First-person storytelling…
Using the first person in storytelling has its pros and cons like most writing techniques. Using it means both readers and the author can become a character. A reader might be uncomfortable “being” a criminal, of course, but what a way to get inside a criminal’s mind…if it’s done well. Same goes for good and noble characters, of course.
First person is not point of view (POV). POV is about who’s the center of attention in a section or chapter; the reader is observing what’s going on using one character’s senses and mind. First person is already in one character’s POV, hence the confusion. Authors generally tell a story in one third-person POV that might shift from section to section or chapter to chapter, all in the past tense. But both first-person past and present and third-person present are common as well. (Complicated? Not really. Read on.)
First-person storytelling works well when one character has a lot of internal dialogue, i.e., narrative that represents personal reflections on what has happened, is happening, or will happen. Using it exclusively means you can’t get into another character’s head, but that can help an author to not give anything away, like a detective considering the significance of clues or evidence and others’ mannerisms and actions. (That can also be done in third person, of course.) Sometimes this gets clumsy, though. I wrote the first novel in “The Last Humans” series all in first person—the story is about how Penny Castro copes with being one of the few survivors of a worldwide pandemic—but in the second novel, I had to alternate between first person (Penny) and third person (other characters). I’d had practice doing that, though, because the “Chen & Castilblanco” novels, all seven of them, were written in that style.
I first saw alternating first- and third-person storytelling in Patterson’s early Alex Cross novels. (I don’t know if he kept that up. I stopped reading Patterson. Like many old mares in stallions in the Big Five’s stables, Patterson soon became boring and formulaic.) Many readers don’t like that mix. I can’t understand that. It’s no different than changing third-person POV from section to section or chapter to chapter. Maybe the negative opinions stem from the fact that the third-person POV is more common? (I must have really upset readers of The Time Traveler’s Guide through the Multiverse where I alternate between first-person Gail and first-person Jeff, the two main characters.)
First-person storytelling isn’t as new as some writers or readers might think either. H. Rider Haggard used it in King Solomon’s Mines, for example (published in 1885!), writing as if he were Alan Quatermain. That novel is a saga, and I’d venture to state that first-person storytelling is perfect for sagas. (“The Last Humans” and Time Traveler’s Guide novels can be considered sagas, even though the third book is a bit tongue-in-cheek.) Melville used first-person storytelling in Moby Dick.(1851). Would that novel be the same without that famous opening first line, “They call me Ishmael”?
I just can’t envision Ugh the Caveman sitting by a flickering fire and telling his stories to his comrades in anything but first person in order to make those comrades feel like participants in the story. That was how storytelling originated. Modern writing techniques have come a long way, and writers can experiment with them. I’m not sure I’m ready for second-person present-tense storytelling, though. I’d like to read your opinions, reader or writer.
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