First-person can be used in a very sneaky fashion if the writer is skillful enough. Consider Agatha Christie’s _The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,_ which is told in first-person, observing Poirot as he investigates the murder; told in first-person, I say by the murderer who never lets on until Poirot has fingered him, whereupon he Tell All in a suicide note. Christie glossed over the narrator’s selective omissions so gracefully that nobody noticed till the end, and then storms of criticism were raised. Lawrence Block did the same thing with one of her “Burglar” novels, I forget which one.

I am told that the convention for generic romance novels (Harlequin, e.g.) is that they must ALWAYS be in third-person, never in first, “so the reader can identify with the heroine.”

What I find challenging about 1st person is that it’s harder to get away with beautiful sentences. If I’m really in the character’s head, and she’s really a very pragmantic person, I feel restrained, and the writing ends up being very basic.

“If, however, you are predisposed to writing internal monologue even in third-person, you may find that first-person encourages this tendency to an unfortunate extreme, and you may not want to try it until you’ve brought your description and narration skills up to the same level.”

Raising my hand!

I’ve been writing using tight third person, mainly because, as a reader, that’s my favorite.

One thing I’ve noticed, as a reader, is that the degree of tightness of the third person seems to have a little flex in it. Sometimes the focus is very tight indeed, limited completely by the POV character’s limitations. Other times, the focus pulls back a little and gives the reader a stronger awareness of what is happening for other characters in the scene. It usually includes information that the POV character probably does know or realize, but the information is presented in more of a third person omniscient way.

That works for me as a reader. It does not disturb me. But I’m wondering if I should avoid that flex when I myself am writing. I’d love to know your thoughts on that issue.

My biggest complaint against first person narrative is that it is used so, so frequently (in YA, at least), and I get sick of it after a while. When I start begging for omniscient POV, that’s when I know I’ve had too much first person POV!

I like stories with a strong internal story arc, but I feel more confident when there is plenty of external action as well.

My WIP doesn’t have lots of flashy action scenes. I debated whether to start it . . . or start something else.

Finally I decided that my dialogue, interpersonal relations between characters, and protag wrestling with inner demons could all use work, and the stretchy choice would give me that.

I feel really good about how the writing is going. I’m just past the halfway point. But I must confess to some nervousness about what my first reader will think. She has really liked my earlier stories that combine outer adventures with internal reactions to the adventures. WIP has some outer adventures (but not flashy ones) and lots of inner adventures.

a) Those that shoot a reply back in the first few days and give a comment such as “Not what I am looking for right now”, to “I’ll pass on this but thanks for the look.” These good people are in the minority.

b) Do not bother to respond ever!

For that reason I am just sending out queries across the board. The majority of agents want it all their way. “Give us your query excluding all others and we will not bother to advise when we cannot use it.” Ignorant and selfish to say the least and I for one am not playing. Note, I am not looking for feedback, just a reply, such a lot to ask for.

Argh.

So thank-you for sharing this, because now I know it’s possible to focus my productivity in the correct direction with just a bit of self-discipline.