Keep the weapons down, keep the wounded safe

[akamarykate]

So I am suddenly writing a thing in first person to submit for summer residency workshop. I have written in first person exactly once before, so this terrifies the heck out of me. No matter how commonplace first person is in YA, it's never been my thing, much. But it seems to be working--it's part of a quest to reclaim and revamp a novel that

Comments

[dotificus]

Even though I have NO IDEA what your penultimate para is about, I have no qualms throwing some advice at you. If it feels manipulative, trust that feeling.

As for 1st person, even though I'm tired of 1st person present, I once heard editor Andrew Karre make a very compelling case that ALL YA should be in 1st. With the exception of the rare fantasy that had a huge emphasis on world building or something. He said, "if a YA ms isn't in 1st, I want to know WHY. There had better be a very compelling reason."

[akamarykate]

Yeah, I'm pretty much going into this with all defenses up. This person has timing that's just too spot on to be coincidental. Thanks, I appreciate the backup.

Haha--I heard Andrew Karre say the exact same thing at a conference. Six months later, someone at another workshop (it was either an editor or an agent, and I can't remember which one said it so I won't name names, but you'd probably know either one), said exactly the opposite: "I'm tired of first person done badly, and if you're going to use it, you'd better have a really good reason and do it well."

So WHO KNOWS. I guess this is a place where you have to write the voice that best tells the story. Of course, this IS a fantasy with a lot of world building...yoiks. I'm hoping the voice is strong enough to get readers interested.