15 January, 2012

Is first the best?

A first person narrator tells the story in the voice of one of the characters. The voice must reflect the character's age, background, ethnicity, culture, gender and attitudes.

It can be a useful way of getting this sort of background information across to the reader and making them closely identify with the character, but there are also disadvantages:

  • The narrator has to be present at all the key scenes.  This has implications for the story structure.
  • Experiencing the whole story from the close perspective of one person can be claustrophobic.
  • Does the narrator need a reason to be relating the story?  Does the story need a frame? This is less an issue for stories written in the present tense.
  • If the story is told in past tense, the narrator is an older version of the character and is remembering the events in the story.  This introduces temporal distance - it feels less immediate. 
  • The reader is also aware that the narrator knows how the story ends and that the narrator character cannot die in the story.
These are challenges even for an experienced writer.  But what happens in less experienced hands?  Sadly the first person voice can end up either distant or exaggerated.  To be really effective, the narrator must have attitude and the narration must reveal character.  

First person narration is difficult.  

2 comments:

  1. I'm not really comfortable with using first person perspective in writing unless I'm giving the character a solo chapter or a solo act like trying to find a way out of a labyrinth. Mind if I link to your blog? You have articles that can be used as references for those new to the craft.

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    http://maykatha.x10.mx/

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    1. Very happy for you to put an link to my blog if it would help others.

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