Now that the Pitch Wars submission window has closed and the pressure is eased a bit, I\u2019ve turned my attention to other projects. One of those, a short story entitled \u201c29 Langwood Street,\u201d has been lying around waiting to find a home. I admit I don\u2019t like to write something and \u201ctrunk it\u201d (put it in a drawer and forget it). I want all my babies to eventually be seen. But 29 lacks\u2026something. I\u2019ve read and tweaked, read and tweaked, read and tweaked. I\u2019ve given it to beta readers and workshopped it.<\/p>\n
Still, something was missing.<\/p>\n
Yesterday, it occurred to me that if I changed the point of view from third person limited to first person\u2014i.e. went from telling the story from Joe\u2019s perspective (he, him, his) to \u201cbecoming\u201d Joe and telling it from my POV (I, me, my)\u2014the reader would be drawn in to a closer intimacy with the narrator.<\/p>\n
Only in the last year have I begun to play around with POV. When I first began writing, I fell into what I\u2019m told is an amateur trap: the omniscient narrator who knows all, sees all, tells all. From what I\u2019ve read since, the omniscient narrator used to be quite popular. However, these days third person omniscient books are a hard sell because they don\u2019t do well in the market.<\/p>\n
So I revised my novel to a third person limited, meaning the reader sees everything filtered through the eyes and experience of one character, or a few, and never more than one in any given scene. Reworking the story in this way presents a challenge. The character has a limited perspective; they can\u2019t know what they look like (without a mirror) or how they sound to others. They can\u2019t see what\u2019s happening outside their range of view, or hear what\u2019s being said in another place. Their knowledge is, by necessity, composed only of those details to which they\u2019ve been exposed in the narrative. In any revision of a third person limited story, the writer has to be sure and catch all the slips that don\u2019t fit that narrow confine.<\/p>\n
Since then, three of my short stories were written in third, three in first. I have to say that first person POV is fun to write. Even so, it comes with its own set of limitations. It can never be omniscient. It provides a degree of unreliability, because no one character can know everything about everything in the story. Thus it follows that first person POV carries bias, because the narrator\u2019s opinions, choices, and decisions are all based on and colored by their personal experience.<\/p>\n
I imagine writing a whole novel in first person would be quite the challenge. Others have done it masterfully: Suzanne Collins<\/a> with the Hunger Games and its sequels. Gillian Flynn<\/a> with Gone Girl. Paula Hawkins<\/a> with The Girl on the Train. But it would require an eagle eye and a strong voice.<\/p>\n I haven\u2019t yet tried to write anything in second person POV, where \u201cyou\u201d the reader are drawn in as the protagonist. That might be a fun project to tackle over the winter, but for now, I\u2019ve converted \u201c29 Langwood\u201d to first person. I like it much better. It feels much stronger, more focused. I\u2019ll let it sit a while as I work on the next new story, then workshop it in October in my next fiction critique class.<\/p>\n What about you? Which perspective do you prefer as a reader? As a writer? Why?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now that the Pitch Wars submission window has closed and the pressure is eased a bit, I\u2019ve turned my attention to other projects. One of those, a short story entitled \u201c29 Langwood Street,\u201d has been lying around waiting to find a home. I admit I don\u2019t like to write something and \u201ctrunk it\u201d (put it…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","category-on-writing"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8n0kX-gy","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2732,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2022\/06\/08\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-5th-part-of-my-journey\/","url_meta":{"origin":1026,"position":0},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: 5th Part of My Journey","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"June 8, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Part 5\/? We\u2019re finally settled into our new home, which means additional tasks that suck time away from my writing and publishing, but I don\u2019t mind. I\u2019ve always loved weeding a garden, as long as the temps aren\u2019t soaring in the upper 80s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/WateringCan-683x1024.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1390,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/03\/lather-rinse-repeat\/","url_meta":{"origin":1026,"position":1},"title":"Lather, Rinse, Repeat","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"June 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a handful of short stories in my query list, ones for which I\u2019ve been trying to find homes for months now. 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Last week, I opened one of them to re-read it (it\u2019s been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LatherRinseRepeat.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LatherRinseRepeat.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LatherRinseRepeat.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LatherRinseRepeat.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/LatherRinseRepeat.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":517,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2017\/12\/26\/greetings-from-slumpy-hollow-slumptavia\/","url_meta":{"origin":1026,"position":2},"title":"Greetings from Slumpy Hollow, Slumptavia","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"December 26, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"So it\u2019s been several weeks since I\u2019ve touched my novel to any significant degree. Weeks. Maybe more than a month. I\u2019m beside myself. I\u2019ve tweaked and revised several short stories, spent time researching markets where I might submit them, attended several classes, re-sent book 1 of my novel series to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":905,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/09\/puzzling\/","url_meta":{"origin":1026,"position":3},"title":"Puzzling","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"July 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I am a huge jigsaw puzzle fan. Oh, it\u2019s been a while since I put one together on my kitchen table; I seem to be too busy doing something else these days\u2014writing. You know the drill. Worldbuilding, working out plot, defining and enlivening characters who you then \u201cput up a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Puzzling-300x200.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3877,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2024\/02\/15\/the-chronicles-of-self-publishing-addendum-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":1026,"position":4},"title":"The Chronicles of Self-Publishing: Addendum 3","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"February 15, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"(or How I Did It, a \".doc\"-umentary) Audiobook Part 2 Once my offer was made and accepted, we were off to a great start. Next came the bit B had been advising me to do for months: setting up character profiles with voice traits and quirks. Stacey\u2019s website (which included\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/findaway-voices-ATsEkysmm0Y-unsplash-300x197.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1185,"url":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/2018\/12\/03\/no-gain-no-shame-when-life-gets-in-the-way\/","url_meta":{"origin":1026,"position":5},"title":"No Gain, No Shame: When Life Gets in the Way","author":"DremaDeoraich","date":"December 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"NaNoWriMo always surprises me. Every Fall, it hovers around the corner like one of our kittens, furry butt wiggling in preparation for The Pounce and, the minute November 1 arrives, it attacks my conscience. I always want to be a NaNoWriMo writer. I\u2019ve occasionally planned to participate. It just never\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Posts"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Posts","link":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/category\/blog-posts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/time-flies-2470848_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/time-flies-2470848_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/time-flies-2470848_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/time-flies-2470848_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/time-flies-2470848_1920.jpg?fit=1200%2C959&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1026"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1027,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026\/revisions\/1027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dremadeoraich.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}