I've got notebooks full of those... I've started using first person more. It does give the sort of intimacy with the character that's really good, but I'm also thinking about switching from view point to view point. I haven't really written anything of worth so far though. All my old rough drafts are third person. I want to get into the characters heads better. A good idea to have a first/third narrator is like in Sherlock Holmes: Have Watson tell the story. I used to always right essays for school in a sort of second person, instructive tone (You do blah blah bah) and so I tried writing a story in second person... My friend told me to stop telling him what to do. Cogito said something about puppets, and hands up people's butts...
Active narator? Sounds like a production of Candid I saw a while back, quite funny actually, the doctor, yes, I can't remember his name, was the narator, and each time he was on stage a guy with a bright yellow shirt that read 'alternate narator' turned up. Second person, that's not exactly the best way to write a story, it takes too much time to get right. And you get that nasty manipulated feeling, not good. As for plot bunnies, I think I have megabytes full of them, damn the way they breed.
I know plot bunnies well. If you think of your story as a living thing (metaphor) think of it as meeting other parts of the story, or Ideas, having little bunny babys wiggling around and taking over your writing mind. I find that you need to really focus and not run after plot bunnies. It takes a lot of discipline. I am very much a person who believes in sticking with the outline.
I'm writing a first person present story and I actually have very few "I" sentances. I cant take present for very long, but it is only a 2 page story so I thought I'd try it. The trick, I think, is to let the character talk about something he/she sees-- not what she thinks about it. Not I walked down the street, But something like, "The street twisted between the hill and an industrial park. On a far knoll (I could see, which you can omit) a clump of willow trees swayed in the dusk." (or something) Then not, I met Jenny, but Jenny skipped toward me swinging her book bag... and not I thought she looked nice, but her hair was neatly trimmed and her blue shirt brought out the color of her eyes. I have ommitted all the I's in that small paragraph, and yet 4 personal observations which could have started with "I". I walked down the street I could see I met jenny I think she looked nice
I know what you're saying and I agree but the problem is when you're describing actions of the character or his/her background. What my aim of the story was: Tell a story in one scene in as few words as possible. (i tried to get under 500 words but couldn't.) Basically, I had to give the story of someone whose waiting for his friends to return who he pulled off a heist with, though they don't return. He's dwelling on the fact he knows his time is up and he leaves the inn to be killed by someone hired to kill him. Then I switch over to the killer to give his perspective on the scene. I had 586 words to write that in. Just enough time to give a few details on what happened and about the characters. Very little in those details I might add. The moral being: You rarely get away with any wrong doing. (oddball piece but it was only for practise.)
With me, nothing written in a book is arbitrary, everything serves a purpose. Novels are based on ancient systems of Evidence. If you were in court trying to prove a certain point, you would not be able to always change your story. You need to use each detail. I pull the plot together by keeping a firm grounding with an outline. I learn and know my characters first. I have tried it the other way-- If you read my intro, I've written 7 novels, all but 2 garbage. That's 7 years of training (actually about 10). I've learned that you need an outline. You need to commit to the scene and not change it. There are a lot of rules, not a free for all. It is like a sport or something. Football is not poker. You can have a small amount of play in your scenes, but not a lot. Save that for another story. You can write a dozen short stories from the left over material. There is also no rule that says you cant write 5 books about "deep sea diving," or whatever you are into. So the first rule is: make a plan and stick with it. Finish it and move on to another plan. My inspiration comes from real people' real events. Usually people who do a certain job or live a different life-style. I actually do start with people first, but then I start working with the plot, and the plot is driven by what I found out about the people. I become a "fan" and "obsessed" with certain vocations. I love people who build their own airplanes and houses and boats. I love people who work with horses or dogs. I like athletes who compete in small sports like bike riding, speed skating, horse racing, sports where people do not get rich. I like painters and artists. I like old fashioned hippies, and also people who belong to earth religions. I create a world where I find good stories. I don't go looking in random places, I look in My World but I keep my world informed and up to date. So what I write starts as non-fiction. I then find out what can go wrong. What are the obstacles. What can I do to create unusual obstacles. I have a philosophy that the thing people see as the "story" is actually the end of the story. That a man shot the girlfriend is not the story. The story is what led up to the shooting. The shooting is just the "climax" of the chain of events. I look backwards for the logical chain, trying to keep it as interesting and different as I can. So when I look for a story I look at the "thing that happened" then I put it on the last part of the outline. I think a lot of beginners start with the "thing that happened." I had to think about this for a long time to see I was guilty of the same thing. Look at any story, and you will see it is true. Thats why I always tell people you need to plot backwards. Find the thing that happened and then write the logical steps that led to that thing. I think the best way to proceed with an idea is to write it down and really look at it and determine if it is a beginning, an event in the middle of something, or an end. I looked at the event I started this novel with and realized it was buried somewhere in the middle of the book. When you are just starting to write a novel, your daily work seems very important, but get 2-300 pages where it takes you days to read it out loud and you find they are only as important as what they DO. Your scenes must have a function or they are just disposable padding. If they don't work, throw them away and re-write.
When I plot a novel, by the time I'm actually done with it, it's MUCH longer and the plot took an entirely different swing. I still get from point A to point B, but the steps along the way are drastically different. I like to suprise myself when I write, I think most authors do! Creativity is not a planned out kinda thing. Spontaneous creativity is usually the best in my opinion. Just make sure EVERYTHING serves a purose in the story. Don't ever add a plot element into the story that doesn't somehow play into the story later. Such as, if your character gets a laptop computer for his birthday, he'd sure as hell better use it at some point in the story to progress the story. That being said, nothing gets a novel done faster than just sitting your butt down in the chair and writing it! A rough plotline is good to have, but don't expect to follow it. If your characters say, "Hey you! *Clank clank!* You on the other side of the screen! I think we should go THIS direction! Wouldn't that be more fun? We can even tie it into that other thing later!" then you need to listen to them. They are usually right! Skip
The question is who's going to be the boss? If the answer is your characters, the writing will be slow, filled with redos, digressions, If the answer is you, were you start doesn't matter. You know your beginning, you know middle, you know your end. Or as the King of Hearts said, in Alice in Wonderland, "Start at the beginning; when you get to the end stop."
