Comments on When am I using "I" too much?
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When am I using "I" too much?
Chuck Palahniuk is an author quite well known for writing first-person stories. He has a simple piece of advice for others who wish to do so as well: "Have your narrator say 'I' as little as possible." To my knowledge he doesn't elaborate on the quantity of "I" that is allowable.
After diving into a first-person story, I'm having difficulty writing narration without using "I" very often. In some situations, it just seems impossible to reformulate a passage to use it any less.
So how much is too much? Is it okay to use it often in some situations where it's just unavoidable? Should I worry less about it? Is Chuck totally wrong?
The biggest problem comes from narrating actions:
"I stood up and walked across the room, but even as I did so, she turned away."
It just seems hard to reformulate some sentences like that.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/48968. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
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