On First Person and Fanfic

[ladderax]

I was going to write a rare personal post, but I seem to have lost the ability to talk about myself except to blurt out TMI pity party crap on Twitter like "so restless, ugh" or "I can't write!!!" (These are not direct quotes, but they may as well be.) Taking a Twitter hiatus has been good for me. I think. I'm really quite terrible at assessing my

Comments

[sparkledark]

And is first person fic more acceptable in fandoms like The Hunger Games where the source canon is in first person?

I have noticed that first person fic is a lot more prevalent in Hunger Games fandom than, say, Inception fandom or Walking Dead fandom or a few others I've been involved with over the past couple of years, so I'd guess the answer to that question is probably a yes.

Also, when I first started writing fic, back when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, first person was a lot more common in general. I remember reading and writing a lot of first person in X-Files, QAF and BtVS.

Personally, I don't mind first person in any fandom, but it's a bit tricky to get right because if the character's voice sounds "off" it's extremely noticeable.

When writing, I usually find first person the easiest (depending on the character), but only if it's first person/past tense. For some reason my brain gets totally hung up on first/present. I always find myself wondering how the character could be writing their experiences as they're actually happening in real time, whereas with first/past I can think of it as a memoir or journal.

I also like third person/present tense with a very tight POV, which seems to be the default for most fic nowadays.

Omniscient is basically impossible for me, and I think most people should avoid it. Honestly, I think it's harder to get right than second person.

I dunno, I think whatever POV comes most naturally is usually the best for that particular story, and a lot of times that takes some experimenting. My advice would be to go with whatever's working for you and screw fandom norms- they are always changing anyway!

[ladderax]

This is a really insightful comment! I didn't even consider the idea that there's more at stake in getting the character's voice right. There is a little more stylistic leeway in third person, perhaps, and a bit more room for mediation by the author's way of seeing things. And it's harder to "sell" really poetic prose in first person too.

Also a really interesting point about past vs. present tense. I find present tense (in either first or third person) best for writing about sex or other really powerful sensory experiences, but otherwise past tends to work best in first person. First person present tense can also creates an air of uncertainty and in-the moment-ness, but it is hard to do this convincingly.

I would sort of like to see a pan-fandom first person challenge at some point. And/or something where people remix fics from third person to first. And I totally agree with you that it's most important to do what comes naturally! (One thing I'm also curious about is why things sometimes just don't work, especially re. tense. I've heard many instances of people realizing that they needed to completely change their tenses in a fic, and I wonder what the reasons for this are.)

[sparkledark]

There is a little more stylistic leeway in third person, perhaps, and a bit more room for mediation by the author's way of seeing things.

Absolutely. I think with fandom first person it's really important to SOUND like the character, for the author to intrude as little as possible, which can be extremely difficult in some cases. Especially if there's not much to go on, which might be another reason the source material makes a difference. Like, I'd absolutely consider writing Katniss Everdeen in first person since we have three books of Katniss first person to reference and get inspiration from, but I would never in a million years attempt to write, say, Eames in first person. I think I have a decent grasp of him as a character, but there's just not enough canon for me to figure out what the inside of his head might sound like, you know? It's a super-intimate way to write, and when it's working and clicking it really is easier and more fun than anything for me, but being able to get there is dependent on a lot of different factors. And when it goes wrong, it goes *really* wrong.

I would love a pan-fandom first person challenge! It would be really interesting to see what people came up with.

I usually change tenses and POVs a few times when I'm starting a fic, just to see what I feel most comfortable with, but I don't think I've ever changed the tense of an entire fic before. I'd also be curious to know the reasons for that.