First Person Point of View
A thread on facebook got me thinking about this one. I love the craft of telling a story from the First Person Narrator. It truly is an art form. Point of view is the narrator's voice in telling the story. In First Person the narrator uses the "I" voice. This means the only person who can tell the story is the person narrating the story. So, does the reader get cheated because they don't get to experience everything that is happening in the story? No. I don't believe so. This especially holds true if the writer is writing a beautiful suspense novel.
Is it okay to write a novel in 1st person POV? I say as long as you stick with it. I personally can't stand bad 1st person narration. Especially if it switches narrator throughout the story. SOME authors can do it and do it well but you have to KNOW what you are doing. Having a good editor helps too. Good first person allows the protagonist to bring you through the events of the story as if you are living it right beside them. You experience every thought, smell, taste, breath, gasp of love, pain of death, strike of anger as if you were standing right beside them.
So what is the problem with the 1st person narrator? It's the same problem as 3rd person limited. The reader is limited to only one person's point of view. But, what if something interesting is happening in the next room? What if your narrator is unconscious? Well, sometimes it's better to sacrifice the events to keep the integrity of the story. The only way to get the whole story is to write 3rd person omniscient but sometimes it's important to keep secrets from you reader (3rd limited) or to create a bond between your reader and the protagonist (1st person). It all depends on the goal of your story.
1st person is great for suspense. Just take a look at Poe, he was the expert. Would the story of revenge in The Cask of Amontillado be as interesting if it was told in 3rd person? Of course not. The reader needed to know why Montessor hated Fortuanato so much and the only way to feel that hate was to see it boil from the narrator's own soul.
POV is an important concept to internalize as an author. It's one of those skills you need to master before you start bending the rules. Beginning writers often use 1st person as a crutch in their writing. The writer wants to let the reader know everything the character is thinking, feeling and doing. Done without skill the 1st person narrator basically gives us a laundry list of and then I… and I thought to myself… and then Billy did this to me… and pretty soon the reader is putting the book on the shelf and forgetting it was even there. When 1st person is done with skill and mastery the reader gets lost with the narrator, becomes one with him and then can experience all the glorious experiences and thrills the narrator experiences as he goes on his journey. (Oh and for those female fans out there who are wondering why I am saying him and not her or him/her, you know I am talking about characters in general. When we write in this forum gender becomes pointless and we are all one big creative mind. When I use a pronoun it refers to people in general). Now, back to what I was saying….
The narrator doesn't even have to be the protagonist of the story. Sherlock Holmes was the Protagonist,Watson the Narrator.
So, some of the great 1st person authors:
Harper Lee, Mark Twain, Edgar A. Poe, Sir Author Conan Doyle, Charlotte Bronte
Any others?