Changing point of view??

[Sonsie MeadowsParticipant]

Here I am in the fourth week of writing, and suddenly this morning, I feel like changing from third person to first person. What kind of rework am I making for myself? Agh… to do or not to do. (Quoting Yoda.)

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

I guess the question you might ask yourself is why do you want to change it? (If the rest of the books in the series lean one way or the other, I’d probably follow the main books, but that’s not a hard rule).

 

My suggestion would be to test a scene of it in the version you haven’t tried yet, and see which one you like better. The main thing is that you’ll have to watch for changes in POV when you’re making revisions, because those are likely to be sneaky if you’ve gotten used to writing in a different POV.

[Sonsie MeadowsParticipant]

Thanks, Stephanie. Here’s the situation…

The series (mysteries, 2 books so far, working on the 3rd) has my protagonist staying in a small fishing village in Scotland. The local shop is the hub of the village. The books are written in 3rd person, and I have written this ‘cookie’ that way. But it is really from the point of view of the shopkeeper and only what she sees, hears about my protagonist as she solves a small crime. It is a separate story, alongside the first part of the first book.

So I was thinking that have the shopkeeper see, hear, etc directly as first person might be more appropriate.

I’m going to do as you suggest, and try a scene or two to see if it works.  Thanks!

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

If you’re leaning toward it being a convertible cookie, my first thought is you may want to go ahead and keep writing it in third person, that way new readers are getting a taste of what to expect in the related series. (Especially if that series is already doing well).

 

However, I’m also not familiar with the tropes of mysteries, so having a first person cookie might be fine (or even be exactly what readers would want). And with you leaning in closer to the shopkeeper, maybe it’d be fun to really get in and see the shopkeeper’s POV.

Or if first person is common in mysteries, then maybe that kind of cookie will help lead in readers who wouldn’t be as interested in third person, but will develop an interest in your world and characters through the cookie and go on to read the rest of the series out of curiosity, even if they might not have originally picked it up.

 

If it’s meant to be more of a cookie for existing readers, then I’d think you have a little more leeway to do whichever feels the most fun and exciting.

 

Good luck with the test scenes! Hopefully those will help you decide which version feels like the better decision. 😀

[Sonsie MeadowsParticipant]

Hi Stephanie,

I took your advice and did a couple of pages , and sent both versions to a trusted ARC reader. She much preferred the first person one, so I revised the whole thing… not too arduous because it’s just a little over 6000 words now. It will probably finish about 7500.

I’m happy with the change and thanks for your help.

[Stephanie FlintParticipant]

Awesome, I’m glad testing a couple pages worked out for you. 😀

Good luck with the rest of the story!

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