Monday, April 23, 2012

First, Second or Third Person?


Do you prefer to write in first, second or third person?
First, sometimes third.




I’ve never even tried to write in second person. In my opinion, writing a novel in second person must be very challenging. I doubt whether it would actually work if I tried it.

Writing from a third person’s point of view is rather challenging to me as well. Whenever I write in third person, I’m afraid I’ll “tell” the story rather than “show” it. Nonetheless, using third person seems to come automatically when I write short stories. I’m not really sure why that is though.

When I’m working on a novel, I definitely prefer to write it in first person. Somehow, to me, this seems easier to capture emotions and feelings. The reason why I prefer to write in first person is probably that, when I write, I try to think like the narrating character. I “become” the character in my thoughts and that’s why writing in first person comes easier.

I think that writing a story in first person is a form of influencing your readers. I’m not sure how much sense this makes, but don’t you think that reading lines like “I feel”, “I think”, “My hand hurts”, “I love him”, “I’m terrified of this”, etc… actually influence your brain into believing you actually feel those things? I think this is what makes (some) stories told from one person’s point of view more powerful.

What I also love about writing and reading in first person is the cluelessness of the narrating character, and how this influences the story. When a story has been written from a third person’s point of view, the author can add more information that makes it clear that the main character interprets things the wrong way, etc… However, when you see the world through the eyes of the narrating character, you can never be completely sure that what the narrating character believes to be the truth is in fact the truth.

Writing in first person adds a little more ‘mystery’ to a story, and, in my opinion, it also makes it easier to make the reader feel your character’s pain, emotions, thoughts, etc…  

Monday, April 16, 2012

Music & Writing


Do you write with music on? Why?
Inspiration

That really depends on how focused I am. Sometimes music keeps me focused on what I’m writing, other times I have to turn it off because it’s too distracting.

Instrumental music, as in: music used in movies, or just any instrumental music in general, is perfect to create a certain feeling while I’m writing. Like when I’m writing something sad, it helps when I’m listening to sad music at the same time. That’s when I prefer instrumental songs because sometimes lyrics get more attention from me than my story. So, if you’re easily distracted like me, but also want to create a certain mood as inspiration to write, I recommend instrumental music over songs with lyrics – especially the very catchy ones. 

However, I always listen to the playlist I create for a particular story before I start writing. Each one of my stories has a separate playlist with songs –instrumental or not- that somehow fit the storyline or feelings of my characters. I also try to visualize scenes to certain songs, that way it is easier to remember later on. All I have to do then is to listen to the right song and I’ll be able to see the whole scene in front of me. 

Basically, when I’m writing it’s either completely silent, or there’s instrumental music playing.

Monday, April 9, 2012

Female or male’s perspective?

Do you prefer to write from a female or male’s perspective?
Not really sure 


If I’m being honest, I haven’t written much from a male’s perspective yet - mostly because so far, I never really had to for any of my stories, so this question is a bit difficult to answer. 

There is this one story I am working on, one that will include quite a bit of parts written from a guy’s point of view, but I only have two chapters of it so far. Nonetheless, I quite like to write from his perspective, but, I’m always afraid that I’m messing it all up. I don’t want any of my characters to look ‘fake’, so I’m really over-thinking every single line I write. 

Sometimes I find it helpful though, to write from one of my other character’s point of view, especially when something’s going on but the main character doesn’t know about it. In my opinion, it helps to keep the facts straight and not to miss anything. But, I don’t really pay much attention to whether I’m portraying that character correctly or not according to his/her gender. When I write like that, it is pure for my eyes only because it helps me to write the story
.
In short, like I stated earlier, I haven’t really much experience with writing from a male’s perspective, nonetheless, I like it, but I’m terrified that I’m doing a horrible job at it.