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Friday, July 15, 2005
Julia Quinn on Writing First Person
This is actually a strange topic for me, as I haven't actually written anything longer than five pages in the first person, but there were questions about it down the board (waving at J Perry) so I thought I'd take a stab at it.
The big difference between first and third person is, obviously, that with first person, the reader only gets into the head of one person. With third, it can be multiple people, although in romance it's generally only two. (Big exception is Eloisa James, who, IMO, is utterly brilliant with the omniscient narrator and multiple points-of-view.)
But there is an offshoot of this--in first person the reader generally gets deeper into the narrator's head/psyche than in third person. You get to know the character better. You're privy to the thoughts and feelings of that character as described by that character. With the third person, technically speaking you're privy to the thoughts and feelings of a character as described by the narrator (the author.)
These two factors mean that first and third person work better for different types of books. Romance isn't a great fit for first person because romance is, by definition, mainly about TWO characters. If you keep it in first person, you lose half the story (well, not really, but I can't think of a better way to describe it.) This isn't to say that it can't be done, and well (Joan Wolf wrote a few that I thought were great) but if you, as an author, are going to choose to do away with one of the protagonist's point of view, you should probably have a good reason for it.
This is why first person works well for gothic romances. Gothics have a great deal of mystery to them, a woman-in-jeopardy sort of theme. By keeping the reader as in the dark as the character about the hero's thoughts, the author can keep up the sense of drama and fear.
Young Adult fiction works very well in first person as well. There may be (and frequently is) romance in the story, but a lot of the time, the real theme is the growth and life of the main character. And first person allows the author to create that much of a deeper portrait of the character.
Thoughts, anyone?
Julie Q.
P.S. In case anyone is interested, second person is written with "You." As in: "You go to the car and open the door. You get in, but you see that your purse has been stolen." The only books I can think of written in second person are Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City and the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Does anyone know any others?
The big difference between first and third person is, obviously, that with first person, the reader only gets into the head of one person. With third, it can be multiple people, although in romance it's generally only two. (Big exception is Eloisa James, who, IMO, is utterly brilliant with the omniscient narrator and multiple points-of-view.)
But there is an offshoot of this--in first person the reader generally gets deeper into the narrator's head/psyche than in third person. You get to know the character better. You're privy to the thoughts and feelings of that character as described by that character. With the third person, technically speaking you're privy to the thoughts and feelings of a character as described by the narrator (the author.)
These two factors mean that first and third person work better for different types of books. Romance isn't a great fit for first person because romance is, by definition, mainly about TWO characters. If you keep it in first person, you lose half the story (well, not really, but I can't think of a better way to describe it.) This isn't to say that it can't be done, and well (Joan Wolf wrote a few that I thought were great) but if you, as an author, are going to choose to do away with one of the protagonist's point of view, you should probably have a good reason for it.
This is why first person works well for gothic romances. Gothics have a great deal of mystery to them, a woman-in-jeopardy sort of theme. By keeping the reader as in the dark as the character about the hero's thoughts, the author can keep up the sense of drama and fear.
Young Adult fiction works very well in first person as well. There may be (and frequently is) romance in the story, but a lot of the time, the real theme is the growth and life of the main character. And first person allows the author to create that much of a deeper portrait of the character.
Thoughts, anyone?
Julie Q.
P.S. In case anyone is interested, second person is written with "You." As in: "You go to the car and open the door. You get in, but you see that your purse has been stolen." The only books I can think of written in second person are Jay McInerney's Bright Lights, Big City and the Choose Your Own Adventure books. Does anyone know any others?
Anonymous, 1:33 PM
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