The Writer's Workshop First person point of view remains one of the most effective ways of telling a story, but it can also be one of the trickiest. How do you create a persona that resonates with readers? What makes a compelling first-person narrator such as Edward Abbey, Annie Dillard or Henry David Thoreau? What does point of view add to the story?
STRATEGIES FOR WRITING IN FIRST PERSON
STRATEGIES FOR WRITING IN FIRST PERSON
1) THINK OF YOURSELF AS A CHARACTER – The first person you assume in the story is a selection, not your whole personality, and you want to select carefully so that the aspect of yourself that you highlight works well within the entire narrative.
The part of yourself that you emphasize will depend on the kind of story you’re planning to tell. In one story you may want to emphasize your competence at croquet, in another your incompetence at softball. But remember that you’re choosing a selection of yourself, not necessarily the whole person. In first person, you’re assuming an aspect of your personality, and turning that aspect into a persona, a character who fits within the larger story. The narrator is a part of you, not all of you.
2) EMPHASIZE THE UNIVERSAL – Though you can sometimes get away with prattling on about personal fetishes and pet peeves, you’re most likely to connect with the reader when you write about the parts of yourself that are similar to those of the reader. You want to become a kind of every man character. You want to make your experiences representative. Phillip Lopate’s wonderful essay, “Against Joie de Vivre,” contradicts this strategy, following the tradition of the contrarian essay, but this is a much more difficult path to follow.
3) MODESTY IS THE BEST POLICY – Generally speaking, be modest and self-deprecating or at least reserved about your talents and achievements. Excessive bragging is not a winning strategy. Always treat your accomplishments with a healthy dose of irony. Self-loathing gets old after a while, too, but gee-whiz-aren’t-I-great stories get old immediately.
4) BE ENGAGING – Remember that writing is a performance; make the words sing and jump. Try to be amusing, clever, witty, chatty, sensitive, honest, forthright, informative and pithy.
5) DEVELOP AS A CHARACTER – Start out in one state of mind and end up in another. This will help readers understand the story and change as a result of it. Remember, readers should emerge from your story transformed. Expand their minds. Enlighten them. Entertain them. It’s easier for readers to change if you demonstrate by example. Be their surrogate.
For more on writing in first person, enroll in my fall writing class, Tell Your Story!
