Tag: first person

First to Third Person: a guide

First to Third Person: a guide

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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.

First, second or third narrative

First, second or third narrative

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I’m writing a novella (which is quickly turning into a full blown novel) and I’ve been having a hard time choosing what narrative to write in. The options are:

First Person: When it’s from the point of view of a character (I did this, we did that).

Second Person: This is the choose your own adventure one (you do this, you do that), this was never an option I was interested in.

Third Person: When it’s an omnipresent voice describing everything (he does this, she does that).

Having only written screenplays before I’ve always written in the third person. I thought it would be fun to write in the first person. If I’m being honest, I will admit I also did it to cover my own writing neurosis. If anyone said it was poorly written I could just say “That’s the character’s voice, not mine.”

The novella I’m writing is a comedy mystery and the genre is butting heads with the first person narrative. For starts, in a mystery you want the murder, or whatever mystery, to happen in the first chapter to hook people in. My character’s don’t get involved in the mystery right away so the suspense is missing from the first chapter. By writing in the third person, I can now set up my mystery and then set up my characters as I like.

Also, when writing for film and TV I try to remember the following quote:

Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot.”

– Buster Keaton

A situation is funnier when there is a separation between the audience/reader and the character. Being involved in a murder mystery would be pretty intense stuff. So it’s hard to find the humour when the character is talking about how scared they are. In the third person it becomes a silly romp.

Now working on the second draft I feel more comfortable with the story, and my writing, so I feel confident in writing in the third person, using my voice, taking both the praise and the flak for it. 

Let’s see how this turns out…

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