First-person perspective is kind of like cheese: some people love it, some people hate it, and when it’s poorly done, it grates.
Sorry for the pun.
I personally love first-person, and it is my joy to share one simple, quick writing tip that can help your first-person perspective writing shine: cut the filter words.
For a lot of us, this has been a rough year, a tiring year, a painful year.
Some years carry a heavier toll than others, and this is one of them. Yet in spite of that—or maybe because of it—there’s something you need to do: tell your story. I know how tired you are. I know some of you you don’t feel heard. I know some of you might fear you don’t matter.
You do.
Beginnings matter.
We only get one chance to hook our readers, to pull them in, to guarantee they must read on. That’s probably why so many writers panic over how to start writing those first few pages of a novel.
So how do you start a novel? Where is the best place to begin? Take heart, dear reader: in today’s post, I’ll give you three ways to start a novel, a bonus nugget about antagonists, and a key question to ask yourself before you get to work.
Stories create empathy. Stories bring hope. Stories change history. Yes, even yours—especially when you know how to show empathy in writing.
It’s good to study other writers’ rules, but in the end, those rules were not made for you—they were made for other writers. If you’re serious about being a writer, then you need to figure out your rules of writing and stick to them. This post will show you how.
