The real problem with first person is that most stories are difficult

to

tell from only one character's POV.

In this case, I've had no problem, since the series is told from one

character's POV, but I can see where that can become a problem,
especially
if it's a long fanfic or a series of fics. I don't think it's quite as
problematic with shortfics.

	Also note that this is not necessarily a hard restriction.  My
current piece (End of Days) alternates between three first-person
viewpoints.  I'm not sure I've actually achieved the effect I've
intended, but you can see the same idea used by professional authors in
McCafferty's One Heart or Heinlein's Number of the Beast.

You either have to change the
narrator for some of it, which can get very confusing, or you're

limited

in what you can show.

Sometimes limiting your narrator also helps to limit your reader so

you can surprise them. You may not want your reader to know anything
more than
character.
	
	I find the biggest limitation of first person is the inability
to give personality to the antagonist.  If you're writing a story with a
villain, it's hard to get a really memorable one in first person -- the
format tends to flatten all the characters except for the narrator.

I remember getting to the end of my first first
person fanfic and then realizing that for dramatic reasons I *had* to
show a scene at which the narrator character *couldn't* possibly have
been present; I had to cheat and have him say "I wasn't there for

this,

but they told me about it later."

I try to avoid that, or if I have to let the reader on something like

that,
I'll put it in another character's dialogue.

	If you need to resort to a trick like that, having it be in
dialogue is definitely a good idea.  There's a variety of other cop-outs
available, depending on the genre -- surveillance tapes, magical
scrying, out-and-out dream visions, etc.  Basically, though, it
shouldn't be necessary, since the story should revolve around the
narrator as much as possible.

	I think that third-person-past plus character thought in
first-person-present is still my favorite format, but I've enjoyed
writing End of Days and a couple of other first-person pieces.  First
person can be fun.


Django Wexler (khaine)
khaine@mindless.com

	"Biting a man's arm for patting you doesn't 
sound very friendly."
	"Yeah?  Last man who tried to pat Big Fido,
they only ever found his belt buckle."
	"Yes?"
	"And that was in a tree."
	-Terry Prattchet, Men At Arms


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