So I must admit that I was having a bit of a hard time with my new novel. Of course, I didn't want to admit it to you, or to myself really, but things just weren't flowing quite the way I wanted them to, and I couldn't quite pinpoint why that was. Something about my story just seemed off — too quiet, almost lifeless in a way. As a result, my ideas became harder to execute. The excitement of the story started to dwindle.
Then, the other day, when I was sitting in the park waiting for a friend, I took out my notebook and started writing part of a scene. And then the idea came to me. Try the story in first person. Really? I thought. Before I had even started my novel, I carefully contemplated which POV to choose. Ultimately, I'd settled on third person, because of both the age of the target audience and because I felt it might give me more room for necessary description and exposition. Nonetheless, I resolved to experiment with the POV and switch the first scene (about six pages) to see how it felt. Then I'd compare the two, I figured, or ask someone else which they thought was a better fit in the case that I wasn't sure.
So I went home and gave it a shot. I changed the pronouns, verbs, etc. and literally — and I mean, literally — it was like my character suddenly popped off the page and was walking around with a life of his own! He was immediately vibrant and witty. His voice shone through. He became exciting, tangible, active. I was amazed. Shocked, even! I almost felt taken aback. It was as if the character became his own person, apart from me, the writer.
Now, I know this doesn't and won't happen every time I experiment with POV in an already, somewhat established story, but having the willingness to try something new really taught me an important lesson. Changing things up in the middle of a story is scary. There's no way around that. Who wants to try something new when you've worked so hard to establish the given story? And who wants to find that even after trying, something still isn't working? Certainly not me. But crafting a story is fluid, and the willingness and awareness that sometimes things need to change is as essential as the initial idea itself.
The question then becomes, why is it so hard to change? What are we really afraid of? We fear that if a story isn't working, then maybe we should abandon the story altogether; or maybe we start to think that our talent as a writer is not as strong as we thought. But this isn't necessarily true. Of course, I think there are times to walk away from a project, or to realize that an idea is simply underdeveloped, but at the same time, all of our ideas will need a lot of TLC. Hard work and experimentation are part of the process, even when you don't want them to be.
It's okay to try several POVs, or narrators, or focalizers, or starting points, or whatever. Making the story work is ultimately the most important thing. We just need to remember that sometimes that doesn't come as easily as we'd like, and sometimes making it work it involves taking a chance. I'm not saying that the change in POV solved all of my narrative problems, or means that the rest of the book will come easy. There will be other challenges. Of this, I am sure. But it all starts with the willingness to take the chance. Because if I didn't take the chance, I would still be struggling with why my story felt flat. And I might still be in denial about having a hard time, just trying to push forward and get the words onto the page.
Maybe your chance isn't a switch of POV. It might be something big, or it could be something small. But staying open to change leaves you open to opportunity. And you never know what little change could make all the difference — or when your character might just pop off the page to show you he's really alive.
No comments:
Post a Comment