I love writing fantasy fiction.
I just love it. It's like finally getting the two competing sides of my brain to work together. My right side comes up with some specific aspect of the story. My left brain scream "No, that's not logical" and then spends the rest of the day working out how the rest of the story can be changed and adapted to accommodate my creative fancies. Meanwhile my right brain continues to dance around many more crazy ideas to decide which one to hassle left brain with next time.
I love having a world in my head. I love thinking about the history, the geography, the everyday people and their worries and concerns. I love thinking about narrative and characterisation, and how to "show and not tell". I love when I'm walking alone, or sitting in class and suddenly have a thought I know I have to write down. I love tossing around ideas with Tim and having someone else to get caught up in my excitement (of course, I have to be teased a fair bit about various bits of my story, but I don't mind too much ;).
I don't love how fake and phony I often sound in what I write, but I'm having fun and getting better so I think that makes it worthwhile. And maybe, just maybe I may be able to write something that will one day be published. That's the dream anyway.
At the moment my biggest frustration is the dilemma- first person or third person. You see, I always write in first person. It is the most fun to write- because you are actually in the head of the person in the story. But first person is getting rarer and rarer these days- and Tim is convinced it will hinder my story long term.
So I try third person. In my climatic final scene it worked really, really well. But I just can't seem to stick to it. I am too much in the habit of first person and I love it! And sentences that move from Third to First regularly for some reason don't seem to make alot of sense.
"Belinda sat at her computer, staring the the screen. Will I write in third person or first person? She absently jabbed at random keys, and I found myself getting frustrated with the question. She wonder if any one's changed their status on facebook. I wondered if she should change mine. I could write on hers: Belinda is writing her facebook status in the Third person"
Confusing hey! So I'm interested in people's thoughts. What do you prefer: First person or Third person?
I like first person too! But I have read lots of books where the third person feels as good as the first person because there is still plenty of "internal" stuff. How they do it though (like writing fiction generally) is beyond me. I'm sure it gets easier with practice...
ReplyDeleteThanks for popping into Journeys in Creative Writing Belinda.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your piece on how you feel about writing.
I like to ring the changes myself - in everything about my stories, including the point of view. That's what creates a lot of the fun.
I find that so much depends on the type of story and the characters you're dealing with. They'll often tell you themselves.
Even third person omniscient is fun - then you can hop from being one person to another, getting into whatever heads are around at the time.
My lecturers used to say don't worry too much about the point of view to begin with. Feel the story and decide on making changes later.
I can't see a problem with first person if you feel comfortable with it in the particular circumstances. It can bring intimacy to the story.
Does your partner worry that you will be identified as the "I" character? I don't think readers will do that in a fictional short story ...
Just have fun!
Cheers
June in Oz
Hi! Stumbled to your blog from June's.
ReplyDeleteI've also left a comment about POVs in her site.
You know I've experienced the same sort of dilemmas as you when I was writing my short story. It was supposed to be third person POV but I just wasn't nailing the main character right, no matter what I did. And I hated him in the process and worse, the writing wheels started to rust because I was forcing myself to write something I subconsciously didn't like. Then when I switched to first person --it all came together. He had a voice (and it was fun!) and was more tangible and it all created the most important thing for a writer --flow. So doesn't matter which voice is more popular. The more important thing is your story should speak volumes, should roar and you have fun writing it. After all, I think that's why we writers write, right? Because we enjoy it.
And love, love writing fantasy fiction as well. The more absurd, the better. :)