Point of View questions

[Marky Lazer]

Originally Posted by John Jarrold

If someone's first-person writing is like preaching, thery are getting it wrong! There is no need at all for that to happen - unless the writer IS out-and-out preaching, in which case they're a crap novelist.

That was what I meant, bad first person can sound, among other things, preachy.

[John Jarrold]

Originally Posted by Marky Lazer

That was what I meant, bad first person can sound, among other things, preachy.

Unfortunately, bad writing can spoil any viewpoint. Roger Zelazny's first-person novels work extremely well, for instance. As you say, it's the writer's fault when a viewpoint doesn't work in that way, not the fault of the viewpoint.

[StevenSavile]

I personally very much like 1st person and really enjoy writing it - but there are dangers of focus attached to it. It is too easy to become too introverted in the story, thinking you keep things interesting when really what you are doing is chasing every loose thread that come to mind...

[SJAB]

1st person done well, least for me, balances the emotion content i.e. the characters reactions/feelings/thoughts etc to what is happening, against the description of those happenings.

Sometimes writers get the balance wrong. Sarah Micklem's book Firethorn, was for me a book where the balance was wrong. The world the author created was amazingly detailed, yet I found I could not connect emotionally with the main female character. She undergoes such trials, yet I did not feel the wonderful prose, and it is wonderful, had any emotional punch for me.

Robin Hobb with the Farseer books was the opposite, the emotion content was so strong it became annoying and depressing at times.

Also I have found when I have tried to write it, it becomes self-ndulgent and I lose what I am trying to say. Even this latest idea has gone back to limited 3rd after a horrible attempt last night at a first draft.