First person, multiple perspectives

[i_would]

Just a thought that popped in my mind - about changing perspectives, like is done all the time in third person omnipresent kind of stories.

Can this work in the first person? Where the "I" character changes occasionally to a different character, maybe the other party in a dialogue, maybe a character that's unrelated (or not directly connected at that point of the story).

I've done something before where a group of characters recall an event; each contributing various parts telling from their pov. That's still third party, as it's like a transcript where the author is a third party listening to what they say, not like in true first person where the narrator (the "I" person) is the author.

 

[lovecraft68]

It would be tricky because you have to find away to signal to the reader that you shifted gears.

If the original "I" was Paul and it went "I did my best to keep my eyes on Jen's face, resisting the urge to stare at her scantily clad body"

Then if you go to Jen you would have to refer to Paul to know it shifted. "I held back a smile while watching Paul struggle to keep his eyes off my breasts."

But no matter how you do it, I think as a reader it would be a little confusing.

Now doing it from segment to segment a "he said, she said" would work, but constantly hopping around would be best left to third person I think.

 

[PennLady]

You can do it, but as LC said, you need to be clear about who's speaking. The easiest way is probably to give each character a chapter or section, perhaps even titling that section as "Jane" or "John," like George RR Martin has done in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

As long as you're clear about it, I doubt it would give a reader trouble.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I have several stories written in the first person POV where I switch between characters. It is a little arduous to keep straight, but doing it from scene to scene helps.

*** George

I watched as Michelle, my wife of sixteen years, undressed in the roomful of strangers.
...
She was now on her knees with a cock in each hand and one in her mouth.

*** Michelle

I was so nervous, but as I looked up I saw my loving husband George and his smile spurred me on. I undressed slowly so the anticipation of the ten naked men in the room was heightened.

It seems to work well.

 

[Hypoxia]

I have seen two subsets of this technique here. The (to me) tolerable way gives each narrator a section break and title, so we know when 'I' is Paul, or Jennifer, or whomever. The other way just switches POVs and lets the reader try to figure out the speaker. I find this latter approach to be confusing and tiring.

I like the identity of characters to be quite clear. I hate to have to backtrack through a conversation to figure out who's speaking at the moment. And I write so that readers can always tell who's talking. Just one of my pet peeves.

 

[Paul_Chance]

It can be done - in the manners described above or by text tricks (italics for one POV, standard for the other is a common approach). Alternately, you can simple tell the story and avoid all the tricks and switch back and forth and make the reader work for it. Properly executed that could enhance the story. Good luck.

 

[lovecraft68]

It can be done - in the manners described above or by text tricks (italics for one POV, standard for the other is a common approach). Alternately, you can simple tell the story and avoid all the tricks and switch back and forth and make the reader work for it. Properly executed that could enhance the story. Good luck.

As I have learned the problem with frequent use of italics is the HTML and making sure you didn't miss any tags or the italics will run on and on.

I did a 5 chapter series here where the main character was schizophrenic. Anytime the voice in his head "spoke" I used italics.

By the end of the series I wished I hadn't had him talk so much

 

[Zeb_Carter]

As I have learned the problem with frequent use of italics is the HTML and making sure you didn't miss any tags or the italics will run on and on.

I did a 5 chapter series here where the main character was schizophrenic. Anytime the voice in his head "spoke" I used italics.

By the end of the series I wished I hadn't had him talk so much

Or the voice in his head was actually a mute and just signed his crazy banter.

 

[Paul_Chance]

As I have learned the problem with frequent use of italics is the HTML and making sure you didn't miss any tags or the italics will run on and on.

I did a 5 chapter series here where the main character was schizophrenic. Anytime the voice in his head "spoke" I used italics.

By the end of the series I wished I hadn't had him talk so much

Very funny and very true! That is the risk of gimmicks in writing - you can quickly come to regret them. Next time you want to try it, try writing in an HTML editor and then output it to a text file - might save hours of trouble-shooting. Or better yet - just don't do it.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I prefer writing first-person as opposed to third person. In my "Ghost in the Machine" series, the PoV switches between a handful of characters because I thought it a good idea to give the reader as many angles as possible. But I've tried to stick to one character per chapter, with the exception of the AI's point of view sprinkled in as third-person narrative, to give it that extra-detached feel. Seems to work fine so far.

 

[lovecraft68]

Or the voice in his head was actually a mute and just signed his crazy banter.

Yes, the alter ego is a mime! How evil!

That or have my character "see" him and then write his dialogue as if he were another character in the room.

 

[MSTarot]

I've seen this done where the writer places the name of his character that is talking in bold.

John

Walking into the room, my nose is assaulted with the overpowering smell of lavender. She knows I can't stand the smell of it.

Jill

My hair redolent with the smell of his favorite flower I smile as he walks into the room.



to me this gets to be to much like reading a Shakespeare play with all it individual parts.

 

[sr71plt]

I've seen this done where the writer places the name of his character that is talking in bold.

John

Walking into the room, my nose is assaulted with the overpowering smell of lavender. She knows I can't stand the smell of it.

Jill

My hair redolent with the smell of his favorite flower I smile as he walks into the room.



to me this gets to be to much like reading a Shakespeare play with all it individual parts.

Where do you see this? Here on Literotica? In self-publishing? Publishers rarely use bolding in text. Not challenging that you've seen it; just interested where it's creeping in.

 

[lovecraft68]

I've seen this done where the writer places the name of his character that is talking in bold.

John

Walking into the room, my nose is assaulted with the overpowering smell of lavender. She knows I can't stand the smell of it.

Jill

My hair redolent with the smell of his favorite flower I smile as he walks into the room.



to me this gets to be to much like reading a Shakespeare play with all it individual parts.

Reminds me of Robert Chambers The king in Yellow. I think in either that story or one based on it they reenacted the play and it was a PIA to read.

 

[RoyceConnors]

I think the point here is more the fact it can be done, but will it read well with readers?

You could spend a great deal of time putting it together, only to find it isn't accepted well. I would do it as a writing exercise, but not expect it to do well.

Expect the worst, hope for the best.

 

[Bramblethorn]

Reminds me of Robert Chambers The king in Yellow. I think in either that story or one based on it they reenacted the play and it was a PIA to read.

Sounds like a sequel by another author. Chambers' original KiY stories only give a few lines from the play, and they're in standard play format with each line clearly attributed.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

I've seen this done where the writer places the name of his character that is talking in bold.

John

Walking into the room, my nose is assaulted with the overpowering smell of lavender. She knows I can't stand the smell of it.

Jill

My hair redolent with the smell of his favorite flower I smile as he walks into the room.



to me this gets to be to much like reading a Shakespeare play with all it individual parts.

If you only had a single line of narration for each person, yeah that might get tiresome.

When I do it there are usually paragraphs between switches, if not pages.

My very first lengthy posting here at lit was like that. Switching between characters using first person. I was complemented by several readers on that. My editor at the time loved it. But I never used just a single line of narration for a character. Each character told a part of the story from the POV and they were different from someone else there. They were broken down into scenes, within acts(chapters)

 

[Weird Harold]

Can this work in the first person? Where the "I" character changes occasionally to a different character, maybe the other party in a dialogue, maybe a character that's unrelated (or not directly connected at that point of the story).

Almost anything can work. Some things work better -- and easier -- than others.

First Person is difficult enough to do well by itself; adding the complication of multiple first person narrators just makes it more difficult. If you're wondering whether something common in Third Person will work in First person, you might ask why you should be using First Person at all.

 

[sr71plt]

Well, you might use first person rather than third person in writing erotica, because first person is more intimate than third person. Actually both can be written equally well--they each have their own advantages and disadvantages. But it's sort of obvious that if you wanted to be inside the story more than observing it from the outside, you'd use first person rather than third person (and conversely for third person).

 

[lovecraft68]

Sounds like a sequel by another author. Chambers' original KiY stories only give a few lines from the play, and they're in standard play format with each line clearly attributed.

It may be in here

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hastur-Cycle-Defining-Yuggoth/dp/1568821921

or here

http://www.amazon.com/Season-Carcosa-Joseph-Pulver-Sr/dp/1937408000/ref=pd_sim_b_7

I have dozens of books from Chaosium all based on short stories and expansions of the mythos and related stories.

 

[MSTarot]

Where do you see this? Here on Literotica? In self-publishing? Publishers rarely use bolding in text. Not challenging that you've seen it; just interested where it's creeping in.

It was a science fiction short story in a Anthology where the writer set the story up like it was a news interview.

The main character was the reported. He was talking to... oh four or five different people about a space battle they had all witnessed. Everyone saw it differently and they were arguing about it.

Sorry, I can not remember the name of the story. It was about four years back, give or taken, that I read it and it wasn't a new anthology then. Just a book I picked up second hand and read to pass the time.

 

[sr71plt]

It was a science fiction short story in a Anthology where the writer set the story up like it was a news interview.

Thanks. That's interesting.

 

[Weird Harold]

Well, you might use first person rather than third person in writing erotica, because first person is more intimate than third person.

The point was that if an author is questioning whether a technique will work or not, perhaps they are asking the wrong question.

 

[sr71plt]

The point was that if an author is questioning whether a technique will work or not, perhaps they are asking the wrong question.

OK. Got it now.

 

[Bramblethorn]

It may be in here

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hastur-Cycle-Defining-Yuggoth/dp/1568821921

or here

http://www.amazon.com/Season-Carcosa-Joseph-Pulver-Sr/dp/1937408000/ref=pd_sim_b_7

I have dozens of books from Chaosium all based on short stories and expansions of the mythos and related stories.

I should check those out some time. I've seen the Hastur Cycle book around but the cover looked a bit cheesy; looking at the contents, that might've been hasty of me.