Writing Excuses 20.13: First Person
68 snips
Mar 30, 2025 Dive into the art of first-person storytelling as the hosts explore its benefits and challenges. Learn how to foster intimacy with readers through subjective viewpoints and engage their senses. Discover the pitfalls of excessive introspection and the intrigue of unreliable narrators. Participants are challenged to creatively rewrite scenes from different perspectives. Plus, get insights on how to enhance narrative engagement with fresh storytelling techniques. This discussion is perfect for anyone looking to deepen their writing craft!
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
First Person Strengths
- First person excels at direct address, offering asides to the reader.
- It connects exposition to the character's internal thoughts and feelings, enhancing importance.
Interiority and Unreliability
- First person allows unique access to a character's interiority, unlike other media.
- Prose writers can leverage this for unreliable narration, enhancing subjectivity.
Intimacy and Artifice
- First person creates intimacy by feeling more direct than other POVs.
- This directness enables unreliable narration and playing with reader expectations.