First-Person Narrative, or Not?

[paulamcg]

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.

Comments

[magnetic_pole]

I'm not sure where this fandom preference came from! I feel as if the fandom hive mind tends to understand things that can go wrong quickly (using epithets coming to mind immediately), and then writing advice swings to the black-and-white prohibition, as much writing advice does. Often I think we're using a proxy saying things like "I don't want too introspective a story" when we say "no first person POV." I've definitely done so on fest sign ups, saying "no I love yous" because I don't want too much mushiness in general, not because I mind the occasional endearment or confession.

I say write whatever you want! I actually love second person, though I know everyone groans when they see it. Some stories just call for that imperative mood. M.

[paulamcg]

I’m so glad you came to comment, too! And, of course, I’m inspired to ramble on.

Perhaps I ended up guilty of a black-and-white prohibition when I, above, laughed at the “other men”. I suppose “the other man” can work as a good epithet in some situations.

And you remind me that, of course, I mustn’t criticise people for stating whatever they don’t want in their gifts. At R/S Small Gifts I immediately ruled out those participants as my potential recipients who mentioned the dislike of first-person POV, and I wonder if I shouldn’t have. I ended up writing my official gift in the third person (taking the challenge of writing each of the five characters’ third-person POV in its separate section, two of those with rather intimate Remus/Sirius interaction and therefore need to construct the text so that I didn’t have to name the owner of each hand and other body part). But perhaps the ruling out was wise, because my third-person POV is hardly less close to the viewpoint character’s consciousness (in case that was what those participants actually dislike) than my first-person POV. However, I don’t think first-person narration needs to be – or that mine is (I hope not) – excessively introspective.

Now that makes me remember what I didn’t like in some of the first-person fics I read years ago. Perhaps some writers (perhaps particularly young, not so experienced writers, or those experienced in keeping a diary), when they choose the first person and the past tense, end up writing too much telling and too little showing, and just reflection and abstract descriptions of emotions – instead of showing setting and action and interaction and allowing us see and hear the characters and share the story through the viewpoint character’s senses, which is what I try to do with first-person as well as third-person POV.

Thank you for what’s always a good piece of advice. I must remember to write whatever I want.

I used to think (and now I mean almost fifteen years ago) that writing first-person POV well was an interesting challenge, and that was why I wanted to use this technique. I used it shamelessly – in my titles, too. But now I’ve started to think that perhaps first-person POV is the easier way of writing intimate same-gender interaction fluently, and that third-person POV can be more demanding, so that writing that well leads to more carefully constructed text.

As for second-person POV, do you mean stories in which the viewpoint characters form their thoughts about themselves in the grammatical second person? That’s a challenge I’ve never taken, and I suppose I’m agreeing with you when I say that there must be a good reason for choosing that technique. I’ve written one small fic in which I use the second person, but it’s Lily talking in his mind to new-born Harry, when she’s so absorbed in him that she’s sharing all her consciousness, including her interaction with someone else, with him.

[pauraque]

I feel as if the fandom hive mind tends to understand things that can go wrong quickly (using epithets coming to mind immediately), and then writing advice swings to the black-and-white prohibition, as much writing advice does.

Good point, I agree this is a factor. I think many fan writers have anxieties about "doing it wrong", and when it's mentioned that some writing technique isn't the easiest to do well, people can feel safer just never trying it at all.