A New Point of View

My process for writing my second novel, Out of Darkness, is radically different from the tumultuous journey to write my first novel, Murphy’s Troubles.  The two primary differences are time and experience.  Murphy’s Troubles was crafted while I was raising a family and had a full time career at the University of Wisconsin.  It was written in spurts and sprints over a twelve year period.  While working on that novel I promised myself that some day  . . .

Without the oppression of a full time job beginning in 2010 I controlled my schedule and could devote myself to writing.  I began my second novel in February 2014 and gave myself a monthly word goal and tracked my progress weekly.  I also fought and subdued my internal editor to just enjoy the process of creating the first draft.   The first draft was done by Halloween.  I surprised myself at how fast I wrote and how much I enjoyed creating a fiction world in 1998 Ireland.

The second difference was experience.  For a first time novelist there is nothing better than independent publishing because you learn what it takes to create a book and you control every decision.  My first novel was written in third person objective point of view because I didn’t know any other way to write it.  Third person point of view gives an author the freedom to be in every character’s head and to provide the reader with multiple perspectives.  Many readers have commented that reading Murphy’s Troubles is like watching a movie, it’s that perspective.

Once I accepted that Ian Murphy had more stories to share I knew that the book must be written in first person point of view.  First person point of view is very common and for me the advantage was that I could be psychologically close to Ian Murphy.  Ian Murphy would tell Ian Murphy’s story.  I would draft about three chapters at a time take a day or two break and then read the draft.  I found it extremely difficult to write in first person point of view.  I googled first person point of view novels then went to the library and selected about half a dozen.  I skim read the books to learn how authors wrote from only one character’s perspective.  First person point of view allows for depth but it is also extremely limiting because all the action is seen from only one person’s viewpoint.

I continued writing three chapters until I had something I wanted to share.  I confessed to my friend and mentor, Marshall Cook, that I was wrestling with point of view.  He understood why I wanted to use it and agreed to read my chapters.  As is his way, he succinctly found my errors and pointed out what I could and could not do within first person point of view.  For example, I often had Ian in his own head thinking and I used italics to indicate thoughts in the draft.  Marshall pointed out that the reader needed to see the character’s actions, not his thoughts.  The reader would understand his thoughts by his actions.  So I re-wrote and re-submitted to Marshall until he was satisfied I learned the craft of first person writing.