Here we go again!

If I heard it once, I've heard two things about the trilogy a million times.

One is: Please don’t take this personally Nadine – I still prefer third person past tense. That’s just me.

No it isn't 'just you'. Lot's of people feel that way. It’s what everyone is used to because that is what the industry produces. Humans like the familiar over the unfamiliar.

Third person POV is the mainstay of the industry. Why? Because it is easier to write in third person. Get stuck? Easy, just have another character 'think' the answer or drop it in through the narration so the reader knows long before the main character (MC). That way when the ends aren't tied up very good and the MC figures out something too easily, the reader doesn't question it.

It is less risky to get submerged into the story line when it is a bit removed, as in third person, less discomfort for the reader. Some will also argue that they can get into the characters better in third person. I offer again, that is because that is what readers have been exposed to all their reading life. It’s safe. The reader can stay one step removed from emotional involvement with the third person voice.

But that isn't real, you can't know someone by only observing them and being told by someone else who that person is. You can't know people intimately by another person's view of that person. It is only an opinion. You know a person by what you experience of them, and in writing, you can know them more completely by seeing the story through 'their eyes'.

Kathryn's Beach started out as third person, past tense. It was too detached emotionally to do what I wanted to do with the character. If you read the books, you know the action is not enough to carry the story. What keeps a person reading is seeing life through Kathryn's eyes.

Third person is actually a more elementary style, easier to write than first person. (Boy that statement should get people writing comments! Whew!) Third person is safer to write: 1) it is what 'everyone' does; 2) easier for the reader to know things the MC doesn't know, so easier to write - requiring less literary devices (and actual writing ability).

When the plane went down in KB, I (Nadine) wanted to show what was going on at Karen's house. Can't do it in first person POV. I had to make Karen come over to Kathryn's house and use dialogue. Which, in the end, was more powerful for them to share the moment than to do it individually in two locations, bouncing the reader back and forth across town.

Second thing I get all the time: I could feel there was a lot of YOU in there!! (even though I don’t know you that well).

Everyone says that because it is first person. I try not to say publicly anything less than complimentary about Kathryn. If Kathryn was real, I'd probably like her, but she would also get on my nerves. There are a lot of things I don't like about her. I don't think we would be close friends, not BFF.

Storm Surge said a lot more than the other two books. It was more dramatic and better for it. You need more of that.

Storm Surge is a richer book because it is the third in the story of Kathryn's growth. It was hard to keep Kathryn 'broken' and move the story in KB. I kept wanting to write her stronger, but then lots of the story would not happen if she was a stronger person. If someone is a 'recluse' then they have to be written with a narrow view rather than global view (people-wise, not geography). As she begins to heal/grow in HT, the secondary characters can come out of the shadows. Then in SS she is kicked back to her insecure self, but shakes it off faster than she would have if all that had happened to her in KB.

It is a matter of writing style. This stuff is bound to happen when a writer writes outside the norm. I bet people think I'm Victoria in Red Planet Revolt, and I guarantee that I am not from the future.

http://nadinelaman.blogspot.com/2009/06/i-cant-get-into-it-that-much.html

Casting Call

If you've been around the theatre even just a little, you know that actors act. During the process of blocking scenes, costume fittings, make-up trials, and rehearsals the actor and character become one for the run of the play.

On breaks or in coffee shops, the actors will lapse into their character in the wink of an eye. Even years later, upon meeting again, two actors may exchange a line or two from when they worked together.

When I write first person fiction, I get into the character in the same way an actor does. I begin to think like them, feel what they feel, and sometimes talk like them. Whether I am writing little Shasta's double negative dialogue or Mother Elizabeth's lines, for that moment, I'm in character. How else would the pinkie promise come up? I don't do pinkie promises in real life, never have. Besides, I'm the mom of three boys, we don't do that girly stuff. It all came from being in character.

When writing third person, the writer is an observer and tells the story as if Mr. Watson to the character's Homes.

The argument can be made either way as to which style battles telling over showing. The real key to whether the story is boring has less to do with the POV (point of view) than with the story and the writing. Most of the time, it is clear which POV to use for each book.

There ya go. That's my take on POV. I think first person present tense writing is like 3-D, surround sound, IMAX. If you want inside the mind and heart of the character, then read my books. Dare ya.