When you first sit down to write a novel, there are a couple of big choices you can’t avoid for long. I talked about one of them in a previous blog post: Past and present: How to use the two main narrative tenses correctly. The other is perspective – usually whether you write in first person, third-person limited, or third-person omniscient perspective.
Whether it’s a conscious choice or not – and I’d encourage you to ensure it is! – your choice of perspective can have an enormous impact on your book.
I’ll explore third-person limited and third-person omniscient in more detail in other blogs. This one is all about first person…
What is first-person perspective?
A story written in first-person perspective is one where the narrator is directly involved in the events, and the narrator therefore relays the events to the reader using the pronouns “I”, “me”, “my” – or “we”, “us”, “our” when they’re part of a group – as though they’re telling the reader about something that happened/is happening to them.
- I closed my eyes and willed the magic to come to my fingertips.
- He looked at me as though I was mad.
- We’ve been walking for hours at this point. My feet are burning.
All the events of the story are filtered through your point-of-view character/s. If they don’t see something, neither does the reader. If they don’t know something, neither does the reader. If they strongly dislike someone or something, that might come across in the narrative itself – not just their words and actions. The narrative gives us a direct link into their mind.
You might decide to have different characters’ points of view (POVs) in each chapter or section, so you can see multiple perspectives throughout the book.
Example:
When the man disappeared into the back room to fetch the book I’d ordered, I took in the jumble of leather and paper and glass bottles that filled the rest of the shop. If this was what the shop floor looked like, I could only imagine the horrors of the storage room…
The “I” character here watches the man disappear but can’t see what he gets up to in the other room. And the last sentence makes clear that they disapprove of the messiness of the shop, without them having to say or do anything out loud in the scene.
Why choose to write in first-person perspective?
Character voice
First-person perspective puts readers directly in the shoes of your character, which means it allows you to inject your character’s personality and voice into every line of the story. Since everything that happens is filtered through their inner voice, the reader not only learns what happens, but also how that person feels about it. It’s a great way to help readers form a deeper connection with your character.
When I returned to the castle, the kitchen staff were filling the table with the same bland, grey crap we’d been eating for weeks already. Perhaps I’d just skip dinner tonight and have a bath instead. Even the soap looked more appetising at this point.
Tension-building
In most cases, your perspective character will be limited by their inability to be in two places at once, or to read others’ minds. This means that there’s plenty of room for events to take place without their knowledge, and to keep the reader engaged as they join them on their journey to uncover those secrets. Whether it’s about unveiling the identity of a killer or simply working out whether their crush likes them back, first-person perspective is a great way to keep readers guessing.
I showed her the profile picture. Was that a flicker of recognition on her face? “Nope,” she said. “Never seen him before, sorry.” But suddenly she was struggling to meet my gaze. Curious. There was more to this than she was letting on…
What are the disadvantages of first-person perspective?
It can feel limiting
If you plan to stick with only one POV character, the events of the story have to take place around that one person – after all, if they don’t know about something, they won’t be able to tell the reader about it. You could have an awesome idea for a sub-plot, for example, but struggle to fully develop it if your POV character wouldn’t be present for all of it. Of course, you could get around this to some extent by having multiple POV characters whose storylines eventually come together instead.
Some readers dislike it
There’s very little you can do about this one, but some readers say they simply don’t enjoy stories written in first-person perspective. Often this is because they are wary of coming across too many of the mistakes I outline in the next section, or because they don’t vibe with the character’s voice immediately, but even if your book is brilliantly well written, there will likely still be some readers who avoid it purely based on the perspective you’ve chosen.
What are some common mistakes writers make when writing in first person?
Using too many / short-lived POV characters
The limitations of first-person perspective can make it tempting to dip into different characters’ POVs to expose events or motivations that your lead character wouldn’t witness otherwise. But it can feel disorienting and frustrating as a reader to be shunted about between different characters too often, or for only fleeting moments, as we’re not able to develop a good connection to them. If you find yourself including a just one or two small sections from a different character’s POV because your main character is out of action – for example, your main character goes to sleep but you still want to describe how someone is able to sneak in and attack them before they wake up, so you have a short section from the assassin’s POV – try to step back and consider whether they are truly necessary. Are there other changes you could make to keep things in your main characters’ perspectives instead? Might your main character wake to a noise in the night and you build the same tension with them listening for danger in the dark?
Repetitive sentence structure
This mistake can be found in other perspectives as well, but it seems to be particularly prevalent in first-person – and it can make even the most exciting story feel like a bit of a slog. Since every scene is reported as it is experienced by your POV character, you can easily fall into the trap of starting every sentence with “I did X, Y, Z”. But there are plenty of other ways to phrase things from your character’s perspective while keeping the sentences varied and interesting to read.
I saw the troops approaching. I tucked myself around the corner, out of sight. I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d made the right choice in telling the general about this place. I supposed only time would tell.
VS
The troops approached. I tucked myself around the corner, out of sight. Had I made the right choice in telling the general about this place? Only time would tell, I supposed.
Filter words
This is a common issue that crops up in stories where the narrative closely follows one particular character in first-person. Filter words are phrases like “I saw”, “I felt”, “I could hear” that explicitly remind the reader of the fact that everything is filtered through the experience of your POV character. For example, “I heard the wind howl and could feel the cold at my fingertips.”
The problem is that readers already understand that everything included in the narrative is part of your character’s experience – if the character didn’t see or hear or feel something, they wouldn’t be able to report it to the reader in the first place. And these unnecessary “I saw” and “I felt” and “I could hear”s can really have an impact on the effectiveness of your reader’s immersion in the story – adding another layer of admin between them and simply experiencing the events as the character would.
“I heard the wind howl and could feel the cold at my fingertips” can be made much simpler and more effective by removing these filter words to leave you with “The wind howled and the cold nipped at my fingertips.”
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