The beauty of a first-person narrative is getting to experience life as someone else. It’s a gift, really; an opportunity to see the world through another person’s eyes. And it can be life-changing—increasing a reader’s empathy and understanding long after the book is done. Of course, it can also just be escapist fun.

But how to pull off first-person in an authentic way? A deep understanding of your character is key. Who they are, what makes them tick, how they view the world and how that view was shaped, the way they interact with others, what they think of themselves, what they want, what they need, what they lack, how they speak, what makes them happy, what makes them angry, who they love, who they admire, who they envy, etc. There’s no end to the exercises, fill-in-the-blanks and writing prompts you can use to shape your character. This one and this one are fun, and here’s a treasure trove of character-writing tips.

It’s not just about your character, however. One challenge I had with my recent middle grade manuscript was making sure the world was just as fleshed out and real as my protagonist. Without the necessary world-building details, it risked reading like a screenplay. A story that relies on monologue, dialogue and some staging is fine for scripts, not for novels.

So how do you bring the world to life in a way that includes all the necessary details to move the action and plot along, but also feels authentic to the character? After all, she’s the person giving the reader this information. There isn’t a convenient third-person omniscient narrator filling in the blanks and guiding you along. Everything you need to know about the world needs to be fed to you through the main character. But it can’t be an info dump.

For my MG manuscript, the early drafts had just enough world-building to root me, the writer, in place, and allow my protagonist to move from A to Z. As I got to later drafts, however, it was time to build the lush, dangerous world I’d imagined into the pages. What helped me was working through each scene from a third-person perspective. That freed me up to fill in the world with details that I’d missed when limited to my main character’s POV. Then, on revision, I made sure everything fit with my character’s voice and culled whatever felt forced or inauthentic. The result, I hope, is a more immersive story.

What do you do to make sure your first-person stories find that balance between world- and character-building?

© 2018 Rachel Martin. All Rights Reserved.