A Different POV

In my experiences, I've learned to hate 1st person stories to the point where I abandoned it all together.
Why?
* Unless this is in document form (like a letter or diary), a lot of the suspense is lost because you know that your MC will be ok (at least mentally).
* Even if it is in document form, that style can become tedious and still leaves you unable to completely explore the ending of your story because of limited perspective. (especially if the MC dies)
*Its harder to emphasize character development of the MC from 1st person.

My suggestion is to write in 2nd person. Tell the story from someone else's point of view who is close enough to observe and examine most aspects of your novel and make commentary.

While we're on the topic, I also hate 3rd person omniscient narrators. I don't like listening to someone who already knows everything and is disassociated in every way from the story.

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However, its still up to you. Find your own style.
If your character is speaking in first person too much, divert the focus to other characters, the plot, the setting and analysis of them.

Hey. No one should get on your case. For my first NaNo, I already had the first part of a chapter before November started.......But I completely reworded it into a much better format. However, that's besides the point. The fact remains that if your charecter is speaking in first person too much.....Then add details. Think about your charecter's relations to other people and how they react with one another. Maybe you need some more supporting charecters. The more charecters, the less likely it becomes for you MC to steal the spotlight.

NaNo 07- The One Halves -Lost (but trying to finish)
SF 08-Stuck In Anime-Lost
NaNo 08- Sodium-Toes crossed 'cause my fingers are typing X3

I don't have enough of a a plan.
Just say it! Just say it!
-Yukkuri Site-Itte Ne!!!

I was tempted for a while to write in first person but as I was organizing my plot I hit a snag...sometime during the story my MC/narrator was going to be seperated from my FMC. If it's in first person I would either have to completely ignore what happening to her in favor of my narrator or switch PoV back and forth. Either or is a no-no.
For a few characters that are going to be sticking together, first person is fine but when you have three or more, you'll start getting stretched unless you significantly pad it with observations.

When it comes to the dreaded "I," I would recommend making sentence fragments or finding an alternative way of phrasing it. For example, instead of "I slammed the door with all of my anger." You could make it, "Slamming the door with everything I had was (strangely therapeutic/did nothing, as expected)." or "The door was never meant to be slammed that hard but yours truly was hardly in the mood to care." to remove the "I" beginning.

In your dreams....anything is possible.

That's actually what I'm afraid of, a bit. That there will be time that my characters will be too far apart from each other and we won't get a good look at my other. At least, that's if I keep one in one state and the other in another. However, I think it will be easier to write it with them together

Basically, to explain what I just said: My FMC falls in love with a married man who was in the military, stationed in her city, but he's from another state a few thousand miles away. She ends up getting pregnant and finding out after his wife forces him to move back to their home-state to raise the baby of theirs they just had after he gets out of the military (his wife hates the state he was stationed in).

That's how my original story and idea went, but as of late, I think I'm going to have them in the city and just change it up to make it a little easier. I would like to say a little more plausible as well, but--this story is based on real events that may or may not involve me and friends.
NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)

NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)
NaNo 2008: Sunny Side Up (romantic comedy drama thing)

I've come to extremely dislike first person as well; I'm a fan of second and third person. It seems personal enough, but not to the point where you really get to hear the character's every single thought, so that leaves a lot to the imagination of the reader (and the writer!).

I would suggest either second or third, depending on which suits the story.

And speaking of different points of view, my book takes place from four different points of view. Talk about a death trap waiting to happen. I'm exhausted already. Sigh.

2008: Pirates of Merth! (Hoping for 50k)
2007: Firebug (12k. Pathetic.)
2006: Of Rainbows and Skyscrapers (A pathetic excuse for anything. Please do not bring it up. Ever.)

I find that some stories work better in first person, and others can't be done in any way aside from third. As a general rule, for me, if the story is character driven or there's a very strong central focus I usually go with first. If the story is more situation driven or there's a strong central cast, I'd be more likely to lean towards third.

The current story I'm working on I'm writing in first: the focus is one guy and he spends a decent amount of time alone, and thus first lets me get into his head far better than third. (Added bonus: since I lack a name, a specific description, and am only 80% sure he's a he, I can fub those details until a re-write. Huzzah!)

But my NaNo's different. There's a small, strong cast, one which I've worked with before and am familiar with, and I'm still not sure who the so-called main character would be, or even if there is one. The plot itself is very much centered around events and situations opposed to relationships, and third person works better: I might lose the fluidity of thought which I can get with first person, but in exchange I can cover the events far better.

Though now I kinda want to write third person with a character named I. "I said...." "You said what?" "No, I. You know. Her." "Oooh."

Depending on how you're writing the specific novel, it can be really easy to avoid starting every single sentence with I. In the case of the story I mentioned above, I'm treating it not so much as the guy narrating events as they happen as it is like him retelling the story in a pub two weeks after the fact. (Well, there's not a specific two week later pub, but the cant of the story is a bit after-the-fact.) So, in turn, I just figure that the subject of certain events is implicit and treat the prose accordingly. "I looked around and saw a wall. I knew I had to climb it. I went over and hoisted myself up." versus "The area was pretty plain, but there was a wall, beyond which I figured was my destination. Without anything better to do, I went over and embarked upon the task of climbing it: the rock made it easy to climb over." (Except...you know...not bad.) Stuff like that.

A quick wit's best accompanied by quick reflexes.

While I've seen at least one story in which second person was done well, reading 'you said' and the like always makes me think of those choose your own adventure books from my childhood.

A quick wit's best accompanied by quick reflexes.

...isn't that still first person, except with a different narrator who's got a predisposition towards using 'you' a lot?

A quick wit's best accompanied by quick reflexes.

You see, I can't really decide, now that you mention it, if my story is more character driven or situation driven. I think, my biggest thing, is to try to keep it from coming off as a Lifetime movie in the making. But the story itself is very important. As I want to draw more attention away from the female main character being a home-wrecker to the fact that the things that happen in my story can actually happen.

So, would that make it more situation driven than character driven? Or, do I need to focus more on the relationships between my married MMC and my FMC who fell in love with him?

NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)

NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)
NaNo 2008: Sunny Side Up (romantic comedy drama thing)

Well, I really can't say what you should focus on or how you should go about doing it. I haven't read what you've got down from before, I don't know the specifics of what you're writing, and I can't tell you what I would do as I'm utter rubbish with romance. And I'd rather not blunder my way towards a false conclusion and eat some foot in the process.

So! What I can do is suggest you consider trying to write it in third person with multiple narrators. I mean, not too many, but maybe have one chapter be by the FMC, another by the MMC, and a third by someone random like the MMC's wife or kids or coworker. It sounds like the sort of thing which might work well with what you're planning, and plenty of authors have done that sort of thing and made it work.

A quick wit's best accompanied by quick reflexes.

That could work. I really hope I can make it not so much of a romance. I mean, it is, it's kind of a really sappy romance, but I want to keep it away from there. I think, since I'm planning for my FMC and my MMC to meet while he and his wife go to marriage counseling (she's a receptionist in the marriage counselor's office), that I could write part of the narration from the counselor's perspective. At least that's what popped in my head when you mentioned the multiple narrators in third person.

I need to look into some books that are written in this way that way I can feel more comfortable when I write it myself. Any suggestions as to where to look here in the forums for suggestions or some that you know yourself?
NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)

NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)
NaNo 2008: Sunny Side Up (romantic comedy drama thing)

I know of a few, but I somehow suspect our tastes in books are quite a bit different. You might be better served starting your own thread, maybe in one of the timewaster forums, asking for recommendations. Anyway.

After Dark by Haruhi Murakami's one which uses multiple protagonists. They cross paths, influence each other, and in some cases never actually meet at all. Granted, though, I wouldn't call After Dark his strongest work, but...well, I still liked it.

William Gibson employs multiple protagonists...well...a lot, and does it well. He writes cyberpunk, so if you loathe the genre with the passion of a thousand burning suns avoid him but if you think you could give it a try he's worth looking at. One of the things he does is start with a group of strangers and has us ride with them for the first two hundred pages (or so) until they finally meet, and then has us flip through the protagonists as they react to what to them are strangers but to us are old friends. He also might start a scene with POV 1, and then continue the scene in another chapter with POV 2.

Amy Tan did it a bit differently in the Joy Luck Club, if I remember right. She had different POVs, but she separated them into subsections and had each subsection be like its own separate vignette spoken from first person. But they tied together.

...also, the Illiad had shifting POV, kinda. So if you can stomach epic poetry, maybe take a look...?

A quick wit's best accompanied by quick reflexes.

Ah, yes, The Joy Luck Club. I've only ever read excerpts of that, but I do remember that.

I might very well start my own thread about it, not sure yet. But thank you!

NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)
NaNo 2008: Sunny Side Up (romantic comedy drama thing)

And all of a sudden, it hit me:

It's not a POV issue I'm having, it's a tense issue I'm having!

You see, upon my first attempt to write the story, I was trying to write it in present tense in first person. If I just switch up the tense, then it will flow MUCH better in first person. Just write in past tense and it'll flow better, I'll be able to avoid starting every sentence with "I" and I'll be able to add insight to it that my character would only be able to add with it being written in past tense first person!

NaNo 2006: The Clearing of Lindsey (psychological thriller/drama/whatever)
NaNo 2007: ZOMBUNNIE! (satirical horror)
NaNo 2008: Sunny Side Up (romantic comedy drama thing)

I would recommend using 3rd person, especially for Nano, because of its flexibility. Third-person POV just provides more options, and because of that, it allows you to keep writing full-speed-ahead and get the story down AND write in a format that you can easily work with later if you want to revise.

Here are some ideas for you to think about:

DISTANCE
(a) You can use a "distant 3rd" POV, giving your reader an omniscient viewpoint on the story, from which they can see everything that's happening. OR
(b) You can zoom in and use a "close 3rd" POV, basically putting your narrator on a character's shoulder so that the reader sees things primarily from that character's perspective (and even "overhears" the character's thoughts!) but still refers to that character as "he" or "she" or by name. OR
(c) You can use a mixture of the two with "middle 3rd" POV, where you are basically sitting on a character's shoulder, overhearing their thoughts during dramatic moments, but you're also more distant and objective at other times when you need distance from that character in order to move the plot along or when you need to establish facts or details that your character might not be aware of.

PERSPECTIVE
If you're considering telling your story from more than one character's perspective, 3rd person will allow you to do that without confusing the reader about who "I" might be for this part of the story. In 3rd, you will be using the character's name and "he" or "she" so that the reader is always aware of who's who. If you remember to create more distance between the narrator and the character you're leaving, before sitting on the shoulder of a new character, your reader should be able to follow you pretty well.

THINK ABOUT MOVIES
Think about the way movies are filmed. There's a distant "establishing shot" near the beginning of each scene that lets you know "where everything is in the room" (so to speak), and then the camera is free to zoom in and out as needed because the viewer has already been oriented to the "bigger picture" of what's going on. Also notice in movies that a close-up shot of one person's face to a close-up shot of another person's face seems kind of jarring to watch (especially if you're sitting in the front row of the theater, right?). It seems smoother when the camera zooms out from the first person's face before zooming in to see the other person's face. It's the same way with writing a story in 3rd person. You can use distance to set an "establishing shot" for the scene and then zoom in and out as needed to let your reader get more or less information about a character's thoughts and emotions.

REVISION POTENTIAL
When you write in 3rd person, varying distance and perspective, you're building some experimentation into your first draft. That experimentation will help you figure out which parts work and which parts don't when you're getting ready to revise. And, in many ways, 3rd person is the easiest POV to convert OUT OF if you later decide you want to try something different. If you write entirely in 1st person, it's much more difficult to gain that distance of 3rd person after the draft is finished, in my opinion, than it would be to work in the opposite direction.

This is all just my opinion, of course. The POV a writer uses, especially in the draft phase, is really just a matter of preference. I just wanted to offer some suggestions for ways that you could use 3rd that are similar to 1st but offer more options.

Happy Nano! :-)

--KatRobbins--
Nano 2008: Kandinsky's Fugue
(Southern / Humor / Romance / Mystery)