Hi guys! Today I am very excited to welcome J.L. Merrow and Josephine Myles to the blog today! They are here as part of their Hot Pressure Blog Tour for new books The Hot Floor and Pressure Head. Today they are talking to us more about first person POV. Jo and J.L. have also brought a great giveaway! So please join me in giving them a big welcome! (and be sure to check out my reviews for The Hot Floor and Pressure Head)
The case for and against first person narratives.
One of the first choices an author has to make about a new book is the point of view. Who gets to tell the story—one main character alone? The two romantic heroes each getting to put their viewpoint in turn? Some other combination of characters? (In older works, you’ll often find an omniscient narrator, but that’s largely out of fashion these days.)
And… will the story be told in first person (I), or third (he)?
A lot of romance readers are resistant to first person narration. Part of this is probably down to genre expectations—in het romance, for example, it’s usual to have the point of view alternating between hero and heroine, which is extremely hard to pull off in first person—no reader wants to have to continually remind herself which “I” is speaking now.
M/m romance, however, is not so prescriptive, and many might say the better for it.
JL Merrow (Jamie): I’ve always been a fan of the strong first person narrative:
THIS WILL NOT be a funny book. I cannot tell jokes because I do not understand them. Here is a joke, as an example. It is one of Father’s. His face was drawn but the curtains were real. I know why this is meant to be funny. I asked.
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Vintage Childrens Classics) (p. 8). Random House UK. Kindle Edition.
Would The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time have worked so well without its first-person narration? I doubt it. You learn as much about the character from the language he uses to describe things as you do from his actions. (And yes, the way I wrote Muscling Through was undoubtedly influenced by this book, among others.)
First person isn’t without its limitations, though. In getting the story across you’re restricted to what the narrator directly experiences, or is told. In romance, that means the reader’s only insight into the second hero’s state of mind is through what the narrator sees of his actions, hears him saying, and what the narrator might think about them.
But done well, I think, first person narration can add an extra dimension to a romantic story. Isn’t that what real life romance is like—struggling to work out what your partner’s thinking? Does he like me as much as I like him? Can I trust him? Did what I thought I heard/saw mean what I thought it did?
Josephine Myles: I agree that it does put you very much “inside” the romance, as it were. You’re left wondering so many things, and clever authors can hold back all kinds of information about the romantic interest to give the plot intrigue and suspense. I mean, just think what a letdown Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca would have been if Maxim had been given his own point of view sections. Instead, we are left in bewildered ignorance, jumping at shadows, just like the nameless narrator.
I think it’s no coincidence that many of my favourite books are first person narratives, from classics like The Catcher in the Rye, to m/m classics like the Psycops and Adrien English series. I love being invited into the head of someone else, living vicariously through them as they go about their lives, whether that involves chasing down killers, banishing evil spirits, or more mundane things like running away from home.
I’ll admit it, though: my main reason for writing The Hot Floor in the first person was because I couldn’t handle the idea of all the pronoun confusion in a third person m/m/m sex scene!
Why did you choose first person for Pressure Head, Jamie?
Jamie: Well, part of it was my natural preference for first person. I’ve tried writing things in both 1st and 3rd, but for whatever reason, the writing seems to come out more vibrant in first. Also, it’s a murder mystery, so at least genre expectations are on my side there! Although come to think of it, if I’d been determined to conform I’d have made Phil the private investigator the narrator. But hey, I’ve written m/m with a female POV character (Camwolf), so you’d probably be right in thinking conformity isn’t at the top of my agenda.
I really wanted the reader to go along with Tom, my narrator, as he struggles to make sense of things both in the mystery, and in his relationship with Phil. Tom starts out with a lot of misconceptions about Phil – and to some extent, about himself – and first person seemed the best way to show those gradually unravelling. Plus, as you say, writing m/m in first person means the pronouns are a doddle! 😉
Of course, The Hot Floor is m/m/m. Did you ever consider writing it in a three-way alternating third person POV? Or do you think that would be too confusing for the reader?
Jo: Oh yes, I thought about that, but seeing as how even I was confused by the prospect of changing between three points of view, I didn’t see what hope the reader would have! In the end, though, limiting it to Josh’s perspective (the outsider being added to an existing relationship) allowed me to play with his perceptions. I really enjoyed being able to stay in that wistful mode, of being on the outside looking in, and not realising just how important he was becoming to Rai and Evan.
I think that’s one of the real strengths and opportunities in writing in first person: you let your reader go along on a journey with your narrator. You find things out along with them, and you can keep all kinds of mysteries.
The real challenge with the first person romance is in giving your other hero (or heroes) a voice. You’d better hope they’re either a talker, or wonderfully expressive in other ways!
Jamie: Yes, it’s all too easy sometimes to fall in love with your narrator and neglect the other guy! What I tend to do is get the guys talking, although that can be a problem in itself- in my current WIP, I had extreme difficulty in getting them to stop bantering and go to bed!
Which reminds me – it’s probably about time we shut up, isn’t it? 😉
So what do readers think? First person – love it, hate it, or just wondering what all the fuss is about?
Giveaway
Comment to win! Jo and Jamie are both offering a choice of a book from their backlist to one lucky commenter on this post, and all commenters will also be entered into a draw for the grand prize (details here), to be announced on 8th October.
Pressure Head
Some secrets are better left hidden.
When Tom, a plumber with a talent for finding hidden things, is called in to help the police locate the body of a missing woman, he unexpectedly encounters a familiar face. Phil, Tom’s old school crush, now a private investigator working the same case.
Tom’s attraction to the big, blond investigator hasn’t changed—in fact, he’s even more desirable all grown up. But is Phil’s interest genuine, or does he only want to use Tom’s talent? Meanwhile, the evidence around the woman’s murder piles up…while the murderer’s trigger finger is getting increasingly twitchy.
The Hot Floor
Two plus one equals scorching hot fun.
Every time Josh overhears his sexy downstairs neighbors, Rai and Evan, having loud and obviously kinky sex, Josh is overwhelmed with lust…and a longing for a fraction of the love he’s never managed to find. On the night a naked Josh falls—quite literally—into the middle one of Rai and Evan’s marathon sex sessions, the force of their mutual attraction takes control. But just as Josh dares to hope, he senses a change. Leaving him to wonder if the winds of love are about to blow his way at last…or if history is about to repeat itself.
About the Authors
JL Merrow is that rare beast, an English person who refuses to drink tea. She read Natural Sciences at Cambridge, where she learned many things, chief amongst which was that she never wanted to see the inside of a lab ever again. Her one regret is that she never mastered the ability of punting one-handed whilst holding a glass of champagne.
She writes across genres, with a preference for contemporary gay romance and the paranormal, and is frequently accused of humour.
Find JL Merrow online at: www.jlmerrow.com/
English through and through, Josephine Myles is addicted to tea and busy cultivating a reputation for eccentricity. She writes gay erotica and romance, but finds the erotica keeps cuddling up to the romance, and the romance keeps corrupting the erotica. Jo blames her rebellious muse but he never listens to her anyway, no matter how much she threatens him with a big stick. She’s beginning to suspect he enjoys it.
For more information about Jo’s published stories, regular blog posts and saucy free reads, visit JosephineMyles.com.
Main image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
I find that you only really notice the POV if its really bad – lots of changes between characters so you have to flick back to read which character was ‘speaking’ last is v annoying and too many ‘I’ references get tedious too. Generally I’m too caught up in the story to think how its written – sign of a great writer!
Two of my favourite writers, being fellow brit – and I’m a tea drinker like Jo!
Oh, yes – it’s a pet hate of mine, when you’re reading a book and keep forgetting whose head you’re in! As you say, in the hands of a good writer POV is all but invisible.
Glad you’re enjoying our books! 😀
Tea drinkers unite! Good to hear that the quality of the writing matters most. Thanks, Suze 😀
I rarely notice the POV in books. It’s always amazing to see how much work goes into a book that I’m not even aware of.
I guess a good writer is a bit like a swan swimming down a river – calm and serene on the surface (I wish!) but there’s an awful lot of work going on underneath!
One of the things I noticed when I started writing was how much more critically I now read books, but I think a good book can usually be enjoyed on many levels. 🙂
I, too, only tend to notice POV when it’s distracting. I’m kind of glad that that second-person trend that was going for a while has fallen out of favor, for instance (though sometimes it can work).
vitajex(at)aol(dot)com
Second person is something that I think should only be attempted if you’re very, very sure you know what you’re doing! Although saying that, I think most writers are tempted to try it at least once.
I’ve seen it work well for very short pieces, but I find it wearing over something longer.
If it’s an interesting story and well written then I often don’t notice the POV until I come up for air 🙂
I did read the extract for Pressure Head the other week and promptly pre-ordered…it’s now safely downloaded and I’m looking forward to reading it. And having bought the paperback version of Jo’s Barging In at the UK meet I spent a happy few hours re-reading that last night.
pointycat(at)hotmail.co.uk
Isn’t Barging In lovely “in the flesh”? 🙂 The Hot Floor’s cover looks darn nice in big, too!
Hope you enjoy Pressure Head!
Mystery purchaser revealed at last!
So glad you’re enjoying the reread–and you’re in for a treat with Jamie’s Pressure Head, I promise 😀
I have a love/hate relationship with 1st person POV – I’ve never written one, I’m thinking I should try, even though it scares the pants off me LOL. And I’ve read some pretty terrible 1st person POV – which kind of makes me inwardly groan when I realize something I’ve just bought is written in 1st person. But then I’ve read some really great ones, like the Psycop series and Josephine’s Barging In. I just have to get over that initial “ugh, 1st person” and then I usually enjoy it a great deal.
Well, they do say that writers shouldn’t be afraid to leave their comfort zone! So good luck trying the first person. I think you’ll know if it’s working or not for your story. 🙂
This is going to sound terrible, but I only notice the point of view if it is an MC I don’t like! You know how you can read a book and like the couple, but Partner A is such an ass for half of the book? Sometimes I don’t want to be inside the mind of a guy I don’t like! If the guy is an ass with redeeming qualities I am fine! Congrats on the releases to both of you!
Oh, I can sympathise with you there! I wouldn’t want to be in the head of someone I didn’t like, either. I think as writers, we can sometimes forget our readers don’t know our characters like we do, and judge them on first impressions – it’s no good if the guy redeems himself in the second half, if the reader’s already stopped reading!
And thanks for the congratulations! 🙂
This reminds me of something we discussed during the Pressure Head edits, Jamie! 😉
I agree, Juliana–it really isn’t pleasant to be stuck in an unsympathetic narrator’s head. I do have to like my first person narrators.
For books with suspense, mystery etc, the first person POV can work extremely well. The reader only knows what the lead character knows, and is just as confused etc.
I thought the first person POV worked really well in “Muscling Through”, especially in the MCs’ first meeting in the dark alley. (Sooo funny)
Usually, I prefer knowing what the two main characters are thinking or feeling. But, the POV doesn’t stop me from enjoying the book, if the POV is done well.
strive4bst(At) yahoo(Dot) com
Yes, I think writing a mystery in alternating third person must leave a writer feeling her brain’s been tied in knots, trying to keep track of who knows what!
Glad you enjoyed Muscling Through! 😀
I’m another who doesn’t understand what the fuss is about – until it’s badly done and I’m pulled out of the story. If it’s well done I don’t care whose POV is used. I suppose I can sympathise with those who have a strong dislike of a particular POV because I really dislike books written in the present tense, so I can how a style could matter to a reader.
I noticed the other day when I was reading that the author was quite cleverly switching the POV just when it would have been too revealing to continue with the same person as narrator. But I don’t mind at all if there’s a POV switch, as long as it’s clear and seamless. (In the book I was reading it switched with each chapter, so was easy to follow.)
I can’t pass up the opportunity of commenting on how Jamie made superb use of a restricted POV in Muscling Through – the reader learnt so much about Al through the language he used and his interpretation of events, and it was fascinating to work out what Larry was thinking and assuming by seeing him through Al’s often confused eyes. It made what was already a good story really excellent and memorable, and should be used in writing classes as an example of how a certain structure and approach cam make all the difference to the end result (without being mannered or too clever).
I’ve got to agree, HJ–in my mind Muscling Through just wouldn’t have worked with an alternating POV. We needed to be in Al’s head and the story would have been very, very different (and nowhere near as good) if we’d seen Al from the outside.
I would love to see Jamie’s books being used as a teaching tool. She’s definitely got the talent!
I’m blushing now! 😉 So glad you enjoyed Muscling Through – I had a great time writing it, and looking at the world through Al’s eyes.
Interesting that you mention present tense. I find that a similar issue to POV – if it’s well done, I seem to develop a sort of blindness to it, and it doesn’t bother me at all. But I can see how it might be a problem for some, and like second person, it works better for shorter pieces.
I agree totally that any change in POV has to be unambiguous. There’s nothing worse than having to stop reading a story to check things like whose head you’re in!
For me present tense is the hardest to deal with. First person doesn’t bother me but present tense can feel very awkward. My favorite present tense book is Resistance by L.M. Turner, but it always takes me a while to settle into it each time I reread.
I don’t shy away from first person but I agree that it has to be done really well or I don’t feel like I get to know both characters. But when it’s well done, the story is so much richer for really delving into one character’s journey 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway!
smaccall AT comcast.net
Hi Sarah! I know exactly what you mean about the story being richer that way, done well. I also love writing first person. The words seem to flow much easier than they do in third, as the character’s voice takes over my head.
I have no particular preference for first or third person, it depends entirely on what’s appropriate for the book. First person would never work in anything by Dickens or Tolkien, for example, because there’s simply way too much going on in their stories for one character to see even a tenth of it. But there’s an intimacy and immediacy in first-person writing that third-person never quite captures.
Agreed–it wouldn’t be the best choice for a sprawling epic of a novel, where multiple viewpoints are needed to show the richness of a setting.
Intimacy is one of the key things for me when reading first person, and I do have to enjoy the narrator to want to spend that time in their head. Perhaps that’s why some readers don’t like it–they’ve had a bad experience with a narrator they didn’t get along with.
I am a huge fan of first person narration. It adds immediacy and urgency to a tale — rather like the hand-held camera technique for movie making….think The Blair Witch Project. First person puts you into the action in a way that third person can never quite achieve.
This promotional blog tour is a great idea. I hope it does well for you, and I’m crossing my fingers to win a backlist book from either one of you!
I hope you get a chance to win a book too! There are plenty of prizes in this tour 🙂
I like the Blair Witch analogy. I found that film really difficult to watch precisely because it puts you right into the action. For scary films, I clearly prefer to have a bit of distance to separate me from what’s going on.
I used to hate it. My daughter never got that because so much YA is written in first person. I would literally steer clear of books with first person. Now I’m very much “whatever”. It’s not even a consideration and unless I think about it, I don’t really notice. Weirdly I even wrote one. Go figure. 🙂 As long as the story is good it’s fine. Yes, sometimes I want to know what the other guy is thinking but not always and third person can leave you with the same feeling if you only get one POV.
Good point, Tam! I’ve read plenty of third person books where the POV is restricted to one character, which seems like an odd choice considering how much easier (to me) it would have been to write in first, or to alternate POV with the other character. Still, those writers must have good reason to do so, even if I don’t always understand why 🙂
I enjoy first person tremendously if it is well written–the PsyCop and Adrien English series are two fine examples. Both of these reveal complex, flawed yet appealing characters who are often insecure, frequently wrong, and sometimes clueless about their own appeal. As a fan of both Myles and Merrow, I loved the first person POV in Barging In and Hard Tail. Well written first person is tasty, rich and satisfying. Poorly written first person leaves you hungry for less.
“Hungry for less” – LOL! Yes, I know what you mean and I read one like that recently that utterly failed to wow me. So glad to hear our stories have worked for you 🙂
I love it when narrators are clueless about their own appeal. That’s great fun to read and write, as you can play with showing just how out of kilter their self-awareness is.
Yes, I totally agree. And it takes a good author to show you how the non-POV character really feels about his partner when you don’t get to see inside his head. That is the sign of a well done book.
I LOVE 1st person narrators, but only when they are done extremely well and usually in a witty manner. This is why I’m not sure I could pull off 1st person quote so well. I enjoy writing immensely, and often am decent at it; however, I don’t think I can pull off witty, humorous dialogue–at least on paper again and again. It just comes off blah! So I really enjoy it when others can!
Hi Ann! Wit does help immensely with a first person narrative, I agree. It does get easier with practice, though, so don’t write it off as a possibility for your writing in the future 🙂
Writing is definitely a learning curve, so don’t lose hope! Having said that, I think there’s a lot of merit in writing in the way which comes naturally to you, rather than trying to write in a way you’re not so comfortable with. 🙂
Depends…sometimes its almost to one-sided…you know what they say ‘there are 3 sides to every story…’
chellebee66(at)gmail(dot)com
I know what you mean. I’d love to know more of Jacob’s perspective in the PsyCop books, for instance (and Crash’s), but I’m glad Jordan wrote them they way she did as I don’t think they’d have had half the impact in third person.
You can pretty much guarantee that every first person book will leave some readers wanting another perspective–it’s a real challenge to bring over the other character’s POV with just dialogue and actions.
I LOVE the psy cops series and I think one of the reasons it works so well is the first person POV. JCP does what I was talking about above and really gives you a feel for Jacob and his thoughts even though we don’t ever get his POV. It is clear how much he cares about Vic and how attractive he finds him. Plus, I love VIc’s voice. I think sometimes with multiple POVs you lose that sense of voice from a really interesting character.
I’m a total PsyCop fangirl, and I think JCP did a fabulous job with the POV there. I know I wouldn’t have found the stories half as intense and engaging if they’d been written in alternating third.
It always depends for me… but I think I like a 3rd approach that gives a hint of what each chara is thinking/feeling. I do find that every now and then I like 1st more but It just depends the book I guess… I think I will always have mixed feelings about this but at least I’m happy to say that so far at the end of every book I’m happy with what POV it was told in. 1st, 2nd or 3rd… I love them. And for me… that’s all that matters. xD
Judi
arella3173_loveless(at)yahoo(dot)com
I think a lot of readers do prefer alternating third, particularly in romance, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. It’s great that you’re open to trying other approaches too! 🙂
I prefer writing longer stories in limited third person, but I think a good writer is one who can pull anything off. For instance I only remember that Charlie Stross wrote some of his books in second person because of all the discussions I’ve been involved in about him being that rare author who can pull it off for an entire novel.
Alternating first person tends to jar me more commonly than anything else, but again a good writer can make it work.
Hmmm… I’d agree a good writer should, ideally, be able to make anything work, but I’m not sure they’ll make it work for everyone. I think things like second person and alternating first can be done extremely well, but they’ll always require some effort on the part of the reader. I guess it depends whether your intent is to showcase your skill & win literary acclaim or entertain the maximum number of people! 😉
Will have to check out Charlie Stross!
I read a novel that’s half in fourth person (we did this, we did that) – Broke Heart Blues by Joyce Carol Oates. She just about pulls it off, but you do feel kind of detached from the characters.
Jo and J.L. have picked the winners for their tour and we are lucky enough to have two from Joyfully Jay.
Congratulations to Suze for winning an item from each of the authors’s back lists! And congratulations to Urb for winning the tour grand prize of a whole bunch of great goodies!
Thanks again to Jo and J.L. for stopping by the blog and thanks to everyone who entered!