I'd have to disagree with this. There are advantages to doing first
person -- it unambiguously defines your story's POV, and nothing better
brings out the unique "voice" that you mentioned elsewhere. Yes, it's
hard to do well, but all of this stuff is hard to do well. Doesn't mean
we shouldn't try. ^_^;;

I also disagree. My main fanfic project at the moment is all first person,
but it's based on KOR. Although the TV series  wasn't always first person,
most of it, and both of the movies were narrated by the main character,
Kyosuke. In order to maintain the feel I want, I have to write in first
person. There is no other choice really.

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.

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 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.

Kevin Callahan


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