After a week that brought far more surprises and stress than I thought possible after arriving home after two months away and a three-day drive, I’m amazed I’m even getting this blog written, but here goes.
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My personal favorite is first person both to read and write because I feel like I AM the person living the story. I’m in their head, feeling, seeing, thinking, and reacting to the events going on around me. The first book I wrote that finally got published was written in first person, because it was one man’s personal life falling apart right in the middle of a very close three-way race for the White House. Everything was going well until a man he’d never met handed Matt a photo from a long ago time he’d done everything to forget, to emotions he never wanted to relive. How he dealt with the issue and the choices he made were the story, so I wanted to tell it from his POV and first person was the best way to get into his head.
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But then, I pitched it at a conference and the editor loved the premise and asked to read it. She still loved the story and the premise but thought it didn’t have enough tension, and she suggested writing in third person so I could see into the other candidates he was running against. I ended up adding the point of view of the young man who brought him the photo in the first place because he was a pivotal character in the story. The next time I pitched it, the editor contracted it. The Candidate is still, all the books I’ve written since, one of the two best I’ve written – my humble opinion. But I have to agree with that first editor. It was stronger when I and the reader knew what the other candidates were up to and definitely created more tension.
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For my romances, both the time travel (Iain’s Plaid) and the series (The Camerons of Tide’s Way) it never occurred to me to try first person because anyone reading a romance wants to know what both halves of the love story and thinking and feeling. I have read one amazingly great romance written in the first person. But the twist was that each alternating chapter was first the heroine, then the hero, then back to the heroine. That story was compelling because we got into the heads and hearts of both characters in a way third person often doesn’t allow. But I didn’t go that route – I chose the more conventional third person so the reader could be in the POV of both the hero and the heroine in every chapter if the transitions were done well. Two of my books in the Tide’s Way series (Healing a Hero and Worry Stone) have won silver in the Royal Palm Literary Awards so clearly the judges thought so as well.
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Then I decided to try writing a mystery. And for some reason, since it wasn’t a romance I guess, and I like first person, I wrote Bullseye in the First Person POV of my protagonist, Detective Jesse Quinn. I like that story as have my readers, but when I started out to write book two in the series, I wondered if I had made a mistake. So much easier to create suspense if you see into the heads of others – especially the bad guy. I even wrote a scene between the killer and the victim that the reader would know about but my heroine would not. But then I decided to keep the series consistent and that scene is in a file somewhere while I tackled telling the story from Jesse’s point of view. Not sure what I’ll do with the next book in the series – time will tell.
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And now I’m plotting out a whole new series, but I haven’t decided on POV yet. Since I have just one main protagonist, I would like to return to my favorite, first person. She will have a love life – everyone needs a little romance in their lives, but the main story is hers and she’s the mover in the series so that’s the way I’m leaning. And like I did with the mystery I just finished, I’ve already written the first scene: Here’s a teaser:
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My heart plummeted as my boss outlined his plans, pulling the last rug out from under me. Just a week ago, I’d been a happily married woman with two wonderful sons I’d just driven to college leaving time for me and Dan to start in on the Bucket List we’d been building over the years. Two nights ago, Dan packed his clothes and left. Without me.
Now I had no marriage. No boys to busy myself with. And now, no job.
No job, that is, unless I wanted to move across the country to a state I never had any desire to live in.
“No need to give me an answer right now, Kenzie,” Bill was saying, his voice coming from a long way off. “Think about it.”
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So, now it’s time to check in and see what some of my fellow Blog Hoppers think about POV – but do leave me a comment first…..
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Anne Stenhouse
AJ McGuire
Connie Vines
Helena Fairfax
