Alright, so we are officially out of the craziness that is National Novel Writing Month and we're now out and about on our grand journey of either revision or deep coma. Personally, I'm still working at my novel bit by bit, but I feel the end is coming soon, at least. And that, my friends, is a good feeling.
Anyway, it's December. The month of ever colder weather, eggnog and/or hot chocolate, and of course the holidays. But, I don't want to delve into any of those vast topics for today's update. Instead, I wanted to say a few things on perspective. As in writing perspective, something I've been mulling over quite awhile.
I've found over the years that I write best under the third person limited perspective, and that any attempts to write anything else often end up flat and unimaginative. I also know some people who swear by first person and so on. But perspective doesn't just provide a vehicle for the reader's adventure to take place. It also has an impact that fluctuates depending on the content of the story, I've found. Let's hypothesize a moment.
Say you have a story that's full of traumatic events for your main character. Sure, you could convey that quite well using third person, and perhaps it works for you; but say you write it in first person instead. Instead of watching as the character experiences these dreadful things, you can make your reader experience them alongside your character, and by far that creates a connection between your readers and your characters, providing points of reference, as well as a bit of realism that you can inject into your story.
Why is realism important? Well, this all goes back to my how-to back in October, when I talked about the importance of plotting; realism brings credence to your story, even if it's fantasy. Suspension of disbelief is a term that's quite often used to describe fiction, be it written medium, or otherwise. Basically you're trying to make your story as believable as possible so that your readers can relate to your characters' plight and pull for them, as opposed to making them hate your characters, which often leads to the readers not liking the story as much.
But, back to perspective. Emotional/physical trauma isn't the only forte of first-person. If your story focuses mainly on one character as they grow into a role or something of the like, the perspective also shines here. I've recently been reading Mogworld by "Yahtzee" Croshaw, and it is written from the perspective from the main character as he goes on a fun little quest (albeit one that heavily parodies standard online role-playing games' procedures), but it's less the quest and more the character's quirks and views on the world that bring the story to life.
Similarly, third person shines when there's something bigger than just the character's exploits going on in the world, or when you wish to tell the story from more than one point of view (unless you're writing 3-P limited).
But whatever you like to write, keep in mind your audience and your preferred perspective's pros and cons. That being said, which perspective do you enjoy writing in?
