The Pros and Cons of First Person
For those of you who have read my previous article, Point of View: Preferences and Character Connections, you know that first person point of view is my favorite. I am more likely to be engaged and to enjoy a book that is written in this point of view. Now, each viewpoint has its own pros and cons for both the reader and the writer. It all depends on each person’s individual preferences and taste. So, I thought it would be fun to see take a look at the pros and cons for first person.
Pros
-Personal Relationship with the Main Character
As a reader, first person is perfect for building a close personal relationship with the main character(s). The reader becomes immersed in the thoughts, feelings, and emotions of the character through the narration of events. It pulls you in very close to the events, the stakes, and the danger of everything. At times, it might even feel like you really know the character because of the level of connection established all the way from page one. If you are a reader who really likes or needs to connect with the characters in a novel, then I think this point of view will be one that you highly enjoy.
As a writer, being really close to your main character(s) can be really helpful. You can establish a connection with the reader fairly quickly with the narration. Plus, as your main character is likely to be the one that you have developed and know the best, the writer can then use that to work and shape his/her story. As such, there is an established starting point for you to build from. Also, with this close of a perspective, there is a sense of a more laid-back personable narration style that goes along with the character’s personality. So, if you are a character driven writer, I think this point of view is worth a try. Plus, I think if you like reading novels in first person, you might enjoy writing in it as well. That has been my personal experience at least.
-Focused View Point
For the reader, first person does a really great job of focusing the story. The reader doesn’t have to be worried about leaping between a lot of characters or locations. Occasionally, there might be two characters that the novel switches between, but they are usually done at chapter breaks instead of randomly throughout the story. Since all the focus revolves around what the main character, there is less confusion as to who is doing, thinking, or feeling something. If you are someone who can be easily lost when a lot is going on, this point of view will help you stay on track of events and characters.
As a writer, having one focus can be really helpful when developing a plotline. Some authors do really well with weaving together multiple groups of people all doing things at different times and different places. However, that can be very hard and requires a lot more planning and strategy. With first person, the writer only has to work on what directly effects the main character(s). That doesn’t mean that it isn’t important to have a plan or for other characters to be doing things out of sight, but the writer only has to work on writing what is happening with one person in relation to all the events and problems going on in the novel. This focus and limitation can be good for writers who have a hard time seeing ways to match up multiple characters and plotlines into one big complex storyline. The story will still be good without having to do as much widespread planning.
Cons
-Limited Scope
As a reader, have you ever read a book and just thought, “man I wish I knew what was happening with that other character”? Of course, the writer does choose wither to show you those other events or not, but part of it comes from the limiting scope of the point of view. The author can’t show you anything if it doesn’t fit what the main character is doing. Unless something is known or seen by the narrating character, the reader can’t know or see it either. This can be annoying at times when something big is happening, and we, as the reader, don’t know what the heck is going on. Sadly, in times like that, there is nothing to do but wait.
For the writer, it can be hard to shape the story in a way where everything falls together around the main character. The writer has to set up the world outside of the character in such a way that all the events and people happen in such a way that the reader can understand it from a limited view. As discussed above, this can help relieve the stress from writing a lot of characters, but the story still needs outside events to line up and fall into place. Really good authors can drop subtle hints about events or people way back at the start of the book and then present them perfectly when the time comes. But, that’s hard! It can be challenging for any writer to be restricted in the part of the story they are free to tell and must work within those constraints. So, it really depends on what kind of writer you are and what perspective works best for you.
-What if you don’t like the main character?
If you’re the reader, liking the main character of the story is essential for engagement in a first-person novel. It will be hard on anyone to have to force him or herself to push through a novel because they don’t like the central person. That person is the whole lens a reader has for the story. Everything is colored by the character, emotions, thoughts, biases, and much of the dialogue. If the person reading a novel can’t connect to the narrator then there is little hope that he or she will continue to read the book.
On the flip side, the writer must really make sure to develop a strong character that readers can connect to. Their whole story is centered on this character, and he or she is the lynch pin for the book to reach the audience. It can be very stressful to have to know this particular character inside and out, even better than other characters in the book. The novel must also take on the voice and feeling of the character as well. So, it is best to be prepared to dive deep into who the narrator is if choosing to write from this perspective.
What do you feel are the pros and cons of first person perspective? Are there any that I missed? Which perspective is your favorite?
