A Question of Perspective
1st person = I/we
2nd person = you
3rd person = he/she/they
I’ve been thinking about narrative perspectives lately. I’m working on a sequel to Where the Story Begins, the first book in my Storyteller’s Daughter series, and the question of what “person” to use has not been as easily answered as you might expect. I’m torn between the first and third person perspectives, and I’m going to tell you why.
The first person (the “I” perspective) has a lot going for it: it creates a sense of intimacy with the reader, it can be incredibly engaging, and it allows readers to sympathize with characters who might otherwise be incredibly unsympathetic. It can be a lot of fun when it comes to creating unreliable narrators as well–narrators who tell us fibs (sometimes little white lies, sometimes ginormous whoppers), or who have limited or biased perspectives, or who are themselves wrestling with the truth or what is real. Narrators can be unreliable for nefarious reasons, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes their own knowledge/understanding/perspective is limited or hindered by their past experiences. Sometimes they can’t see the forest for the trees. And sometimes they just want to sound cool, or come off better in their narrative than they did in “real” life. Is this ringing any bells for anyone else? I suspect that most of us are unreliable narrators when it comes to telling the stories of our lives!
The third person has its advantages, too, of course. Stories written in the omniscient third person can be focalized by a particular character, but you can still take a step back and shift to other characters’ perspectives as well. Look at Robert Jordan–he must have had at least 50 focalizing perspectives in his Wheel of Time series. (I’m not even sure I’m exaggerating when I say that!) Also, when your narrator is omniscient, you can share all of the juicy details that you otherwise wouldn’t get to in a first person narrative. When you write in the first person, you have to leave out all the things that your character couldn’t/wouldn’t/shouldn’t know. Otherwise, you’re breaking character.
Of course, the beauty of being in charge of your own story is that you get to decide what perspective you are going to adopt… Or perspectives. There is no rule that says you can’t do both. (Or all three, if you really like talking directly to the reader.) Weeeeell…. There’s no rule, per se. But there are conventions and reader expectations, which an author has to think about. Let me give you an example. When I wrote Where the Story Begins, I decided to switch from first to third person half way through. I was tickled by the way this would allow me to create a whole new sense of suspense. By making such a shift, Skye’s fate would suddenly be a bit more uncertain: the comfort of knowing that she’d make it to the end (because she was telling us the story) was gone. I was also excited by the ways in which the third person created opportunities for me to reveal how unreliable Skye is as a narrator–often in comic ways. For example, Skye thinks that she is really good at hiding her emotions and putting on a brave face. She also thinks that she is the voice of reason when it comes to dealing with her friends, Fran and Amy. But as Part Two progresses, we see that neither of things is true… At least, not the way Skye thinks they are.
So I was feeling quite gleeful when I had Skye put down her journal and step into the third person. I was a bit shocked, therefore, when the first professional editor who read my manuscript told me to ditch the switch. It was too jarring, too disruptive to the narrative. All or nothing, one perspective or the other was her suggestion. She made a lot of really great suggestions, but that one stuck in my craw a bit. A couple of other readers have shared her opinion. But I was stubborn, and I stuck to my artistic guns. And I’m glad I did–I’ve had much more positive feedback than negative, and that switch was a crucial part of how I envisioned the narrative. It’s also part of my larger vision of storytelling and how it works. But more on that another time…
The bottom line is that I’m glad I chose to ignore that particular criticism, but it has me thinking about narrative perspective in ways that are slightly creatively constipating (if you will forgive the image). I started writing my sequel in the 3rd person, which was okay for a while, but then the creative flow dried up and I was stuck. Eventually, I had the bright idea to switch back to the first person, and now I’m writing again. I think that going back and rewriting what I had already done in Skye’s voice has improved the story. But once again, I want to incorporate the third person in between segments of Skye’s narrative. This is the mythical part, the bigger story that is evolving while Skye is on her own journey. But will it work? Is it really too jarring? I wonder.
I was delighted to come across Joan Thomas’ brilliant novel, Reading by Lightning, which makes the same shift from first to third person part way through the novel. (I’m not, in any way, comparing my story to Thomas’ literary creation; I’m just saying that she knows about shifting perspectives in the middle of a story.) If you are reading this post and know any other authors who do the same thing, please let me know!
Anyway, that’s where I’m at. Do I stick to one perspective? Or do I allow Skye’s voice to be interrupted by what will basically be a focalized, stream-of-conscious, dream-sequencey, omniscient narrator? Can it work? We’ll see… I’m stubborn and I have a vision. I’ll do what I can to make it work!
