ThisNameIsntTakenYet
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Apr 17, 2016
- Posts
- 828
I've only ever written a handful of first person stories years ago when I just started writing. After that I moved on to third person exclusively. However, I decided to challenge myself to write my summer contest story in first person, because I think it's a good fit for the story and it was a nice way to get out of my comfort zone.
I'm running into some unexpected difficulties though because of my inexperience with this point of view. Most of which I've been able to resolve, but there's a few that remain. The biggest of which is showing the gender and/or name of the protagonist, and the second is giving him a physical description.
Some context: my protagonist is alone at the start of the story and doesn't really talk to anyone for the first 1500 words. His name is finally used around the 2k mark when introducing himself to someone, but that feels a bit late. There is also no sexual content that would justify mentioning his junk either. He is shirtless at the start of the story (because of the heat), but that might not be direct enough to let everyone know without a doubt that this character is male. I would have used "topless" if it was a female character though, but I guess it's not a definitive male/female thing. As for the physical description, I remember using a mirror or other reflection in the past, but that feels cheap and not something you should do in every story.
So I'd like to know how people more familiar with this point of view handling dropping the protagonist's gender/name (one or the other is enough), and their physical description.
I'm running into some unexpected difficulties though because of my inexperience with this point of view. Most of which I've been able to resolve, but there's a few that remain. The biggest of which is showing the gender and/or name of the protagonist, and the second is giving him a physical description.
Some context: my protagonist is alone at the start of the story and doesn't really talk to anyone for the first 1500 words. His name is finally used around the 2k mark when introducing himself to someone, but that feels a bit late. There is also no sexual content that would justify mentioning his junk either. He is shirtless at the start of the story (because of the heat), but that might not be direct enough to let everyone know without a doubt that this character is male. I would have used "topless" if it was a female character though, but I guess it's not a definitive male/female thing. As for the physical description, I remember using a mirror or other reflection in the past, but that feels cheap and not something you should do in every story.
So I'd like to know how people more familiar with this point of view handling dropping the protagonist's gender/name (one or the other is enough), and their physical description.