I started out my current novel (still untitled) in first person. That seemed the most natural and direct. But the further I got into it, the more difficult it became. Wow, I had 100,000 words to write, I realized. My other two novels have been third person subjective (or maybe limited) for each character, weaving together their stories, but mainly focusing on one protagonist.
Last night I switched this novel to third person. I added a prologue and a scene from the past in another viewpoint (which I did a lot in my other novels), and converted all the first person to third. So far it seems to work a lot better.
A writing philosophy that seems to work for me right now is that if I get bogged down, and the writing seems too hard, it’s not right in some sense. If I back up and re-evaluate, I find that a slightly different direction in the dialogue or description (or even the narrartive style) helps it flow more smoothly.
I’m hoping these chapters from the past will heighten suspense as well and make the reader go, "Now how does that fit in?" Then when it does, the reader can have that enjoyable moment of "OMG, now I see! Yikes!"
And that’s the effect I’m going for.
