I struggle to make this decision. My hands automatically want to write in first person, as if I am telling the story from my own life experience. However, I feel as if this can be really limiting from a storytelling perspective. Often I find that I start a story in first person, only to go back and edit things to the third person point of view. I have read a few books that teeter back and forth between characters, using the first person. Sometimes I find this challenging to follow, though it is interesting to get inside the heads of all the main characters.
How do you choose which one to write in? As a reader, do you have a preference as to which one it is? Is it harder for males and females to get into the first person point of view from the opposite sex? I struggle with the idea that I might limit my audience by choosing to write from a female’s first person view point. Furthermore, I struggle with the idea of writing as a male in first person.
Could I really capture a man’s soul? I would hate to butcher it. For practice I am going to assign myself a set of synchronized short stories that create a larger story, however each section of the short story will be in different views and different genders. I’m going to call the story, Flannel. It’s about a shirt that is shared from one person to the next. I hope to have installment one by this time next week. I did say this is a short story! Hopefully my goal isn’t too lofty.
This means I will have 4 short stories, female first person, male first person, female third person, male third person. I’m not committing to that particular order. Time to brainstorm.
If you want to play along, feel free to use this idea as a writing practice, be sure to Pingback so I can find your stories. It doesn’t have to be a shirt, think of anything that would follow more than one person. A parrot might be interesting, they live for 50+ years I believe. Some other ideas: tools, kitchen serving ware, quilts, coats, picture frames, furniture, trees, cars, houses, fishing rods, guns.
Melisa Peterson Lewis 
Leave a reply to Welcome To New Jersey Pt 2 – The Unfinished Scripts Cancel reply