From: KLEPPE@execpc.com (Gary Kleppe)
To: fanfic@fanfic.com
Subject: Re: [FFML] [question] 1st/3rd person narratives
Date: Fri, 07 Nov 1997 22:44:29 GMT

On Fri, 07 Nov 1997 12:21:13 PST, "Soren Smith" <freemage@hotmail.com>
wrote:

B)  Characterization.  In FF's this is even more important.  When a 
story is told first-person, every action the narrator takes is 
amplified, so that even slightly OOC behavior is blown out of 
proportion.  Even the style of narration has to be IC (a number of 

Ranma 

fics told from Ranma's POV forget about this, giving him a level of 
self-awareness he rarely displays).  Unless told as a distant 
retrospective, characters should use the same ``voice'' that they use 

in 

the source material.

Gotta disagree with ya here. The way people talk is not always the way
they think. Ranma IMO presents a certain face to the world because
that's what he's confortable having people see him as. I do believe 

he's

capable of a greater self-awareness than you'd know from his usual
dialog, even if he'd rather not admit it to someone else or even to
himself.

I was being unclear.  I agree that ``internal thoughts'' are different 
than public speech.  However, most 1st-person fics are written as if the 
narrator is talking to the reader, or writing in a journal.  All I meant 
was that the narrator's POV must be constantly accounted for, even in 
emotional terms.  For instance, in a Kodachi 1st-person fic, other 
characters are going to be interpreted by how she views them--If the fic 
takes the ``canon'' view of Kodachi, then everything that Akane does is 
going to be cast in the worst light, by default.  If there is an attempt 
to add to the character's depth, then the difference is what needs to be 
accounted for.

--Freemage

Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics

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