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A writing instructor once told me that first person should only be used if one of the following cases is true: The narrator is not the main character. So we witness the main character's story thr...
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#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T07:00:36Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30293 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
Ken Mohnkern
·
2019-12-08T07:00:36Z (over 4 years ago)
A writing instructor once told me that first person should only be used if one of the following cases is true: 1. The narrator is not the main character. So we witness the main character's story through the eyes of a third party. As in _The Great Gatsby_ and _A Prayer for Owen Meany._ 2. The narrator's voice is distinctive. See _Catcher in the Rye,_ _The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time,_ and _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn._ I'm not fully committed to that rule, but I see his point. (And I can't think of a good example of the exception to it right now.) Without one of those situations, my first-person narrator is telling their own story in an ordinary way. As a writer, I'd easily let the character become self-indulgent, not somebody you'd want to hear speak for more than a few pages.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2017-09-19T18:52:17Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 2