I think this might have been raised somewhere on WW a few weeks ago but I can't now find it...

My work in progress has 3 viewpoint characters and atm they are all 3rd person, but I am increasingly feeling the urge to make one of them 1st person.

Since she isn't a more important character than the other two, is this likely to unbalance it?

Will it seem odd?

Is it okay to do this?

TIA for any thoughts!

Deb

I don't think it'll seem odd in the least, and I'm a great believer in following your instincts - for the first draft, at least!

The only think I would say is that since 1st person tends to make the reader identify particularly closely with that character, you do risk a reactive feeling of distance with the others. You could exploit that, of course, if you make your 1st person decidedly subjective/'unreliable'/seductive, in a way that makes the reader realise (eventually?) that they're not trustworthy. If he/she's less central to the plot than the others, it can also work to make him/her the opposite: a real observer, standing aside and watching, being the reader's representative in the action.

Emma

Thanks very much for those interesting comments, Emma - really helpful.

TBH it's more that I identify with the other two vp characters quite well when writing them in 3rd person, but I can't get close enough to this 3rd character when writing her in 3rd, and I know I can get closer in 1st with her.

What worries me is that there's no real logic to making her 1st person. However, as you say I can try in first draft and see how it goes. I could even write her in 1st until she takes hold of me by the throat and then change it all into 3rd and continue in 3rd.

It's nice to know it wouldn't necessarily seem odd, but I am a great believer in there being a reason for things - IOW, I prefer consistency unless there's a reason to step outside that.

Deb

It would make it more interesting from my point of view, but I love fragmented narratives. I wonder what the difference would be in writing though - would you feel closer to the first-person narrator and therefore change the balance that way? I suppose you'd have to try it and see! Maggie O'Farrell's After You've Gone mixes all sorts of pov - first, second, and third - and I didn't even notice first time round reading it.

I think the reader often doesn't notice, if they're well-gripped by the story. And 'because it works better', not analysed further than that, is a perfectly good reason for a writer to do anything.

And yes, you can always re-write as 3rd person. Thinking it out as 'I' may be something to help the right words to happen, rather than the final form.

Emma

Check out a technique Chuck Palahniuk uses called submerging the 'I'

Yow, Geoff, there's some interesting stuff here. Thanks for planting the idea in my head to go look Chuck up:

http://chuckpalahniuk.net/workshops/cw/recaps.php

Thanks Geoff and hmaster - just had a look.

I thought this bit was esp useful:

Make the narrator an interesting but, in a way, impartial character--a window onto the world of your story--instead of a lone egocentric little "I", ranting at the world

I definitely prefer 1st person narrators who are like this - more like a 1st person version of a typical 3rd person character - to first person characters who spend ages on their personal angst.

Thanks everyone for all your helpful remarks. I will play around a bit and see what I can do with her.

Deb