Choose Your Viewpoint - And Stick With It!

Before you start to write, you must decide upon which viewpoint you will tell your story.  For new writers it may seem easier to tell a story from a "first person" viewpoint -  in other words, telling a story "as it happened to them".  It's easy to see why as this seems the easiest way to go about it - particularly if the writer has had a personal experience that could be developed into a good story.  To help you understand this, think about your last holiday.   Think about how easy it would be to describe what you did.  I am sure that you would agree that this would be very easy.  Not only can you describe what you did, you can also describe how you felt, what you saw, what you heard and how this had an affect on your overall experience of any given situation.  Now think for a moment about your friends or your family that you went on holiday with.  Try and describe what they did, how they felt and what they saw.  This is of course writing in the "third person".  This sounds a little more difficult doesn't it? - unless of course you were really paying attention (In which case 10 out of 10 for character observation!).

The trouble is, the former of these two examples, writing in the "first person" can become a very difficult way to write.  It is an easy trap to fall into as it seems so straightforward at the beginning and the easier of the two.  Whilst writing in the first person does have the advantage that it gives full intimacy with the main character, there is also an  important and limiting difficulty with using "first person" which is this:    Whether you choose to be the main character, or a subsidiary character telling the story, you can only describe what you saw, what you heard and what you thought.  You cannot know anything else that happened "off stage" - unless you were told about it and you must report it in those terms.  This sets you apart from the action if you are not the main character, and it is important for children to immerse themselves in the action.  

Neither of these two viewpoints are right or wrong.  What is important is that you choose the viewpoint that best suits your story.  Whose eyes and voice will you be using?  Whichever you choose, first person or third person, you MUST cointinue with it.  Changing viewpoint during a story is one of the quickest ways to mark out an amateur writer.  Think hard before you start, choose your viewpoint - and stick with it!