Think of the last time you sat around a campfire and told scary stories, or perhaps listened to one. Did the speaker personify the character through personal pronouns such as “I” or does the speaker tell of a person? The use of I and Me are first person pronouns and today I’ll be leading you all through what that means and how to use it effectively.
If I take you to a piano and ask you to play it, it would be fairly simple. All you would need to do is tap a key. Piano is, as many musicians describe it, the easiest instrument to learn, but the hardest to master. In the same way first person is popular in modern writing because it’s easier for the writer to connect to the character if they’re speaking as one, but it's also the hardest to master because without good prose, first person can become boring and monotonous. First person can be written with past or present tense, depending on if the writer intends to frequently use narrative exposition. Now, the word exposition might scare you, but narrative exposition is essential to good prose. There are three main components of every story, action, dialogue, and narrative exposition. Narrative exposition are the paragraphs elaborating on a character's backstory or word building. Too much narrative exposition leads to info dumping, but in moderation it balances the action and dialogue. It's the story part of a book that helps convey the theme or deeper meaning. In First person, narrative exposition is heavily influenced by the characters preferences and opinions. The character's worldview is most evident here through the adjectives and color they paint the world in. It’s harder for most people to write third person so vividly.
First person focuses on connection, but it’s easy to fall in love with the word “was.” Don’t do it. If every sentence was structured with the word was, or is, or anything ending in -ed it’s like coffee. A little bit consistently is okay, but chugging a gallon of caffeine will wreck your intestines. “I walked to the store. I waited for the clerk to take another customer's order and I was infuriated by the waiting.” This snippet is an example of repetitive prose with no varying degrees of interest. Remember, you have three main tools in your toolbox, Action, Dialogue, and Narrative Exposition. In the above example we had three back to back action lines, but if we said something like “I walked to the store but had to wait in a mile long line. ‘Why are there so many people?!’ I curse. On a Sunday morning at 8 AM, it was a crime for the store to be so busy. At least open a few more registers for crowd control.” This has variety from action, to dialogue, then action, then narrative exposition. The variety will keep your reader intrigued and ready to read more. In my previous article Active vs. Passive voice I explain the dangerous quality of was and is. Unless there is no other option, it should not be used. “I was walking” isn’t as strong as “I walked”. The same thing applies to present tense. “I am singing” is weak in comparison to “I sing”
First person is useful for connection and mystery as the reader only knows what the POV character does. My favourite examples of this style are Agatha Christie’s mystery novel, The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd and Rebecca Yarros’ fantasy, Fourth Wing. Thank you for joining me in my Homestead, next article we’ll be continuing the series with a similar look at third person. Until then, stay tuned!
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