Writing in 1st person

[georgelee5786]

How do you write in the first person without just saying, "I did this," "I did that," over and over?

 

[Representing_Tromba]

Explain how the mc or another character did something with enough detail to make people not realize it.

 

[BlackKnightX]

When you say I did this, I did that, I suppose you mean action. You see, action is only a part of the many components that make a novel.

Go look at any novel in the market right now and turn to a random page. I’m sure you’ll find these components or building blocks working together: actions, dialogues, descriptions, expositions, and thoughts. These are the very basic building blocks of any novels out there.

If you don’t know what all these are, lemme give you some easy examples.

Action - I smirked.
Dialogue - “Hi, there,” I said.
Description - It was a big room with a fireplace in the corner, some couches in front of it, low tables, book shelves in the other corners. Adding some slow jazz music in the background and I was sure I could fall asleep in no time at all.
Exposition - Joe and I had been friends for 30 years. We knew each other so well—too well, perhaps—to the point that we could just look each other in the eyes and knew what the others wanted. I met him for the first time when I was ten. I was out playing around the edge of the waterfall that day. There weren’t many people around since this wasn’t a tourist spot. It’s just a cool place I’d discovered in the wood behind my Gramp’s cottage….
Thought - Great. Now, what did I do? If I just let go and got back to my own ordinary world right now, nothing bad would happen. I would just lead my life like usual. My same ol’ boring life. Or. Great. Now, what do I do? If I just let go and got back to my own ordinary world right now, nothing bad would happen. I would just lead my life like usual. My same ol’ boring life.

Well, there you have it. Hope this help.

 

[LostLibrarian]

How do you write in the first person without just saying, "I did this," "I did that," over and over?

How do you write in third person without just saying "He did this", "He did that" over and over?


The big difference between first and third person POV isn't really how you write or describe stuff but rather how you characterize stuff. First person is an internal POV, so you everything you describe goes through the eyes of your POV-character.

If you write third person POV, you might describe an entire market in detail with the different stalls and people or nations or whatever. In first person, your character determines which details will be shown. A soldier might recognize certain weapons or count the guards, a thief might check where the money is stored, an old woman might check the prices of food, while a young girl will dwell on a single piece of jewelry

This is the biggest advantage of the first person POV. You can characterize the character through the description of the world around them. No need to describe the entire market and then go "X really liked the jewelry". Just describe how the character gaze jumps from stall to stall until it stops as that certain piece of jewelry.



In general story theory, action is a lot more important than description. And the first person POV allows you to hide your world and character descriptions behind the actions and thoughts of the POV character. This way, you can exchange your massive infodumps with actions and achieve a more interesting style and pacing. The downside is, that it's a lot harder to forshadow things or describe events the POV character isn't aware of without a lot of head-hopping...

 

[SilvoidVorstellung]

This is the biggest advantage of the first person POV. You can characterize the character through the description of the world around them. No need to describe the entire market and then go "X really liked the jewelry". Just describe how the character gaze jumps from stall to stall until it stops as that certain piece of jewelry.

You can still do introspection with third-person limited, it not a first person thing but it does decrease the distance between the reader and the protagonist.

example with 3th person limited: "He mesmerized by the glistening jewelry, this shiny rock, his hope, the one and only chance he could get his family out of the mud."

Third-person limited pov is writing in third person while only know what the protagonist see/hear/think without describing what the other character think/see. (Of course you can tell the reader what the other character see or feel if you want.)

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Talk about what nearby people are doing. Don't leave the narrator alone too long.

 

[LostLibrarian]

You can still do introspection with third-person limited, it not a first person thing but it does decrease the distance between the reader and the protagonist.

It is true that you can get a similar effect with third person limited. But there, the narrator has their own voice that doesn't need to the be same as the character's. Therefore, you still have to make actively clear, what the character's feelings/viewpoints are. In first person this characterization is achieved passively through the choice of focus and words.


Let's say the character goes to the market and the rough description is that the entire place is a shithole. In third person limited, it isn't clear whether that description is based on the narrator's or the character's feelings. It could be a place that is generally seen as shithole and just used because everyone uses it. Or it could be that the narrator dislikes the place while the character has no particular feelings. Or it could be the character's clear feelings of disgust. Of couse, you can easily make that clear in third person through thoughts or exposition, but that is something you have to actively work into your writing.

In first person, the fact that it is called a shithole already displays the character's feelings in full. He is disgusted. No need to add any further description of his feelings or thoughts. Just a simple "The market was a shithole" includes how the character feels. No further exposition or explanation needed.


Don't get me wrong. You can also emulate the same thing in third person limited if you make it clear once that the narrator's voice and the character's voice are the same. E.g. if the narrator is the future self or something similar. But in general, one of the biggest strengths of third person limited (especially for mistery or thriller) is the fact that the character's voice and the narrator's voice are different. But in the end, it just needs a bit of additional work.

 

[MajorKerina]

First person is a lot like a journal geared towards a certain tone. The character doesn't necessarily go on with "I saw" "I did" all the time. It's pretty much exactly like how third person would describe things like.

"The walls caved in on one side with mold festering and peeling off the wallpaper" But the character would say that it's choking or oppressive or smells like something they know and those attributes color the way they see this space or the world. With third person it can be a little bit more like a DM. You can lead the reader with hints about how the character responds. "He sighed when staring at the weird mushrooms in the corner and flipped open his bag automatically" in first person "I sighed and stared at the same mushrooms I'd seen before. I opened my bag before I got over them. I knew how to deal with these things."
You can either be overt or leading and coy. It depends. There's so many descriptive options.

 

[SilvoidVorstellung]

In first person, the fact that it is called a shithole already displays the character's feelings in full. He is disgusted. No need to add any further description of his feelings or thoughts. Just a simple "The market was a shithole" includes how the character feels. No further exposition or explanation needed.

But just writing a prose say "The market was a shithole." feel like character just telling the reader his description of the place not showing what he felt. He could be feeling disgusted but he also could be saying that he is lucky that there a place he exploited without warning the guard.

It still need exposition to explain what he felt.