third person narratives are more objective, more “trust worthy” almost. Only use first person if your goal is to be something OTHER than objective.

    Wow, that really -was- long-winded. Maybe I need to write my own blog post on this!

  • Kimberly B.

    I’ve never really understood people who say “Oh, I hate when a novel is written in first (third) person,” because to me it’s so dependent on what the story itself wants. I do prefer third person limited over an omniscient narrator, as the latter makes me feel quite stupid. And I do like to feel I am getting one person’s perspective, at least for one scene at a time.

    When I write I often go with the third person for a couple reasons, I think. For one thing, it reins me in a bit; when I write in first person it’s easy for me to slip into stream of consciousness babbling, and I don’t want that. For another, I have so far not been a detailed outline-maker, and I think that the third person is more flexible if you end up making unforeseen changes in your story. If you end up killing someone off, and s/he turns out to be your narrator, that can be problematic.

    I do think that one way you could find out if the first person would work better for this story is to take one of the scenes you’ve already written and switch it to first person. See how it works. If nothing else, you might learn more about your character thinks, and that can help with fleshing them out, even if you switch back to third in the end.

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