I didn’t intend to write my novel, Love At the Mayo, in the first-person point of view. Actually, when I thought of this story idea, I wrote one scene in the third-person point of view (POV).
But when I decided to develop this story idea into a novel, I wrote it in the first person. Felt right to see the story’s world through my protagonist’s eyes especially with an intimate closeup that first-person provides. Thankfully, as I wrote it in the first person, the story just flowed. If I had struggled with this POV, I would’ve changed it to the third person.
Another novel that uses first-person POV is Hunger Games. I liked reading from Katniss’s POV because it helped anchor me into this unbelievable world of savage reapings and games of survival with kids as the fighters. Through Katniss’s experience, I could more closely feel the injustice and trauma the Hunger Games had on her. And I could focus more on her surviving than the other candidates dying (although their deaths were all tragic, even Cato, who was ruthless but like Katniss, a victim of the Capitol and the Games).
Here’s an excerpt from the book, when all the citizens of District 12 were gathered for the annual Reaping. Two kids are selected to participate in the Hunger Games- one boy and one girl. Although Katniss had multiple entries in the drawing, her younger sister, Primrose, who only had one entry, is selected. This is her reaction when she hears Primrose’s name:
“One time, when I was in a blind in a tree, waiting motionless for game to wander by, I dozed off and fell ten feet to the ground, landing on my back. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything.
That’s how I feel now, trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned as the name bounces around the inside of my skull.”
Using the first-person POV allows the character to talk to the reader directly. As the reader, I feel her struggle in this poignant moment. Like Katniss, we feel the pain as if Primrose is our sister.
Jane Eyre is another example.
By using first-person POV, we get to explore the world in Jane’s head, especially experience her time at her aunt’s, at the Lowood boarding school, then at Thornfield’s with Mr. Rochester. She’s such a passionate character who comes alive at Thornfield that reading the story of her transformation through her eyes is moving, drawing me further into her world as if I’m walking alongside her.
Here’s an excerpt after Mr. Rochester’s brother-in-law opposes Jane and Edward’s marriage because he’s married to Bertha, the madwoman in the attic. Realizing Jane can’t legally marry her beloved Edward, she decides she must leave Mr. Rochester and Thornfield, his estate.
“Gentle reader, may you never feel what I then felt! May your eyes never shed such stormy, scalding, heart-wrung tears as poured from mine. May you never appeal to Heaven in prayers so hopeless and so agonized as in that hour left my lips: for never may you, like me, dread to be the instrument of evil to what you wholly love.”
This first-person POV is even more intimate than Katniss in Hunger Games because Jane Eyre turns to address us, the reader, as she gives her prayer that you, reader, would never experience the agony of love lost that she has. She sheds light on how desperate she feels for leaving the only place she ever felt loved, accepted, and safe. And of course, the only man she’s ever loved. It’s almost eery to feel her depth of pain as she addresses us directly.
Of course, first-person POV is a limiting perspective. We don’t get to know what’s going inside Mr. Rochester’s head unless he tells Jane directly or indirectly. We don’t know the depths of his suffering after Jane flees Thornfield (at least, not until later when he tells Jane). There’s no omniscient voice in this POV like in the third, so we can’t see from multiple perspectives.
So, how do you pick which POV to use?
Follow your instinct and be willing to experiment. Author, Margaret Atwood, shared that you learn how to select which point of voice to write in, by simply doing. What’s the likely candidate who should narrate the story. And if you select a particular narrator from either a first or third-person POV and it’s not working-you’re writing like trudging through mud- try writing from a different POV or through a different narrator.
The first person gives you an intimate, close lens view while the third person is the more distant view.
Let’s practice 1st person POV:
1.) Write a short passage about one character (narrator) using the first-person Point of View.
2.) Have the narrator summarize their greatest desire in a few paragraphs.
3.) What did you learn about your character by writing from their direct perspective?
4.) If the narrator mentions another character, write a paragraph or two, with the narrator’s visceral observations of this person.
5.) If your narrator reminisces about a setting, have this character describe this setting using sensory language.
6.) If they have a major conflict precluding them from obtaining their greatest desire, have them describe their angst, fears, or doubts.
7.) Have this narrator share a particularly poignant memory in their journey of obtaining their greatest desire.
Feel free to share any of the exercises in the Comments below. Thank you.
Featured Photo by Marina Vitale on Unsplash