Writing.Com General Discussion

You raised an interesting point, Ken, about first person.

I'm currently writing a novel, where the vast bulk of the story involves just two women, and the story is told entirely from one woman's POV. I chose to write in third person rather than first. Perhaps if I explain why I chose third rather than first person, it may help others make an informed decision in their own work.

The story is a psychological one. I want the reader to be privvy to how the POV character interprets the words and actions (and assumed actions) of the other character. I also want them to be privvy to what the POV character learns and what she is thinking, especially when she is trying to be manipulative. Her emotions are also important to understand. All of these ought to suggest a first person POV.

At the beginning, I paint the POV character as a strikingly clean white-hat, an innocent. Her adversary is clearly the black-hat, and nobody ever wore a blacker hat than this woman. As time goes on, we find out that that our white-hat isn't quite so sparkly clean, and the black-hat isn't nearly so black as first appeared.

There is a dark undertone to our POV character, and therefore we can't be inside her head all the time or it would be too obvious. At the same time, I want the reader to become more sympathetic to (or at least, intrigued by) the antagonist even when our POV character isn't.

This means a first person POV is unlikely to work, where a third-person limited view provides the necessary mechanisms.