Comments on: POV and Voice

By: darcy

darcy — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:30:36 +0000

Clive–I prefer writing with a close 3rd person, too. I have done 1st, and it has felt right, but it’s not my first inclination when starting something new.

Darcy

By: darcy

darcy — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 17:29:19 +0000

Liz–

Ah, I thought you might have some special meaning to the “author’s voice.” I do think that novelists have voice characteristics that you can recognize from novel to novel; it’s much like knowing Harrison’s Ford’s voice, even though he varies it somewhat for each character he plays. But even with that, there’s lots of variation in making this novel’s particular voice unique.

Darcy

By: Liz

Liz — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 15:06:24 +0000

WoW! Thank you – you’ve given me a lot to work on and work with. I’m going to print this out and get back to you with answers. =)

As far as ‘author’s voice’ I was reflecting on a statement I read somewhere that readers can tell an author by their ‘voice’ so I was looking at my ms and wondering if the narration had a bit of ‘my’ voice.
Just pondering.

By: Clive

Clive — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:57:47 +0000

I think more people lean towards 1st person because they think it’s easier, plus, published books seem to be leaning towards 1st person at the moment. I don’t think this is necessarily a good thing – I’m not against 1st person – but there are interesting ways to implement 3rd person POV. However good the 1st person voice, it can be limited. 3rd person omniscient is not my favourite. 3rd person of the MC or a strict 3rd person of key characters, which I do not deem the same as omniscient.