Am I a worse writer for only wanting to write in first person?

This is ment no way to attack the genre, but I see that there is a load of feminine based girly books (yes im a man sorry for any offense but i don't know how else to explain lol) about being a model or sex in the city type novels that are normally in 1st person. I think, in my own chauvinistic way, I'm trying to say light reading novels seem to be in first person more.

Wow that's a pretty good hole I dug there. Again I apologise . (not sexist)

 

Hmmm...1st person = light reading? That generalization sounds almost as valid as "there are no pianos in Japan."

Catcher in the Rye (Salinger)
The Stranger (Camus)
A Farewell to Arms (Hemingway)
Mexico (Michener)
Inside, Outside (Wouk)

I wouldn't call any of those "light" reading (although there are some chuckles to be had in the Wouk book).

 

Isn't Moby Dick in the first person? (Call me Ishmael. Some years ago -- never mind how long precisely -- having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.)

 

And there ain't anything light about Moby Dick! lol

 

Lol Yeah, no the older books in 1st person are some heavy stuff, but what I mean is the new light reading books that are coming into the market now are more in the 1st person genre. Classics granted, but def gonna google Japanese piano tuner lol.

 

Writing in first person is for freaks and weirdos. You must never write in first person. It is the eighth deadly sin. It will cause anyone who reads it to die a tragic death. You will be shunned by the entire writing community and be forced to live in a snow-cave in the Himalayas.

 

This brings up a good point, JJ, because I was going to put "Moby Dick" on the list, along with a couple of others, but I decided against it because Ishmael is not the main character. There a number of works in which the narrator is included in the story as a minor character, and so the reader has the sense of being told the story by someone who was "there". Alice McDermott's "That Night", Harper Lee's "To Kill A Mockingbird" and John Neufeld's "Lisa Bright and Dark" are all examples of this type. Come to think of it, I wouldn't call any of those light reading, either.

 

I think it's fine just to write in first person. Some consider it a confinement, but for those who love to play with form, 1st person works just fine: for example, look at the bulk of The Sound and the Fury, which is 1st person until the last quarter of the novel.
However, just because it's first-person does not mean it's the author in the story. I've always kept a quote in mind that I think came from Pete Townshend. To paraphrase, "You truly become a great writer when you learn to write about someone besides yourself." A humbling statement we can all benefit from returning to at times.

I wish you the best of luck with your future output.

 

LOL I've started something now. But in my defense what i mean is that most of the newly released light reading novels I've seen are 1st person, (i'm not taking into account older classics just the newer light reading that has come onto the scene, granted there are plenty of heavier 1st person books, but im just staying within the light reading area, i can see where my first post could cause confusion). Now to throw something into the mix......(evil laugh)......How many 2nd person books can you think of?

 

Hey I remember those haha now that's a blast from the past, they still selling those? I remember all huddled round a book with dice, finding out which page we turned to lol.

 

And my point, all kidding aside, was that it isn't a meaningful sample.

 

You're not a bad person for always writing in the first person. But you are missing out if you never write in the third person. I'll explain.

In the late 80's, game publisher Games Workshop published some surprisingly well-written novel set in their Warhammer fantasy world. One novel, Zaragoz, involved a traveling minstrel who is asked by his host/captor to tell the tale of when the minstrel had visited the town of Zaragoz. When the minstrel began his tale, he spoke of himself in the third person. His "host" asked him why he did that and the minstrel replied that to tell his tale with accuracy, he needs to distance himself from the events lest he try to puff himself up.

Writing in the third person can lend you a bit of perspective on your main character. You can see them for the unlikable frauds they really are, and hopefully figure out how to correct that. It can be a useful tool to improve your work, even if your finished product remains in the first person.

 

Actually, Choose Your Own Adventure books didn't require dice. You simply needed to make a choice and then turn to the numbered passage. The ones that used dice or another randomizer are typically called solo gamebooks. There were several published during the 80's, such as the Lone Wolf series, but the genre seems to have died out because of Game Boys.

I just realized what a nitpicky nerd this makes me.