First person or Third person? I’ve always found myself debating this every time i start a new piece of writing, and it’s highly unlikely that’s ever going to change.
When i wrote the first manuscript for my first novel, the whole thing was drafted in first person because of how influenced i was by the books i was reading at the time. Me thinking this was the right way to go about things carried on that way until it came to reading back through my work, and then that’s when the whole thing changed.
I spent the next month rewriting and changing everything into third person which, as other writers would know, isn’t as simple a job as a newbie would expect it to be.
My work then came to a stand still because of how impatient i was to get it done (yes i know the wrong way to go about things). Give or a take a few weeks of thinking i put that manuscript to the back of my mind and started again, solely in third person, as i retaught myself the best way to get my stories down in words.
My preference for third person is the details you’re able to easily include about the characters you’re writing about. Their thoughts, feelings, decisions, you feel completely included in all of these as a reader without having to have your brain comprehend so many me’s and my’s!
That doesn’t go to say that i’m never going to write a novel in first person, because it’s highly likely that i will, but for this particular story it just didn’t feel write.
I was then able to throw myself completely into my next novel because of having spent 3 years trying to work out how to write. My first novel taught me everything i needed to know about writing and what i’m like as a writer, and without having to spend years writing unnecessary pieces in a creative writing school.
I guess what i’m trying to get at in this post is that if you can write, and you enjoy to write, then just do it. Don’t hold yourself back because of other peoples expectations of you. Everybody is unique within their own work. Yes it may not come across or read like one of your favourite number one best sellers, but that by all means doesn’t mean that it’s not any good. You need to have faith in yourself as a person, work hard everyday, read everyday and keep pushing yourself to your limits. No you might not become an author in years, months and especially not over night, but if you persist at something you really love and set your heart at, you’re hard work will eventually pay off!
rter pieces, but i’m also wanting to get this first book of my trilogy finished into the first draft of the manuscript. This is the one i’m pushing myself on, but it just doesn’t seem to want to flow like it used to. Every single part of the plot works and is planned so there is no reason for the words to not want to work.
The Thoughts of a writer 