This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
You can listen to Anna’s podcasted novel over on her website www.annabellwrites.com and follow her on twitter @annabell_writesWhen you read a good book you don’t tend to look at how its written, you just enjoy it. But one of the things I struggle with the most when starting a project, or even half way through a novel, is whose perspective to write from.
I guess different types of novels lend themselves to different styles. Heavily characterized and comic books lead themselves easily into being written in the first person. You want to instantly bond with your lead character. Books by Sophie Kinsella or Lindsey Kelk fit into this category. It never seems unnatural that the main character is narrating their life story, it feels instead like they’re your best friend.
Then on the other hand you’ve got your books written in the third person, which allow the writer (and the reader) to get a more rounded view of the main character and to see more than the main character does.
I’ve started reading books and really analysing how they’re written and whose perspective they are written from.
What I have noticed that, like anything with writing, it isn’t that simple. The last four books I’ve read have been completely different. I’ve read two first person novels, one where the main character (MC) feels like your long lost bff and the other where you feel quite cold towards the MC because they explain everything so matter of factly and with limited descriptions. The book I’m reading now is written in the third person, yet it changes whose perspective its written from every few paragraphs, meaning you have to keep your concentration or else you don’t know which guy thinks the MC is hot.
There was me thinking that it is really black and white and a matter of plumping for one or the other, but actually its a little more complicated then that and is also about style and the way you write.
When I first start writing a new project I try and work out which style would be best for the type of story I’m writing. My different novels and half written novels are written from different perspectives. The majority are written in the third person, from one or two main characters’ perspective, and I’ve written one which is in the first person and very much a more light hearted, all about the character book.
But I do get the perspective wobbles whilst writing. Usually at the 20,000 word mark, where you’ve written enough to be invested in the project, but not enough to not think it will be easily changed. I start to wonder whether it would work better from a different perspective. It usually means I write a test chapter in the opposite style and then usually go back to how I’d written it originally. But I wobble none the less.
I think if I’m honest, this is one of the things I find the most difficult in writing. And I guess that is natural maybe of an unpublished author, as I’m still trying to find my style.
What do you think, am I worrying too much about this? If it is written consistently or well does it make a difference whose perspective it is written from?