The 25-Day Novel Challenge: Day Five

WORD COUNT 20,007/75,000

We are now onto Day Five of the 25-Day Novel Challenge! I am now 20,000 words into the novel, which, according to my progress bar widget on the right side of the screen (or bottom of the screen, if you are on a mobile device), means I am about 25% finished with the novel. Yay!

Back on Day Three, I mentioned how much I enjoyed writing in first person. And it’s true, I do. I think it might be my favorite point of view to write from, mostly because I love the challenge of creating a distinct voice for whoever the protagonist happens to be.

The problem, of course, with first person is that you are limited to what your POV character knows and so you have to find a way to deliver important plot or character information to the reader in a way that makes sense and doesn’t turn your character into some kind of all-knowing god (unless your character is an all-knowing god, in which case disregard the above).

Also, it’s harder to develop characters who are not the main POV character. In third person, it’s easy to jump into another character’s head for a scene or two and then return to the protagonist’s head later, but in first person, you usually can’t do that unless you have multiple first person narrators (which can work and I have done before, though it is trickier than writing just one first person narrator).

Nonetheless, first person still comes easily and naturally to me, probably because I have a lot of experience writing from that perspective. It may not be suitable for every book, but I try to use it when I can, mostly because it’s so much fun.

Anyway, that’s enough for today. Tomorrow is Day Six. Can’t wait!