Some “Tricks of the Trade” – Imagination and Secondary Characters

Using Imagination

Allow the protagonist’s imagination to tell part of the story or introduce something that they can’t see. When writing in the first person POV, using the character’s imagination can actually act like another character, and it can be written in third person.

First use a narration, like: As clouds ruptured, releasing sheets of torrential rain, Martin Truesdale fought for control of the wheel. He could barely tell if anything was alongside his car, nor could he see anything in the road ahead.

Then, perhaps one or two sentences later, you write: I kept trying to picture what it must have been like for Martin in those last few moments of his life— fighting for control, even as he knew it was hopeless. Every time I tried to picture it, the scene was a little different. Only one thing remained constant. The terror.

Treating it this way clearly establishes that this is a first person narrative, but until it’s revealed that the first example was nothing more than imagination, it had the latitude of writing in third person.

Using Secondary Characters in Third Person

Another character can introduce information through dialogue or narration in third person.

That does two things. It allows distinction between the main character and what they see or feel, as the secondary characters help the story unfold. This is one of those situations where it’s easy to commit the “no-no” of bouncing from head to head. The two should never be combined in the same chapter without a scene break between characters. I prefer to give these secondary characters their own chapters. However, depending upon the manuscript, the scene break can also be quite effective.

A little More About Writing in First Person

So, there you have it. Dreams, delays, imagination, secondary characters presented in third person—those are a few of the devices that will help remove some of the discomfort many writers experience when it comes to writing in first person.

Play with it. Try opening up your thinking by experimenting. Be prepared. I don’t know about you, but for me, when writing in first person, I experience a sensation that isn’t present when writing in third person—intense emotion.

First person literally forces you to become the character in a much more intimate way.  Instead of observing, you’re in the character’s head, feeling and experiencing everything they do. If you’re still thinking as the writer, you haven’t made the full transition. Make yourself feel what your character feels. If they hurt, you hurt. If they’re elated, so are you. Become that person in your mind. Dream their dreams, use your wit to figure out delays.

Sometimes, as I’ve written highly emotional scenes in first person, I’ve literally found myself sitting at the computer with tears running down my cheeks.

Writing in first person isn’t for everyone, and it definitely is not as widely used as third person, but for certain books it provides a highly-charged manuscript not possible with the distance created by third person.

Related posts:

1. What’s the Point of “Point of View?” – Part 1
2. What’s the Point of “Point of View?” – Part 2
3. Opening up Your Options: Making a Choice – Part 1
4. Opening up Your Options: Making a Choice – Part 2
5. Make Cardboard Scenes Spring to Life