Writing in first person?

Question

in writing first person, ive noticed there can be no fear of death. the reader can never be worried that the main character will die, since if he/she did, they wouldnt be telling the story. this takes alot of the ability to create suspense away... any thoughts?

Answer 1

You could get around that by having multiple points of view, each telling the story from their own point of veiw.

Answer 2

First person is essentially a way to bring readers in close to your POV character. That having been said, a writer can create suspense in any number of ways, none of which need to have anything to do with POV. Assuming we're talking about fiction here, anything is possible. I've read quite a few novels narrated by the dead: Kurt Vonnegut's "Galapagos," Richard Matheson's "What Dreams May Come," Christopher Pike's "Remember Me." The last two are especially good examples of novels in which one of the main events is the death of the POV character. Check them out and see how the suspense lives on.

Answer 3

Or a ghost could be telling the story. In which case, there would be no fear of death because the character's already dead.

Like in American Beauty, where the ghost dad is narrating.

But you can still have suspense in a 1st-person story. It just forces the author to be more creative about it. Imagine if the character were having a just-before-death flashback of their life. There would still be suspense, even though you know the person is hanging in the balance.

But it is tricky, I'll grant you that.

Answer 4

Even though it is possible for a narrator to die, that is beside the point. The purpose of the story is to create and relieve tension, so if the story is told effectively the reader should "buy into" the drama.

An example of this is the Odyssey. Odysseus narrates most of the story as a flashback, so it is not possible that he could be killed in his own story. However, the drama of the events are interesting enough to engage the reader and convey a sense of mortal danger (usually expressed by the deaths of a few of his shipmates).

Answer 5

Nice thought. I've never contemplated this. It may be a bit easier to do so if you have more than one first person narrator. In the book East by Edith Patou, there's 5 narrators, the main character being one. This might be easier to write about death, since there's still someone to tell the story if the other one dies.

Answer 6

Well, there are different techniques to it. There's no rule that demands realism so that a character writing in first person couldn't lead the reader right up to the moment of his or her death.

This might be true if you're reading a Sue Grafton or Tom Clancy novel, but with a piece of literature, I really don't think that what you take away from the book has much to do with mere plot details such as whether a character dies or not.

Answer 7

Of course there can be fear of death. There have been books and stories written from people who were dead - ie Spoon River Anthology. Also, a very popular trend now is to switch voices - to actually have different chapters written by different characters. It is also popular to switch from third person narrative to first person narrative. I dont think fear of death takes the suspense away at all. It is actually very interesting at times to read people writing about watching themselves die. Several authors have done it.

Answer 8

Well, you can always do a sort of journal-like story, which is then completed by another character after the death of the MC.

There are also stories like Dracula, which are written using several people in the first person POV. It can be very effective.

Answer 9

The first person should feel threatened and confused most of the time. Have near misses and dangerous escapes. That will create a lot of tension and suspense.

Answer 10

Writing in first person is like writing a diary. I think you could still write about death or fears because people would read it to try to figure out how the narrator ticked.