Comments on: First person, part the second http://pcwrede.com/blog/first-person-part-the-second/ Wed, 16 May 2012 17:03:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: pcwrede http://pcwrede.com/blog/first-person-part-the-second/comment-page-1/#comment-1758 pcwrede Tue, 02 Feb 2010 02:22:47 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=425#comment-1758 Gray - And this is a great example of how everything in writing, including discussions of writing, bleeds into everything else. Worldbuilding affects characterization (and vice versa sometimes). We talk about them as if they are completely different things, but in practice that's like teasing apart the eggs and the flour in a chocolate cake. Gray – And this is a great example of how everything in writing, including discussions of writing, bleeds into everything else. Worldbuilding affects characterization (and vice versa sometimes). We talk about them as if they are completely different things, but in practice that’s like teasing apart the eggs and the flour in a chocolate cake.

]]> By: Gray Woodland http://pcwrede.com/blog/first-person-part-the-second/comment-page-1/#comment-1755 Gray Woodland Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:48:16 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=425#comment-1755 Chicoy and Pat - likewise on the shininess; but there's another angle there. Writing, post-research, like somebody who knows what they're talking about, is one thing. Writing like somebody who uses that knowledge every day is a different stage again, much rarer and harder. It's the difference between writing a fighter as if you've read <i>Paradoxes of Defence</i>, and writing him as the sort of in-world character who might have. Realizing I've done the former when I meant to do the latter is a common reason for my throwing a scene at the wall in disgust. Dick Francis, who started by doing this right for his own trade of horse-racing, branched out to apply the same tricks with equal skill in increasingly unrelated areas. I wish I knew how he works that. As a point of interest, he goes with first-person narration every time. Chicoy and Pat – likewise on the shininess; but there’s another angle there. Writing, post-research, like somebody who knows what they’re talking about, is one thing. Writing like somebody who uses that knowledge every day is a different stage again, much rarer and harder.

It’s the difference between writing a fighter as if you’ve read Paradoxes of Defence, and writing him as the sort of in-world character who might have. Realizing I’ve done the former when I meant to do the latter is a common reason for my throwing a scene at the wall in disgust.

Dick Francis, who started by doing this right for his own trade of horse-racing, branched out to apply the same tricks with equal skill in increasingly unrelated areas. I wish I knew how he works that.

As a point of interest, he goes with first-person narration every time.

]]> By: pcwrede http://pcwrede.com/blog/first-person-part-the-second/comment-page-1/#comment-1742 pcwrede Fri, 29 Jan 2010 03:43:15 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=425#comment-1742 Chicoy - I'm always writing characters who know more about something than I do; it makes a great excuse to read up on stuff I don't know anything about. (All the writers I know are intellectual pack-rats who go "Ooooo, shiney!" when presented with new information.) Worldbuilding is another area where writers work differently. Some keep files, like you do; some just make it up as they go along (and have the kind of brain that manages somehow to remember enough that there aren't inconsistencies). Whatever works... Chicoy – I’m always writing characters who know more about something than I do; it makes a great excuse to read up on stuff I don’t know anything about. (All the writers I know are intellectual pack-rats who go “Ooooo, shiney!” when presented with new information.) Worldbuilding is another area where writers work differently. Some keep files, like you do; some just make it up as they go along (and have the kind of brain that manages somehow to remember enough that there aren’t inconsistencies). Whatever works…

]]> By: Chicoy http://pcwrede.com/blog/first-person-part-the-second/comment-page-1/#comment-1739 Chicoy Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:35:50 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=425#comment-1739 I guess perspective can be a matter of research. If the character adores gardening and the author can't tell a hyacinth from a hibiscus the author either has to start buying gardening magazines or change the character's hobby to something more familiar. One thing I like to do when inventing worlds is keep a special file as a sort of travelogue where I describe any odd details I come up with. That gives me a pretty good idea of what would be familiar to my main character so I can casually mention that brides always wear purple and thread carbuncles in their hair, or that stock in Dragonslayers Inc is up this year, along with the price of dragon's teeth. I guess perspective can be a matter of research. If the character adores gardening and the author can’t tell a hyacinth from a hibiscus the author either has to start buying gardening magazines or change the character’s hobby to something more familiar.

One thing I like to do when inventing worlds is keep a special file as a sort of travelogue where I describe any odd details I come up with. That gives me a pretty good idea of what would be familiar to my main character so I can casually mention that brides always wear purple and thread carbuncles in their hair, or that stock in Dragonslayers Inc is up this year, along with the price of dragon’s teeth.

]]> By: pcwrede http://pcwrede.com/blog/first-person-part-the-second/comment-page-1/#comment-1738 pcwrede Thu, 28 Jan 2010 16:03:32 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=425#comment-1738 Alex - Multiple-first-person viewpoints hasn't been done much until recently, but I think there will be a lot more of it as the blog-with-comments format starts to penetrate traditional fiction. Up to now, you mostly saw multiple-first in epistolary novels, which have been mostly out of favor for a couple of decades. But yeah - ideally, you want the individual voices to be so distinct that you don't even have to check the username to figure out who's saying it. One of these days, I'm going to try that. Right after the other 20+ projects on my to-write-real-soon list... Alex – Multiple-first-person viewpoints hasn’t been done much until recently, but I think there will be a lot more of it as the blog-with-comments format starts to penetrate traditional fiction. Up to now, you mostly saw multiple-first in epistolary novels, which have been mostly out of favor for a couple of decades. But yeah – ideally, you want the individual voices to be so distinct that you don’t even have to check the username to figure out who’s saying it.

One of these days, I’m going to try that. Right after the other 20+ projects on my to-write-real-soon list…

]]> By: Alex Fayle http://pcwrede.com/blog/first-person-part-the-second/comment-page-1/#comment-1736 Alex Fayle Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:21:43 +0000 http://pcwrede.com/blog/?p=425#comment-1736 I had fun writing my first novel (still doing the agent rounds) which is a variation of the diary story - I did it as a blog, meaning the unreliable narrator is tempered by the comments of the readers who are also all first person characters. The big challenge there was to make sure all of the characters sounded different, even when they were walk-on parts. I had fun writing my first novel (still doing the agent rounds) which is a variation of the diary story – I did it as a blog, meaning the unreliable narrator is tempered by the comments of the readers who are also all first person characters.

The big challenge there was to make sure all of the characters sounded different, even when they were walk-on parts.

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