thewhitelily | First day, first person

It's the most unmitigated, unforgivable crap I've ever written. It's stilted, it's completely unpaced, and it's flying towards the earth at 9.8 meters per second per second, without even bothering to insert actual story along the way, let alone any descriptions of anything. I thought it was just because nothing had happened yet. But now something's happened, and... it's even worse, because something's happening, and it's even worse.

And I've just worked out why.

It wants to be in first person.

I don't want it to be in first person. I hate reading first person, and I've already done a major first-person work, solely because it made it easier to distinguish two POVs. And I hate reading first person. It feels like lazy third person limited to me.

But okay, Mr. Novel, sir. You want to be in first person - you can be in first person.

Damn you.

1095 words and counting.

Edit: and straight up to 1607 in 20 minutes, of course. Seeing it took me over two hours for 1000 words, making 1st person triple the speed for actual possibly not completely totally rubbish stuff... I think I know which I'll be chosing. :D But now my inner editor's totally desperate to fix the first 1000 words. *twitches*

Edit 2: Final word count for today: 2,503. Most respectable. And by 11:30pm, too!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Don't worry. Mine is in First Person Present tense. It HAS to be. Third person would completely ruin the tone, and if I do present tense, when my character inevitably dies at the end, it doesn't make any sense how he's telling this. Of course, it's the most awkward, unwieldy writing style availble, meaning I need to keep going back and rewording sentances so they sound any good at all.

Anyway, be more worried about a week's time when it wants to be third person again. And your characters start refusing to do what you want them to.

You sound almost exactly like my friend Tess. She'll hand me one of the great works of literature for me to read, and then tell me it's the worst thing in the world and be entirely critical.

*grin* Well, fortunately, 1st person's certainly not the most unwieldy writing style I've ever written in, so I can count my blessings there. And I've got a bit of practice in it, writing a character who's a bit similar in tone to this one, so... hopefully that'll give me a head start. :) And at least I'm in the past tense!

I'd be more worried if this story was making me write like The Mother of Invention, which was a short story I wrote in 2nd and 1st person omniscient. That is, it's mainly told from the 2nd person perspective, but there's also a 1st person present for some of it as well, and that 1st person knows everything inside both character's heads. :/ It's... totally mindscrewy. (But wouldn't make a lick of sense to anyone outside the Artemis Fowl Fandom, so I won't bother linking.) And I totally sympathise with your present tense situtation - it's so hard doing flashbacks and so on, because it's just... not the natural way your brain thinks.

And *grin* I'll claim a lot of the stuff I write as good, and I'm exceedingly proud of it. I'm really an editor at heart, though, more than I'm a writer. I love to write, but... I obsess over polishing, to an extent that many people find it hard to believe. I'll never be even mildly pleased with something unpolished, because it's not... me. *shrug* Still, I'm trying to approach this from the standpoint of "exuberant imperfection", as Chris Baty puts it. I can be proud of this as a draft precisely for its *lack* of polish. Or I can try, anyway. :)

And I'm procrastinating going to bed, so I can get up early and write some more tomorrow... *thwacks self*

Never fix earlier writing! Those 1000 words are valuable! If your inner editor gets to you, devote a chapter to explaining the change in viewpoint, perhaps as some kind of out-of-body experience on the part of the protagonist.

Then, while your inner editor is distracted with that, hit it with a hammer.

Never fix earlier writing. Never fix earlier writing. Never fix earlier writing.

Okay, I think I've got it.

~~Although I might need that hammer later...~~

You know, Lily, H.G.Wells once said:

"No passion on earth, neither love nor hate, equals that of the passion to alter someone else's draft."

(though in your case, I think your own applies as well...)

Sit on your red pen!

*thinks* I should start writing soon, seeing as I had a bout of insanity last night, a few minute to midnight, and decided to join. *has a hopelessly insanely vauge idea of nothing* Ah well. I'm good at writing crap and not looking back to fix it... *knowing nod*

Alvin

Oh, I like that quote! Although I'd definitely apply it more to my own draft than to others - I beta other people's work because as far as I'm concerned, editing is the creative process and so I enjoy it. But too much betaing... and all Lily's Creative Juices get sucked out her ears and into other people's work. But my own draft... oooh, that starts a positive feedback loop of creative juices building on creative juices building on creative juices... and I end up feeling like a minor deity.

*frames her red pen, instead, and puts it on the wall so that she can look forward to breaking it out in December*

And yes, start writing! Start writing! The time is now! The place is here! Go, go, go! No plot? No problem! ;)

Just a note on the never!look!back, resist!the!urge!to!edit thing: By writing it all in a notebook first, you get the major ideas down, and then when you type it up you get a chance revise it (and/or add sentences, words, deliberate padding, etc.). I've discovered that I love writing!in!a!notebook!first. And that's FH's clever tip of the day for smuggling a bit of Red Pen into your nanovel.

(And does anyone else have to spend twenty minutes waiting for the NaNo website to load? It's really bothering me.)

*goes back to working on her marine geology presentation*

Hmmm... maybe I should try that. *thinks* I generally don't write in a notebook first, for a few reasons:

1) My handwriting is atrocious. Like, truly abysmal. Not even I can read it, most of the time. Which makes rewriting an exercise in... a great deal of puzzlement.

2) I write completely out of order. Like, completely. I write the end of sentences before the beginning, then go and restructure them again. It's just how I write; I can do no other.

3) Um... I'm just constantly on my computer. That is all.

But hmmm... anything to get me a tiny bit more sneaky editorness without breaking the rules... :D

Especially since the RSI is starting to set in... *moans and packs wrists in ice*

First day, first person

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