You may have heard the theory that of an infinite number of monkeys banging away on typewriters, some of them would eventually produce the works of Shakespeare. Lately, I've had moments where I suspect what I'm writing is something more like what the other, non-Shakespeare monkeys are writing. Let us hope with less flinging of poo.





Not a Shakespeare monkey

( cut for length and pictures )

So, I've been thinking about first person lately, and in an act of utter, but convenient, coincidence, jpsorrow posted this entry about writing in first person, pros and cons. He mentions an axiom which I have heard before, that many readers don't like to read first person. In his post he mentions several reasons why a reader might not like a story written in first person. To summarize- ways that first person might go wrong:

1. Narrator lacks a strong voice.

2. Overuse of "I" leads to boring sentence structure.

3. One of first person's strengths is immediacy, so if the author writes it too much like third, it comes off as distancing.

He goes on to say that there are plenty of other ways to screw it up, and I wouldn't argue with that. Reading the article, though, it occurred to me that all of these problems are work-specific. They are things that can go wrong, but by no means things that must go wrong if one writes in first person.

What I'm curious about are those readers who dislike reading first so much that they don't read first at all. Work-specific problems like these aren't even really a factor, because they won't pick up a first-person book at all. If you are a first-person hater, what's behind it? does it seem too artificial? Did you get burned on a book that had one (or all!) of those problems and it turned you off first-person narration forever? I'm curious about the first person haters.

Personally, as a reader, I love first person. My favorite thing about it is the way it can establish voice so very strongly. One of my favorite books is Peter Beagle's The Innkeeper's Song. It's told in multiple first person POVs, and each narrator has a distinct voice, such that the chapter headings establishing just whose head the reader is in seem hardly necessary. Likewise, Ellen Kushner's Thomas the Rhymer. Steven Brust's Dragaeran romances are delightful, in that they are written mostly in third person (omniscient, actually), but the narrator, Paarfi, rapidly establishes himself as a character in his own right.

So, what about first person attracts you to a book? And what about it repels?

1. My writing process is kind of ridiculous. On the current WIP, I'm flipping back and forth between 4 different timelines. Many of the characters overlap; some are singular to a time period. All the timelines inform each other. It seems to make some sort of sense to work this way to me (very different from manuscript # 1, but there you go.)

2. I am teh suxxor at writing romance scenes. (I actually wrote this at one point in my story, in little brackets.) Alas for me, a rather large chunk of plot in timelines 2, 3, & 4 relies on two people falling for each other in timeline 1. Hm. It all seems so wonderful in my head, and yet so flat on paper. Practice makes perfect, I guess.

3. The fun thing about trying to write a story is that it makes you appreciate the strangeness contained in your very own brain.

4. The other thing is that it really makes you appreciate is people who do it well. It all looks very effortless from the outside.

5. So it turns out I can write with music on. But I think I'll try different music when I try to fix the falling-in-love scene tomorrow. Believe me when I say it couldn't hurt.

Things I'm learning as I rewrite my manuscript:

1.) Rewriting is not a euphemism. In the future, I shall feel free to write my first draft longhand, as very little of it is not getting a more or less complete overhaul. There are a few paragraphs that make the cut with only sentence-level changes, but there were a number of structural changes, so a lot of things are no longer relevant or just don't make sense.

2.) Also, the quality of my writing improved quite a bit between page 1 and page 358, so a lot of it in the early chapters makes me wince. I have found hitting the pages with highlighters brings me immense satisfaction. Pink means cut and blue means rewrite substantially. It's fun to obliterate huge sections of prose, secure in the knowledge that what replaces them is better.

3.) I apparently really like the construction "He said, adverbly." Actually, I have been cutting dialogue tags with mad abandon and it's fun. I hear all the kids are doing it.

Also, LJ thinks that "dialogue" should be "dialog." I am defensive on the part of u & e.

When I got out of the shower today, I didn't immediately put on my glasses. This proved to be a tactical error as I then wanged my foot into an inconvenient wooden box, thereby giving the second-smallest toe on my left foot a fairly substantial wallop. It hurts. It's turning all manner of interesting colors, and swelling up most interestingly. Every time I step on it, I wonder if it's broken, but then I decide that I'd know if it were. It's caused me to rethink a pivotal scene, however. I've got a character being far too stoic about a serious injury. I'm hissing and cursing over a jammed toe, so... So maybe I should be glad to be so klutzy.

The revision is coming along, if by coming along one means just started. I'm totally rewriting the first few chapters because the writing is crap, and I'm so glad. I just rewrote the first couple of scenes and they are so much better, there's no comparison.

Then I'll cruise along pruning and/or adding subplots and characters as needed for several chapters, and then the ending gets an even bigger rewrite because I figured out a much more satisfying way to end it. I am pleased with it in note form, although it might change on the page. This one particular character kept showing up everywhere except at the end, and this way he'll get in there and not be a loose-hanging thread.

But I'm stopping for tonight and taking a book to the couch, where I will think dire thoughts about the evil wooden box that mained my foot.

So I finished my first read through of my big honking manuscript.

( Pictorial evidence below the cut )

I just got my first rejection letter this morning. It was very nice, actually. Not a form at all.

I printed it out and stuck it in a binder.

I am printing out my completed first draft right now.

I am very excited about seeing this big blob of brain spew as an actual physical object.


Neat.

(I'm also really excited about editing/rewriting. Now to see if I can Pull It All Together.)

The first draft is done!

It is also incoherent, rambling, and all over the place but:

done!

Woo hoo!

that is all.

Yay! Someone who isn't related to me by blood or marriage read a story and seemed to enjoy it!

I'm hardly into writing for tonight, and already Word is confused, so I think I'll just keep a little running tally:

unlife
untrusted
subvocalized

Darn, that was it.

I was also about to use "covertcy" and then I realized that's Jacquelin Carey*'s word and I was about to steal it. Awesome word though. I used "stealth" instead.

Good writing night. Now I might go ink a panel.


*I can't wait to read Kushiel's Mercy. I have it sitting right here next to me. Reading it will be a reward for finishing my big ass first draft. Motivation: I has it.

Word recognizes "hangover" but not "hungover."

Silly Word.