This is a reupload of a post from Instagram originally made in January of 2023 with some edits for improved clarity and accuracy. All ideas expressed are personal opinions based on my experience as a writer. Thanks for reading!
First person can be a challenging perspective to write, because it tends to take on a more casual tone that many writers are not accustomed to.
Focus on developing voice. The first person perspective offers an excellent opportunity to showcase your POV character’s personality in a way that more formal perspectives do not.
- What unique turns of phrase do your character use?
- Are they long-winded or do they seldom speak?
- How eloquent are they?
Consider other aspects of voice such as their cadence or inflection, how formal or informal their speech patterns are, dialect, etc.
- A character who speaks formally may not use contractions (you will instead of you’ll, for example).
Think of how your first-person perspective works. Are we seeing directly into the character’s head? Or are they communicating with the reader through letters or diary entries (or, perhaps, radio broadcasts, wink wink)? If so, do they add or omit any details, knowing they might have an audience?
The reliability (or lack thereof) of your narrator’s perspective is also important. Your character, who is presumably some kind of person, is telling us the story, and people lie.
- Does your narrator have something to lie about? Are they being misled? Do they miss any details or incorrectly piece together information? Is their perception of reality warped in any additional way?
Since, again, the first person perspective offers a rare view directly into the character’s head, don’t be afraid to show off their opinions.
- How do they feel about those around them? How do they feel about the events of the story, or even their own actions?
Do not leave the POV character’s mind. Your narrator has limited information about the world. If they have no way of knowing a piece of information, they’re unlikely to tell the reader about it unless they are somehow omniscient. And they might be wrong! People are fallible.
When writing descriptions, keep the character’s personal experiences in mind. Think of associations triggered by memory.
- Example: Maybe the necklace they receive is orange like the begonias that grew outside their childhood home.
- Smell is the most powerful sense for memory. Maybe they catch a whiff of the same perfume their mother used to wear, or the smell of rain makes them think of that fateful day at the park.
That’s all. Happy writing!
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