Writer Unboxed

Point of view is one of the first things a writer must consider before starting any novel or short story. The usual choices are first or third person, though some writers vary the approach. Some write in third-person limited to one character’s perspective, some write in third-person omniscient, some use a combination of first or third, and some even write in second person. Of my eight novels, I’ve written four in third person, and four in first person (this isn’t including the two novels Ken Bruen and I have co-written, which are both in third-person). My first-person novels have a similar style, but I’ve mixed up my approach for my third person novels. For example, my latest novel, Lights Out, and my forthcoming novel, The Follower, are both told in third person from multiple points of view. The books with Ken are multiple POV books as well. But Tough Luck and the book I’m currently working are told in third-person from one point of view. 

The decision to write in first-person is easy. I write in first person when I hear the character’s voice from the get-go, when the voice is the most important part of the story. Third person is a little more tricky. It’s more like directing a movie, where you want to have the camera on the most interesting, most important part of the story.  When I’m writing in third person, I usually ask myself, Where is the suspense? Is it more suspenseful to be with this character right now, or is it more suspenseful to leave this character and storyline alone for a while and focus somewhere else? For example, I originally planned to tell Tough Luck from multiple points of view, but after I wrote the first chapter I decided that story would be much more suspenseful and compelling if I stayed with the main character all the way through. Ken and I decided to write our novels Bust and Slide from multiple points of views because we wanted to get as many different voices into the books as we could. 

The difference between third-person from one point of view and first-person is subtle, but significant. Consider two of my favorite all-time suspense novels, Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley and Jim Thompson’s The Killer Inside Me. Highsmith wrote her Ripley novels in third-person from Ripley’s perspective, but Thompson wrote The Killer Inside Me and many of his other novels, in first-person. Thompson’s approach makes us feel more intimate with the narrator, Lou Ford. But in Highsmith you get an eerie distance from Ripley that adds to the suspense. If Highsmith had written Ripley in first-person, the book undoubtedly would have had a much different feel. 

I think I’ve made the right decision to write my new book in third-person, but sometimes it’s a tough call. And the trouble is that once you make the decision and get a couple hundred pages into a book, there’s no turning back. 

Photo courtesy of Elisheba

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