Comments on: First Person POV – Something Lost, Something Gained http://www.davidniallwilson.com/first-person-something-lost-something-gained Glimpses Into a Overactive Mind Thu, 26 Aug 2010 21:51:20 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Writing Perspectives: Third Person Versus First Person | Revellian Dot Com http://www.davidniallwilson.com/first-person-something-lost-something-gained/comment-page-1#comment-995 Writing Perspectives: Third Person Versus First Person | Revellian Dot Com Sat, 11 Apr 2009 05:49:38 +0000 http://www.davidniallwilson.com/?p=1741#comment-995 [...] Niall Wilson—a horror writer with much experience and a growing body of work—about first person point of view, a very simple straightforward post that had a lasting impact on me. The post actually pissed me [...] [...] Niall Wilson—a horror writer with much experience and a growing body of work—about first person point of view, a very simple straightforward post that had a lasting impact on me. The post actually pissed me [...]

]]> By: Mark http://www.davidniallwilson.com/first-person-something-lost-something-gained/comment-page-1#comment-635 Mark Fri, 23 Jan 2009 01:36:20 +0000 http://www.davidniallwilson.com/?p=1741#comment-635 When the first-person narrative is well-done, it tends to be my favorite perspective. When the writer is skilled enough to make the character address you effectively via his own point in view, the story can be made that much more engaging. Jeff Osier's short fiction comes immediately to mind. So much of his characterization comes through in the first person that would have been lost or diluted in third. I wrote BLUE DEVIL ISLAND in first person because the story begged for it. There was nothing outside the narrator's viewpoint that needed to be -- or should have been -- revealed by an external narrator. To me, the most compelling chronicles of being in battle are those that have been told in first person -- such as Tom Blackburn's THE JOLLY ROGERS: VF17. Thus, when I wrote BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, I styled it to read like a nonfiction war chronicle. However, a first-person narrative badly done is about as bad as it gets. Kind of like horror in general. When it's good, it can be great. When it's bad, there isn't much worse. When the first-person narrative is well-done, it tends to be my favorite perspective. When the writer is skilled enough to make the character address you effectively via his own point in view, the story can be made that much more engaging. Jeff Osier’s short fiction comes immediately to mind. So much of his characterization comes through in the first person that would have been lost or diluted in third.

I wrote BLUE DEVIL ISLAND in first person because the story begged for it. There was nothing outside the narrator’s viewpoint that needed to be — or should have been — revealed by an external narrator. To me, the most compelling chronicles of being in battle are those that have been told in first person — such as Tom Blackburn’s THE JOLLY ROGERS: VF17. Thus, when I wrote BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, I styled it to read like a nonfiction war chronicle.

However, a first-person narrative badly done is about as bad as it gets. Kind of like horror in general. When it’s good, it can be great. When it’s bad, there isn’t much worse.

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