Change of Perspective

I have spoken before about the use of narrative to tell a story. The differences between 1^st and 3^rd person narrations are too numerous to mention. But what about, if during a series you change the perspective as well as the narrative? Agatha Christie’s first novel, ‘The Mysterious Affair At Styles’ was a first person Narrative from Poirot’s faithful companion, Captain Hastings, then her second, ‘The Murder Of Roger Ackroyd’ was also a first person view, but from a one off character called Doctor Shepphard; the same narrative style but from two different perspectives. If we then look at, ‘Murder On The Orient Express’, it is written entirely from a 3^rd person view, throwing a completely different perspective into the mix. Because of this, it is difficult to find a formula to her work and each story is just as thrilling as the last.

 

Each author has their own favourite way of writing, but I think we are also guilty of experimenting with our own writing styles, in order to find one that not only suits us, but also the reader. The danger becomes that we may confuse the reader. What if they pick up a book expecting it to be similar to the one they read previously, only to find that we changed our style too much and the reader isn’t keen? It’s always a danger, it would be very rare cases where a writer’s style when they first start out is the best they could do, and any change would ruin it. But what if we have been writing a while; developed our own use of language that our audience enjoys, then try something new and our readers don’t like it? We won’t know if we don’t try.

 

I love trying new things. I spend most of my time writing in 1^st person but am now trying something in 3^rd. I have found it quite liberating, not limiting myself but allowing myself to test my knowledge and limits by adopting other methods. So don’t just change the perspective the reader reads from, or the author writes from. Change the perspective we have on our own writing, don’t build walls and say, ‘That’s my style’, Knock a few down and ask, ‘Will this work?’, What’s the worst that could happen?

 

Let me know what you think. Read, follow, comment and enjoy. M x