posted
In what is the third or fourth or eightieth rewrite of one of my more favored stories, I've begun toying with the notion of swapping the personage in the narrative. For events the main character does not personally witness, I use third-person. For the events that the main character experiences, I use first-person in his voice.
I'm not sure if this is going to be clumsy or work out well, and I was just curious as to what the general consensus is on this sort of thing. Has it been done before? Was it done successfully or was the story met with irritation?
I'm not keen on writing the entire thing in third-person, because it feels too impersonal for what is basically a coming-of-age story. But considering in my head the main character is telling this story shortly after it completed, it seems a little unlikely that he will have gotten all the details and would be able to tell all that happened as if it directly related to him. Much goes on behind the scenes that has later ramifications on the main character that he talks about then.
Basically, should I bite the bullet and go with one POV or is it worth the risk to switch it up?
[This message has been edited by JRune (edited August 26, 2005).]
posted
POV shifts can be a good thing, but I would not suggest going from 1st to 3rd very much. Behind the scenes activities can be kept behind the scenes. The reader doesn't need to know everything up front and they will experience the POV char's confusion and drama more if they learn of what happened at the same time. It has been done, and done well, to have a very very brief moment of 3rd person. I've seen it done so that the narrative voice gives the reader the impression that they are peaking behind the curtain, but it has to be short. Too many or too long of a POV shift can jar the reader, making them lose touch with the MC. Edited to add: I had almost forgot about chapter seperated POV shifts. That can be done and has been done well. Personally, I would rather have each POV character first person in seperate chapters with a chapter title giving the name of who's view it is, but that is my view. Of course I still have a need to practice more on POV. Right now I seem to be in a 1st person phase.
[This message has been edited by JmariC (edited August 26, 2005).]
posted
In Robert J. Sawyers, Hugo award winner "Calculating God" he does 3rd to 1st person switches. I say about 80-90% of the novel is in 1st person though.
The 3rd person narrative relates to some "villians" who plotting to destroy a fossil exhibit. It helps build tension and I liked it alot. It was like the reader had some inside knowledge as to what was going to happen to the narrator.
When they finally do confront, the first person narrator was completely surprised, while I felt like: "I tried to tell you."
Also I believe Elisabeth Moon's "The Speed of Dark" also does this, to about the same degree. It caused a powerful effect at the end of the story which could not of happened if she stuck to 1st person.
posted
JRune, in whose POV would you be setting the 3rd person parts? Would it be the POV of a different person for each scene, or would you use the same person (thereby creating, more or less, a second main character whose story would also have to be resolved)?
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posted
The 3P-POV right now only follows the grandfather of the main character. But considering that he's not in the entire story, it may be more or less a bad idea.
I had originally intended the story to just follow the 3rd person perspective any time it broke away from the main character, which wouldn't be very often as the story mostly involves the main character as the story-teller.
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