Aaron’s Viewpoint

Hello all!

We are nine days into NaNo! The days are speeding by unbelievably fast, however, NaNo isn’t what I’m talking about today.

Today, I’m talking about viewpoints. As you may recall, I have two viewpoints (or POVs) going in Unchanged, and Aaron’s is proving to be quite a challenge! Just like in Unbidden, Jade’s viewpoint is going to be first person. The addition is that Aaron will have a third person viewpoint mixed in around Jade’s chapters. But, as I found out on my first attempt to draft Unchanged, switching from a nice, cozy first-person viewpoint to the stark, distant feeling of third person is no easy task!

Yes, I know, most writers prefer third person and manage to write it as personal as they would in first. But… I am not most writers. I used to prefer writing in third person, but then I started a program called One Year Adventure Novel. One of the few actual rules in the curriculum is that for your first novel, you have to write in first person. So, I did. And I loved it! It became so much easier for me to write seeing the world from my character’s eyes. The only issue is that now I struggle to go back to third person. I tried writing Aaron’s POV in third person, and, after several hours of frustration, showed a portion to a writing friend for feedback. Her advice: switch back to first person. I did just that, and suddenly the words are flowing again. Looks like I’ll be switching a lot of I’s and we’s to he’s and they’s when editing time comes around!

What viewpoint do you prefer? Have you tried them both, or have you always stuck with one?