First Person Problems

I like to write in first person. It allows me to tell a story from inside someone's head, with all the associated thoughts, perspective, and missing information that we know from our own experiences. I love the immediacy that it lends to a story, and I enjoy the twists and turns I can throw at a protagonist because of their limited perspective - and when I can surprise the narrator, I know I can surprise the readers, because they don't have any more of a view on the world than the character does.

It has some problems, too. I don't worry about the meta-narrative implications of needing to explain why a story is being told from a first person perspective; I don't need to introduce the narrator as the purported author. I like to think that my readers are smart enough that they don't need an artificial construct to explain why they're reading the story; hopefully they can simply enjoy the tale. But what happens if a protagonist dies? How can the reader be as invested in the story, even if it continues from another viewpoint? That immediacy, that sense of knowing the protagonist from the inside, becomes a bit of a liability when the reader's attunement to the narrator is suddenly thrown aside.

If you've read my first novel and are waiting to read the second, I bet you'd like to know if and how this applies to City of the Lords. Tough luck! I won't tell you! You'll just have to wait and find out yourself! On that topic, City of the Lords just broke 100,000 words today (hooray!). Parts 1 and 2 are finished (at least with the first draft) and Part 3 is probably halfway done. I'm tentatively hoping to push it out in early spring of 2013. Wish me luck!