Kat Dancing

Lots of POV talk around for us writing junkies. Here's Elizabeth Bear on limited third and omniscient, with a bit more on omniscient. And here's Karen Palmer on first person (link ganked from Booksquare).

I've written two books now, one in first and one in tightly limited third, and I disagree slightly with Bear in that I find the two very different indeed. I also disagree with Palmer (ooh. Contentious today, aren't we?) in that, for me, first worked almost exactly opposite than it did for her. It was in third that I struggled with the default voice and finding a point of view for my character that wasn't either exactly like mine or soppily self-involved. Thinly disguised wish fufillment autobiography, in other words, also known as "writing a Mary Sue". In first, the character's voice came through with such terrifying clarity that I was blown away.

Of course, in my original attempts at writing that story third person, I not only didn't fully grasp POV but was writing an adolescent female who closely resembled me. It wasn't until I read a LeGuin article on POV and did the suggested exercise, writing a given scene from three seperate points of view, that I stumbled on the idea of writing first person. And the first person character just happened to be in her twenties (several years older than me) and was convinced she had no emotions*, which made her a rather good observer. So perhaps I just lucked out there.

On the other hand....

I've been hanging out on writer's boards for several years now, and in every debate or advice session, someone will say, "Don't do X. I did X when I first started writing, and it was crap, and then I switched to doing Y and whammo! My writing got better!"

This happens with such frequency that I suspect a deeper reason: the easy way sucks, no matter what the easy way may be. Most of us, as writers, started out writing in the way that was most convenient to us - that is, required the least thought or effort. Then we ditch the no-thought method and do something that is a struggle for us. We attribute the improvement in writing to the change in method, not our own change in attitude from "writing as play" to "writing as requiring effort" because, well, we don't like admitting we weren't trying hard enough before. It's ever so much nicer to think you've discovered the cure for cancer than to realize it was lying on the bedroom floor under the laundry where you'd have found it long ago if you'd bothered tidying up.

This can lead to two problems. The first (and I am not talking about either Bear or Palmer here, both of whom wrote excellent and non-lecturing essays. Come to think of it, I haven't been talking of them for some time. I'm a writer. It's all about me...) is that you may be tempted to order less experienced writers around: "Never use first! Never use omniscient!" Hang about any writers' group for a month or so and you will watch this happen. Advice is grand, advice is good, but what some fail to realize is that what worked for them may not work for others.

The second is that you as a writer may end up denying yourself valuable tools. I was very hesitant, when I started the current Damned Book, to write in third; I remembered the first book too well. But it was in my head as third, so I started, and suprise! No problem any more. Joey is just as strong a voice as my first-person character and no one could possibly mistake her for me. The method wasn't the problem; my attitude towards writing the first time I used it was.

Now I just need to work my courage up enough to use omniscient, which, aside from being a bugger to spell, is a whole new ballgame. Hmm. Maybe in a year or two....


* She was also convinced that she existed to kill people. Whenever I spent too much time writing her I would find myself stalking around campus in a trenchcoat staring coldly at people. This is the danger of first person.

Type-In Revisions: 147 pages (of 385)
Word Count, Original and Current: 118,040 / 118,560
Notes: I just love it when my only hint that I've swapped the scene order is getting halfway through a scene and realising the revisions I'm typing in reference a scene that happens in the future. I guess I thought I'd remember. Bad Kat.