I'm writing a novel that is entirely in first person, so far. please tell me how to include a chapte

Steerpike · Sep 4, 2015

Cogito said: ↑

You really shouldn't do that in a first-person novel. The whole point of the first person narrative is to explicitly restrict the perspective to what that character knows, or thinks she knows, at each moment in time.

That's the only significant difference between a first person story and a third person story focused on the central character. Breaking that restriction will make the reader feel cheated or dissatisfied, even if the reader doesn't understand exactly why.
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Except there are first person novels that do just that - switch to third person POVs at times. Even those where the original first-person POV narrator dies and the narration switches over. Some of them are pretty popular books, too, so it seems to me a significant number of readers aren't bothered by this so long as they author does a good job of it.

outsider · Sep 4, 2015

Wreybies said: ↑

If you really must have this, and the conversation is genuinely outside the POV character's knowledge, you may just have to risk the discontinuity. In China Miéville's Perdidio Street Station there are at least two (perhaps three) smallish chapters that drop out of the 3rd person POV of the rest of the novel and slip into a 1st person POV of one of the characters, a garuda named Yagharek. Those discontinuous chapters are presented in all italics.
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You didn't just just use the 'I' word did you?
He did, I think he used the 'I' word.

Wreybies · Sep 4, 2015

outsider said: ↑

You didn't just just use the I word did you?
He did, I think he used the I word.
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Ha. Took me a second to twig.

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I'm writing a novel that is entirely in first person, so far. please tell me how to include a chapte

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I'm writing a novel that is entirely in first person, so far. please tell me how to include a chapte

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