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Q&A Third person story, containing a first person backstory

Who is telling this backstory? Is it a separate section, set apart from the rest of the book? Or does the narrator tell the story? It's fine to use first person for an entire novel, or for a pie...

posted 5y ago by Cyn‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-20T00:40:35Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41272
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 · 2019-12-08T10:34:53Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41272
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T10:34:53Z (over 4 years ago)
Who is telling this backstory?

Is it a separate section, set apart from the rest of the book? Or does the narrator tell the story?

It's fine to use first person for an entire novel, or for a piece of it, if it suits your purpose. One advantage to using both is that it's very clear to the reader that the narrative point of view has changed and there's no confusion over who is speaking. I've seen novels with multiple first person narrators and sometimes it takes a while to figure out who is who. That's something you want to avoid.

Sometimes sticking with third person (with or without a different narrator focus) is what works best. But if the original narrator uses third person for the regular story and then is also telling the backstory, stick with the third person for both.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2019-01-14T01:18:48Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 1