Miraploy

I have a few questions to ask of experts and veterans in fiction writing.

Firstly, I want to create a story that in which a character identifies himself clearly with the reader. I want the reader to be that character, feel in his shoes. Obviously first person writing would be ideal. However in first person I find myself becoming conversational, and am restricted to what that character immediately thinks. I become less descriptive and less capable of vividly bringing the reader into the world. So my question here are the following:

Is it possible to create a brilliant world AND create a realistic first person story? If so, how, with examples please.

Is it possible to bring the reader into a character’s mind in such a way that the reader identifies solely with that character and is that character?

On reflection, I think that both are possible, but I am far from capable of being able to do either well. A brilliant story in first person that I think is very well done is the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny, but it lacks the world description which I want. Books like Wheel of Time creates beautiful worlds but introduces many characters, and one never really feels what a character would feel. Harry Potter focuses on one character, but even with the limited POV I think that the reader never fully enters his head either.

Advice on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

Straylight

What exactly do you mean by 'world description'?

I've never encountered a problem with describing even a bizarre fantasy world using 1st person. Maybe the texture of the description is changed by the character you're writing as, but it's still there. 1st person tends to cut out extraneous details (IMHO, anyway), but that doesn't mean you can't have the character stop and look around every now and again.

~SL

Changeling

I think I know what you mean. I want to do the same myself. My goal is to write a story where the reader becomes the character. What the playstation or VR is to movies, I want my stories to be to novels. It aint easy.

First person - you can create convincing and colourful worlds this way. You simply have to switch into character, to see what he sees and tell it. Use imagary. E.g.
I lay there, dying, gazing at leaf layered emerald roof, hearing caterpillars nibbling there way into beauty.

To get inside their head you must switch from visual to psychological. I use monologue for this, and I use open questions which the character ponders and leaves. I think, or rather, hope this opens up the reader to active thinking, therefore identifying. E.g.
I'm damned if I do it. And if I don't, I can't hope to show my face again. But who are they to judge me anyway?...
The example's aren't the best, but I'm still learning myself. In short, you as the writer must become the character and percieve the world through him/her. Then experiment, write, read, and cut.
Always make your characters flawed, have a tough time, have good companions, and appreciate beauty where it is taken for granted. Oh, and think too.

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We are all in the gutter, but some of us are gazing at the stars. (Wilde)

simon woodhouse

This might be a bit tricky.

I don't know how other people feel, but I tend to identify most strongly with characters who are like me. If you created a character like that, I'd be very taken. But you don't know me, so that's going to be a bit hard.

I think first person characters are very specific. Their likes and dislikes are easily revealed. If your character likes something I don't, and vice versa, I'll probably spot it quite quickly and so identify with him less. Third person might be a better idea for you. The trouble here is, if you want to make a character lots of people can identify with, you might end up with a pretty bland, nothing sort of a person.

TimK

Hi, Miraploy. You do want the reader to feel like your character. You want the reader to identify with your character, sympathize with him. It doesn't matter so much whether you use first, second, or third person. What matters more is whether you've created a sympathetic character.

Make the character like a real person. He needs a realistic, complex personality. He doesn't so much need to be like the reader as he needs to seem human. He must have a passion or love, something or someone he cares about, something he needs. Then give him a noble goal and put an obstacle in his way. Build up that obstacle throughout the story, until the audience feels deeply as your character does. Then lead them wherever you want them to go.

What movie most made you cry? I'll bet its main character has these characteristics.

-TimK

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My writer's blog: BeTheStory.com: How to Write a Story
My main web site: www.JTimothyKing.com

suzakugaiden

"...or VR is to movies..."

VROOM VROOM HEY KIDS LETS GO PLAY DACTYL!

"However in first person I find myself becoming conversational"

What's wrong with this? I don't see how this is a problem.

"Is it possible to bring the reader into a character’s mind in such a way that the reader identifies solely with that character and is that character"

I question the validity of this as an ideal. Primarily, because no matter how likable your character is, I'm never going to want to be him, and I'm going to tell you that the only person who probably would want to be that character would be someone rather insecure.