[munday] point of view
I wrote my very first novel in third person, and...that was it. I tried first person in a story and loved it, and became addicted, and then sometime later, after my second novel, I tried first person present, which is what I use for most/all of my transgressive writing unless something else would better fit the story. For Painted Blind, first person present is really the only point of view that delivers the proper feelings and suspense.
I actually did write something a little while ago from the POV of Linus, Richard's tutor, and was planning on doing another one here in short order. That can be found here, but I believe you need to be a friend of this journal to see it. I've also been tossing around writing something from the POV of one of Richard and Delilah's victims, but we'll see.
FPP is, I feel, a great POV in that it allows a lot of suspense because the reader doesn't have the same assurance as first person past--that is to say, the protagonist could quite certainly be dead at the novel's end because everything is happening now. It's also very useful for creating a narrator who--isn't necessarily unreliable, but hasn't gained the benefit of hindsight and other perspectives yet, so may only be seeing, hearing, or interpreting things as suit them.
At the same time, it's not excellent for description unless in a new setting--at least, not with Richard and Delilah. And this is because, like most people, when they get used to an environment they stop consciously assessing everything around them. In the novel, Richard's home is only described in detail because Delilah is there for the first time.
In much the same way, it's good for either obscurity and subtly, or irritating your readers, depending on how you look at it. This is because, like most people, they don't take ten minutes out of their day at any point in the plot and just decide to consider their past, or the details of certain things, so in the novel there's a lot left unsaid. Characters who are explored/introduced in a very minimal way, very likely via a throwaway line or two, and then show up some chapters later and become integral to the plot.
And that's because, well, they don't know they're characters in a novel. They're just people--out of the ordinary people, but people nonetheless.
I actually did write something a little while ago from the POV of Linus, Richard's tutor, and was planning on doing another one here in short order. That can be found here, but I believe you need to be a friend of this journal to see it. I've also been tossing around writing something from the POV of one of Richard and Delilah's victims, but we'll see.
FPP is, I feel, a great POV in that it allows a lot of suspense because the reader doesn't have the same assurance as first person past--that is to say, the protagonist could quite certainly be dead at the novel's end because everything is happening now. It's also very useful for creating a narrator who--isn't necessarily unreliable, but hasn't gained the benefit of hindsight and other perspectives yet, so may only be seeing, hearing, or interpreting things as suit them.
At the same time, it's not excellent for description unless in a new setting--at least, not with Richard and Delilah. And this is because, like most people, when they get used to an environment they stop consciously assessing everything around them. In the novel, Richard's home is only described in detail because Delilah is there for the first time.
In much the same way, it's good for either obscurity and subtly, or irritating your readers, depending on how you look at it. This is because, like most people, they don't take ten minutes out of their day at any point in the plot and just decide to consider their past, or the details of certain things, so in the novel there's a lot left unsaid. Characters who are explored/introduced in a very minimal way, very likely via a throwaway line or two, and then show up some chapters later and become integral to the plot.
And that's because, well, they don't know they're characters in a novel. They're just people--out of the ordinary people, but people nonetheless.