Taking the Plunge: When to use first-person narration

Total Read Time: 2 minutes

It was really high, ok?

Last week, I posted about first-person vs. third-person narration from a reader’s perspective. As a writer, first-person narration can be very intimidating. I remember my first attempt at it, years ago. Without all my supporting characters’ perspectives, I burned through my entire ‘epic’ plot in about 100 pages!

I steered clear of it for a long time after that, but after reading amazing first-person fantasy from authors like Jacqueline Carey and Robin Hobb, I’ve made a couple more attempts. One is a fantasy novel that’s probably the best work I’ve ever done, but I can’t seem to stick to writing it for more than a few weeks at a time because it feels so foreign. It calls me back every now and then and I hammer out a few more chapters…

Of course, this gets me thinking. What makes first-person narration really work? Based on Carey’s and Hobb’s books, I think I’ve come up with a few answers:

The main character must be complex and compelling.

For the reader to want to spend hundreds of pages experiencing all the thoughts and feelings of your main character, the character needs to be interesting. Things like a convoluted past or an unlikely social position help to give him or her a unique perspective. If the main character is a simple farm boy following the call of adventure, chances are his thoughts and emotions are going to be fairly tame and predictable.

The main character should be the catalyst.

While the main character in first-person writing still has a supporting cast, the events of the story should revolve around the main character. The main character is who makes things happen with their special skills or abilities. Sometimes it’s as simple as being the only person who can persuade another character to take a pivotal course of action.

The main character should be tortured almost every step of the way.

Since the reader can’t experience the suffering of the other characters, it’s much more effective to throw the main character under the bus. The more the reader suffers with them, the more they will connect and empathize.

The main character’s blind spots are the reader’s blind spots.

First-person narration works really well with intrigue. Since the reader is limited to what the main character knows, they are forced to fumble along with them for answers. This drives the reader to continue reading in order to find out what happens next.

How about you? Do you enjoy writing in first person? Are there any more items you would add to this list?