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First-Person Narrative, or Not?
I’ve just started writing two short stories simultaneously, one for Remus Fest and the other for HP Golden Age’s Salt and Pepper Fest. So far I’m using the third person in both – partly because I somehow enjoy this challenge, and partly because I remember (and saw in some sign-up comments at R/S Small Gifts) bias against the first person. I wonder how common the dislike of first-person narration is in the fandom.
I wrote my main fanfic, a long chaptered story, in the third person – but included letters in which the protagonist could narrate his backstory, and I allowed him to do it more and more in vivid scenes, using the present tense. In my short stories of the same period, too, I experimented with and developed my first-person-and-present-tense style.
That kind of first-person narration is still my favourite – particularly in slash fics with a lot of interaction between two characters of the same gender. But I want to also take the challenge of finding other ways to avoid clunkiness with pronouns and names. I doubt there’s much difference between my third-person and first-person short stories in how close I take the reader to the view-point character’s consciousness.
Having written this year mainly for my own indulgence, I at least pretend not to care too much whether the first person scares off readers. But now writing for fests, Ḯ’m more interested again in other writers’ and readers’ views.
I wrote my main fanfic, a long chaptered story, in the third person – but included letters in which the protagonist could narrate his backstory, and I allowed him to do it more and more in vivid scenes, using the present tense. In my short stories of the same period, too, I experimented with and developed my first-person-and-present-tense style.
That kind of first-person narration is still my favourite – particularly in slash fics with a lot of interaction between two characters of the same gender. But I want to also take the challenge of finding other ways to avoid clunkiness with pronouns and names. I doubt there’s much difference between my third-person and first-person short stories in how close I take the reader to the view-point character’s consciousness.
Having written this year mainly for my own indulgence, I at least pretend not to care too much whether the first person scares off readers. But now writing for fests, Ḯ’m more interested again in other writers’ and readers’ views.
no subject
no subject
I’ve always enjoyed writing first-person POV, as well as various challenges related to it, also combining POVs, some of them in third-person voice. This year I’ve tried different options, sometimes also changed the grammatical person after considering which is more enjoyable to read. Of course, the reading experience must be different for other readers than myself. The betas (whose services I enjoyed for my five latest fics – fest fics) didn’t complain about the first-person POV (in four of those five), but they weren’t inclined to suggesting any other major changes either, and it didn’t occur to me to ask about this.
My problem now is that I can’t forget how much I used to enjoy also interacting with readers – and to always wish I could have more of that interaction. But even if I’ve now got confirmation that first-person POV is not a go-to for many (most?) potential readers, there’s no guarantee that my fics would be received even if I gave up writing them in the way I believe they can work best for readers, too.
Interaction like this here can help me carry on and simply enjoy my fiction-writing. Thank you again!