My problem is, I've fallen in love with first-person POV, and my next book has to be third. It has to, because it has 3 to 5 POVs! (On the, ah, other writing forum I just came from, everyone's always going "Oh just do multiple 1st, or mix 1st and 3rd!" and it drives me up the wall. You're not going to do that, right? Pretty please?)
I did my previous book in 1st, and I loved my narrator's voice. She talked directly to the reader (not breaking 4th wall, just rhetorical stuff) and she would do asides on what she thought about people, and there'd be subtext in there about what kind of person she really was versus what she thought she was, and as her character changed there was a newly growing sense of honesty and directness in her narration and less hedging, and I just loved doing that.
She is one of the POVs in this new book, and I'm not greatly looking forward to doing her in 3rd, but beyond that... I do truly believe that you can get just as deeply into a character with 3rd, but voice seems to be another matter. As I start writing myself into my 3 to 5 new POVs I'm still trying to put my finger on how much far I can go into voice compared to my 1st-person novel.
I'm noticing how much easier it is to slip into "writerly" prose in 3rd, and trying to figure out where the boundaries are. In 1st, for instance, it's abundantly clear that you mustn't use a metaphor that would be out of character (poetic when your character is practical, etc.) So should I apply that rule just as strictly in third? Should I write only sentences that I could hear my character saying? I'm trying to think this through right now. I feel it's very important for these POV characters to have unique and distinct voices, and I also feel like voice is really important for showing character, and even character change (like I talked about above.) But I don't know whether I can do quite as much with 3rd as I did with 1st, and whether I should try.
Does anyone have experience with this, or thoughts?
I did my previous book in 1st, and I loved my narrator's voice. She talked directly to the reader (not breaking 4th wall, just rhetorical stuff) and she would do asides on what she thought about people, and there'd be subtext in there about what kind of person she really was versus what she thought she was, and as her character changed there was a newly growing sense of honesty and directness in her narration and less hedging, and I just loved doing that.
She is one of the POVs in this new book, and I'm not greatly looking forward to doing her in 3rd, but beyond that... I do truly believe that you can get just as deeply into a character with 3rd, but voice seems to be another matter. As I start writing myself into my 3 to 5 new POVs I'm still trying to put my finger on how much far I can go into voice compared to my 1st-person novel.
I'm noticing how much easier it is to slip into "writerly" prose in 3rd, and trying to figure out where the boundaries are. In 1st, for instance, it's abundantly clear that you mustn't use a metaphor that would be out of character (poetic when your character is practical, etc.) So should I apply that rule just as strictly in third? Should I write only sentences that I could hear my character saying? I'm trying to think this through right now. I feel it's very important for these POV characters to have unique and distinct voices, and I also feel like voice is really important for showing character, and even character change (like I talked about above.) But I don't know whether I can do quite as much with 3rd as I did with 1st, and whether I should try.
Does anyone have experience with this, or thoughts?