McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Him or me? First vs third person

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Abstruse:
Short and simple...do you feel that first person perspective is necessary for the urban fantasy genre?

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Tasmin21:
Necessary?  No.  But I think it reflects a trend in literature in general, not just in this particular genre.  It allows the author certain liberties, in that they don't have to explain anything that the narrator isn't privy to (until they're gosh darned good and ready.  Mysterious cars hitting Harry ring a bell?).  That element of limited view, of implied failibility (I'm too tired to spell correctly, sue me), adds to the reader's identification with the narrator.  That identification and empathy keeps us coming back.  It's a good technique.  Like any technique, it can be done poorly or overused, but it's still good.

Abstruse:
The problem I'm having to weigh is that the series I'm writing, the main character isn't the main character through the whole thing.  The first and second books are about a girl, the third book is about the girl and the guy she meets, the rest of the series becomes more and more focused on their son until he's the main character.  Plus I have a tendency to kill off protagonists like I were a serial killer...seriously, you think Joss Wheden's bad?  Plus there's a character that's a supporting character in all those books but he's the main character in the one I'm currently working on.  I'm just worried that writing in the first person would be jarring from book to book.  It'd be like Thomas telling his story about his big adventure before he met Harry in book one, then we have Storm Front and all that, then Thomas shows up in Grave Peril.  The question is, would it be better to go for first person, third person, or re-examine the structure of my big epic storyline?

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Mickey Finn:
Can you write in first person, but with different voices?

waywardclam:
Sure you can.  The most common reason to do so would be a project told from the POVs of multiple characters: e.g. Chapter 1 is Harry telling the story, Chapter 2 is Murphy, Chapter 3 is Butters, etc...

Although I can conceive of reasons why you could still do so with only one protagonist...

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