Sometimes changing a story from first person to third person can be a bloody pain. The world view completely changes and it needs a complete re-write. Sometimes, it’s easy peasy lemon squeezy.

If the character’s voice isn’t any different from the narrative voice then it can simply be a matter of find and replace. For those occasions here is a helping hand.

Use the find and replace feature (control & F on Word) which is available in all the word processing software I use — currently Scrivener. Then change the following words:

I = Character name

We = They

Me = Character name

Us = Them

Our = Their

I’d= He’d

My = His

Myself = Himself

Me = Him

Don’t just replace all or you’ll replace the dialogue too. This will mean all the character’s will refer to themselves in the third person. That’s bad, unless the sentence is “Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?” Somehow The Rock gets away with it.

One last tip to is to search for the word with a space bar after it. So “me” becomes “me_” That way you skip all the words with me in the middle.

Be sure to give it a read and make sure it all still makes sense. I’ve actually been doing it manually so I can tweak the narrative voice as I go. Then when I finish a chapter I use the find feature to search for the replaceable words to see if I missed any.