I have a pet peeve about first person
point-of-view.
I find there are a fair number of books
that rely heavily on telling, rather than showing:
I’m told
a male lead is hot, sexy and caring, even though his actions are shown as
manipulative, cruel and insincere.
I’m told
a female lead is tough, even though she is shown as indecisive, passive and
reactive.
This inability to look past actions makes
me a terrible mind control candidate. I judge by what I see rather than what
I'm told. I guess you could call me a "visual reader". You'll probably
find "visual writers" penning movies, TV shows, comics or graphic
novels.
I have enjoyed many books where the writer
is being contrary on purpose. Sadly, there are just as many books where there
is no supporting evidence to signpost this intention.
I can’t say this method is storytelling is
wrong. There are dozens of books on bestseller lists (both-legacy and self-published)
that do this. But, I've also read just as many first person books that are able
to propel a story and characterisation forward visually, without having to tell
me who the characters are.
So how can a teller become a seer?
There are many valuable tools for writers,
but it wasn't until I wrote a screenplay that I really started to understand show-don't-tell
in prose.
In screenplays, you only write what you see
and hear. It's like plonking your novel in a sensory deprivation chamber. The
kind Uncle Walter is so fond of. Your readers no longer have an ESP plug into
the characters heads, which makes it vital that everything they say and do
speaks for them. And you can't cheat by having everyone just say what they are
thinking. You'd have to add "crazy" and "overly dramatic"
to the character descriptions of every single one of your characters.
Writing a screenplay makes it easier to
spot the problems.
If you rewrite your 300-page novel as a
movie, and you can only manage 20 pages of story, then you'll know you are
spending too much time in your character's heads.
A character-driven story can still have a satisfying
beginning, middle and end, complete with stakes, obstacles, climaxes and
resolutions. First person point-of-view doesn't replace this or make it any
easier. If anything, I've always considered first person one of the hardest
formats to write because it is rather tempting to just tell readers the plot,
rather than let them see it for themselves.
Think of your favourite movies and TV
shows. Can you recall specific examples
where action spoke louder than words ever could?
What/when was the last script you read? If
it was Shakespeare in school, that's okay too.
Have you ever tried writing a screenplay?
Would you be willing to give it a try, if you haven't?
I'll talk more about screenplays later, but in the meantime, there are plenty of scripts online that you can try out for yourselves. Remember to stick to movies/TV shows that you like or are in your preferred genre.
Some places to read more about screenplays:
