Help with a story

[Tomo]

I'm writing a book right now which I want to be in 1st person. But the problem with 1st person is that you have to have that character in every scene. But my character doesn't apear in every scene. Please help.

[billl]

Hi Tomo,

I think that's a pretty big limitation, just using first person. Here's some ideas, but I expect other people might have much better ideas:

1. If possible, maybe the narrator could observe the scenes s/he isn't in (maybe hear the action from the next room, or watch via security camera, etc.).

2. Also, you could have one or more of the people involved in the scenes actually tell the narrator what happened.

3. Another idea would be to have the narrator learn what happened in the other scenes indirectly.
(e.g. During a night of drinking and playing a boardgame with the neighbors, there's a dispute about who was responsible for the neighbors' terrible mortgage deal. Visiting the neighbors again the next day, the narrator notices that his neighbor's wife has a bruise on her neck, and that her husband is acting much more confident.)

4. go ahead and sneak in a few chapters using 2rd person, or something. If it's just a few scenes, I've seen some writers include a 'second narrative' that's written in italics--but that would annoy the reader if it ended up being a large portion of the book.

Again, I just saw your post and decided to toss out a few ideas, but I'm no expert, and maybe you thought of these things, or maybe they won't work. There's probably gonna be some better ideas for you coming from some of the others around here.

Good Luck!

[Monamy]

Billl, I second your forth idea. Actually I'm working on a long, planned novel in which the narrator tells the story as he sees it (first person), I've used that style and ended up switching to another person's point of view (in my story there is the good side and the bad side; making one point of view in each side solved my problem somewhat).

Even though it might seem to be a very thrilling way to write a story, I urge you to start with second person, Tomo, my friend. First person is somewhat tough and hard to maintain, specially with novels; if you're planning on a not-too-long stories - or short stories - then using first person narration can be perfect and even fun to use. If, however, you still want to use first person for a long story, I suggest you try some "first person narration reading" before you start--try to get yourself familiar with the style you're dealing with, learn some tricks and ways to hook your reader in this style, and then maybe develop your very own techniques.

Wish you the best and only the best.

[jekan blazer]

i also have an idea that, if used well, makes for an interesting story...


use two different point of view...

okay thats a little vauge...


what i mean is, switch off between the main character's, and a secondary character's poitnt of view...

does that make sense?