On First Person and Fanfic
I was going to write a rare personal post, but I seem to have lost the ability to talk about myself except to blurt out TMI pity party crap on Twitter like "so restless, ugh" or "I can't write!!!" (These are not direct quotes, but they may as well be.) Taking a Twitter hiatus has been good for me. I think. I'm really quite terrible at assessing my own emotions or knowing what is, in fact, good for me, and that's one reason I've gone back to therapy. The therapist I'm seeing takes a cognitive-behavioral approach and also makes me do a lot of work--there's a lot of recursive stuff, looking back on things I've just said and contextualizing/interpreting them, and sometimes I'm frustrated and think I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT PATTERNS THAT'S EVIDENCE OF but then when I really think about it I actually do.
Well, look at that, I've actually talked about myself.
And that actually fits in (sorta?) with what I wanted to talk about in this post, which is POV in writing and especially in fanfic. I'm currently writing a fic in first person (it's not for Inception, don't worry), and in order to do so I had to overcome a lot of internalized norms like "YOU NEVER WRITE A FIC IN FIRST PERSON! NEVER! NEVARRRRRRRRrr". I've had a number of conversations with people about this, and heard a lot of different interpretations for this rule, but I've never really heard an explanation that made me think "oh, OK, I understand; first person in fanfic really is a bad idea."
-Someone (I forget who) once said that it depends on the source material. For example, in Inception fandom, writing in first person seems "off" because canon isn't from any one person's perspective. It's a really interesting idea, and might explain some of the resistance to first person. But it might also be argued that fanfic is about giving us alternate perspectives on canon. Just by virtue of the fact that fanfic is a different medium than film, we get a different kind of interiority. I have never seen a fic that attempted to give us a "camera-eye" view; they're always anchored to one character's perspective. So what makes third-person limited, where we get only one character's POV, replete with unspoken thoughts and perceptual biases, so different from first person? Does third person give us more of an illusion of objectivity? (I think it might.) And is first person fic more acceptable in fandoms like The Hunger Games where the source canon is in first person? The fic I'm writing is based on a canon that's mostly first person, and I had a much easier time getting into the character's headspace and way of speaking if I wrote in first.
-First person also has a pretty bad rap as "self-inserty", although I've found that self-insertion is every bit as likely in third.
-Is the proscription against first person more of a "don't do this unless you're a highly skilled writer" rule? First person does tend to come out as more conversational; I find I end up starting a lot more sentences with "I", and my sentences are often sketchier, more repetitive. Third person, on the other hand, is more impersonal, removed, formal, both linguistically and syntactically. But I find that sometimes this "weakness" of first person can also be its strength. As an experiment, I switched a third person scene into POV, and writing that had been stilted and sluggish now felt much more vibrant and immediate. I also find that summarizing unimportant events is much less awkward in first person.
-One of the obstacles I've found to writing in first person is, well, my own prudery. In the fic I'm currently writing, everything was going swimmingly until I got to the sex scene. And then my inner censor was like "WHAT? YOU CAN'T WRITE ABOUT IT LIKE IT'S YOUR COCK! YOU CAN'T JUST COMMANDEER SOMEONE'S COCK LIKE THAT!' *turns beet red*" So at first I tried switching it into third person, but that just didn't work at all (see above issue with stilted prose). So, my cock it is.
-Is it because we want to see the characters' names next to each other? There is something very satisfying about that; reading "Arthur sucked Eames's cock" is much more viscerally satisfying than "I sucked Eames's cock" (forgive the blatantly hamhanded example; this is not an actual excerpt.)
AS ALWAYS, I want to hear your ideas.
And for the record, I really like second person too.
Well, look at that, I've actually talked about myself.
And that actually fits in (sorta?) with what I wanted to talk about in this post, which is POV in writing and especially in fanfic. I'm currently writing a fic in first person (it's not for Inception, don't worry), and in order to do so I had to overcome a lot of internalized norms like "YOU NEVER WRITE A FIC IN FIRST PERSON! NEVER! NEVARRRRRRRRrr". I've had a number of conversations with people about this, and heard a lot of different interpretations for this rule, but I've never really heard an explanation that made me think "oh, OK, I understand; first person in fanfic really is a bad idea."
-Someone (I forget who) once said that it depends on the source material. For example, in Inception fandom, writing in first person seems "off" because canon isn't from any one person's perspective. It's a really interesting idea, and might explain some of the resistance to first person. But it might also be argued that fanfic is about giving us alternate perspectives on canon. Just by virtue of the fact that fanfic is a different medium than film, we get a different kind of interiority. I have never seen a fic that attempted to give us a "camera-eye" view; they're always anchored to one character's perspective. So what makes third-person limited, where we get only one character's POV, replete with unspoken thoughts and perceptual biases, so different from first person? Does third person give us more of an illusion of objectivity? (I think it might.) And is first person fic more acceptable in fandoms like The Hunger Games where the source canon is in first person? The fic I'm writing is based on a canon that's mostly first person, and I had a much easier time getting into the character's headspace and way of speaking if I wrote in first.
-First person also has a pretty bad rap as "self-inserty", although I've found that self-insertion is every bit as likely in third.
-Is the proscription against first person more of a "don't do this unless you're a highly skilled writer" rule? First person does tend to come out as more conversational; I find I end up starting a lot more sentences with "I", and my sentences are often sketchier, more repetitive. Third person, on the other hand, is more impersonal, removed, formal, both linguistically and syntactically. But I find that sometimes this "weakness" of first person can also be its strength. As an experiment, I switched a third person scene into POV, and writing that had been stilted and sluggish now felt much more vibrant and immediate. I also find that summarizing unimportant events is much less awkward in first person.
-One of the obstacles I've found to writing in first person is, well, my own prudery. In the fic I'm currently writing, everything was going swimmingly until I got to the sex scene. And then my inner censor was like "WHAT? YOU CAN'T WRITE ABOUT IT LIKE IT'S YOUR COCK! YOU CAN'T JUST COMMANDEER SOMEONE'S COCK LIKE THAT!' *turns beet red*" So at first I tried switching it into third person, but that just didn't work at all (see above issue with stilted prose). So, my cock it is.
-Is it because we want to see the characters' names next to each other? There is something very satisfying about that; reading "Arthur sucked Eames's cock" is much more viscerally satisfying than "I sucked Eames's cock" (forgive the blatantly hamhanded example; this is not an actual excerpt.)
AS ALWAYS, I want to hear your ideas.
And for the record, I really like second person too.