Danielmedley.com

Monday, October 16, 2006

First Person Past Tense

Some time ago I finished a piece that was written in first person past tense. I’ve always disliked first person past, but did it anyway as a sort of experiment. After completing four drafts I was reasonably happy with it. Now, some months later, I dug it out and started going over it again and I instantly came to the conclusion that the first person angle is definitely not working. In fact I’m going over it and thinking, Ugh.

I’m still happy with the story and the general structure, but it comes across as a somewhat biographical, confessional piece which, to me, is just horrid. Sure, it uses some elements that I’m familiar with and takes place in a local that I’m intimately familiar with, but the characters and events are all fictional. Well, that’s not entirely true. There is one part that relies heavily on an actual event, but I don’t have a problem with that. The point is that—except for the aforementioned event—it’s just a pack of lies, not a biographical confessional.

So, I’m going to dismantle the whole damn thing and do it in third person.

Also, this will be a great opportunity to—as alluded to in the previous post—kill a few darlings and tighten the whole thing up.

Wildhorse (The Breaks)

I just finished a fourth draft of The Breaks and it’s about as much as I can do with it until I sit on it for awhile. At this point I’m going to have to let someone else read it and give me input from a vantage point that’s not as close as I am after working on it for so long.

Right now the story comes in at 9,620 words which is far less than the 12,000 plus in the first draft. It’s still not the 7,000 or 8,000 I had hoped for. I know the adage, “kill your darlings,” but after creating a veritable killing field I’m ready to call a truce—for now.