So here’s a problem I’m sure other writers have run into. Which person, first or third, works best? I suppose it depends on the writer and what’s being written, but for mystery writers, person poses a problem since people have different perspectives.
Here’s where I run into just that kind of situation. Let’s say I’m about to write a section that involves two people equally; that is, both have the same weight in the scene. The rule for point of view is that only one of them can be dominant; that is, the scene should be seen though his eyes only. In that case, maybe first person is best since the description would seem more immediate if the focus is on the dominant one. But if the rest of the novel is in third person, you can’t do it. You have to stay in third. And third doesn’t give the writer the sense of immediacy that he wants.
And the other problem is that old bugbear, point of view.
I want both characters to express how they’re feeling. I want both to reveal what they think about the events. How can I do that if only one of them is allowed express himself? Sure, I can give him a kind of omnipotence, but that’s sort of phony. I can give the character the sort of background that would make his understanding of the other fairly complete, say the way a brother knows what his sibling is thinking, or the way a psychopath thinks he knows what others are thinking and feeling. There are all sorts of ways I can set up the situation, but none of them comes close to allowing both characters the freedom to express themselves.
The guys who edit my manuscripts, however, say that giving both characters the right of full expression would give the reader a kind of verbal whiplash, sort of like watching a tennis match, back and forth, back and forth.
I just read a novel entirely in the first person. Tiny short chapters, lots of them, and first person narration. I’ve watched carefully, and the old problem of point of view sure pops up a lot. In my case, the main character in any scene limits what can be revealed about the others. For the author I’m reading now, that’s not much of a problem. Every scene works well. But I can’t help thinking that things might be better if the reader did have to stretch a bit to handle two minds at once. I’m definitely going to try the first person route in the next novel, and I think I’ll stretch the boundaries a bit and mess with point of view as well. Anyone out there messing with the same problems? Maybe it’s just me! After all I’m new at this, and without a lot of writing experience, perhaps problems that plague me are only little hiccoughs for others.