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Q&A I have 97 pages in my book draft. Is it too late to swap to third person from first?

It is never too late to change from first person to third. Writing in first person is almost always a bad idea. It is a confining suffocating point of view. When it does work, it is usually as a fr...

posted 8y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:52Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26100
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:56:59Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/26100
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T05:56:59Z (almost 5 years ago)
It is never too late to change from first person to third. Writing in first person is almost always a bad idea. It is a confining suffocating point of view. When it does work, it is usually as a frame or a covert form or omniscient. But those are not techniques for beginners to mess with.

Change it. Change it now. Thank your stars you have come to your senses before you did more damage.

And don't listen to the people saying that now is the wrong time to change, that you should finish your story first. A story is a rising arc of tension. That tension is created by the manner of telling every bit as much as it is created by the incidents of the plot. There are seven plots in all of fiction (the numbers vary, but they are all small). Everything lies in the telling. And third person is the right voice for telling the vast majority of stories.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-01-16T14:17:31Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 1