1st Person

This is the style we'll be covering in this article. In this style the author is also the narrator, and they are writing about the adventure as though they were the character, not about their character.

2nd Person

Second person is probably the hardest of them. This is the author talking directly to the reader using terms such as "you." While the most popular of this style are RPG style books, there are books that feature this way of writing.

3rd Person

The most common way of writing. This is writing about the character using names, as well as "he" and "she." It is probably the easiest of the ways to write although there are varying types.

Some more detail about writing in first person

This way of writing is most certainly nothing like third person. You are not all-knowing, you can not say what other characters are thinking and you can only describe the world through that one character. Unless of course your main character is a telepathic mutant or God.

There are different ways of writing in first person. Dean Koontz writes as Odd Thomas who is writing a manuscript, while other authors don't chose to do this. They just write as the character. Various advice has been given about writing as a character but the most popular advice is not to be clever with your words. You are writing as a character now, so if they (the character) are a ten year old boy they most probably wouldn't use very difficult words. Darren Shan is a good example of how one would write.

The advantages and disadvantages

The advantages

You can get away with a lot while writing in the first person that wouldn't be possible in any other style. Mistakes are more acceptable, or variations of writing - especially if you were writing the diary of a young teen with dyslexia for example.

It is far easier to inject personality and emotion through the first person style, since you are writing as that person - unless you happen to be writing as an emotionless psychopath, which probably wouldn't be a good idea - not if you want anyone to empathise with them.

It is more acceptable to write the thoughts of your character since you are them. This can be harder to do in third person, it might even make your writing lose its flow. You can weave flashbacks and memories and thought waves into your writing, in a more natural way.

As such it can be easier to develop a character this way and really get to know them (more personal) - as opposed to third person writing where you can easily be more detached. This can be useful in long and short stories. Mentioning short stories, using the first person in one of these can give it a more emotional and intense burst than third person would.

As the narrator you not only can tell a story and reveal emotions and the like but you can also lie directly. This can work its way into an extremely interesting story line, and an exciting character. This can produce amazing effects, especially when the lie is ridiculously obvious - adding much colour to a story.

This style is an immediate one, giving us a first-hand experience of the events. We are lead to believe this events since we only have that person to base our understanding on, rather than a multitude of characters. This makes the story more focuses, since it is from one direct point of view.

The disadvantages

It is often perceived as harder to write in the first person than the third, and gives the perspecticive on one characters view of the world. As said before you are not all knowing and can't delve into other characters minds - that is unless you're writing as more than one person. This means there is little room to see another characters perspective. And this can lead to bias and an unreliable account.

One of the issues of writing in the first person is that "I" is used too much, and this lack of variation can make a piece feel over-bearing and dry and a picture not painted properly.

Due to the limited perspective the narrator is only able to say things they see, and hear. They can't know anything for certain except what they see first hand, so the character must take an active part in the story if they are to be a reliable narrator.

Possibly one of the most important disadvantages  of writing in first person is that it depends on the narrators/characters ability to speak and/or write.

Lastly because of the narrow view, and being unable to see other characters minds and reactions they can never find out how other people really view the narrator. They have only the narrators word and they could well be lying.

If you've enjoyed this article you may well enjoy reading

Sentence construction 101 and Writer's block

Operating on that theory, I borrowed three books of short stories from the library. I might become more geared to writing stories if I read more stories. It's a literary genre I do admire and respect, the short story. It's both intimidating and alluring. Strange that I'd be more frightened of a 2000-word piece than a 50,000-word one. But in novel-writing you have the luxury of dragging, sprawling your ideas, concepts, characters, storylines over the course of a few hundred pages. Whereas, with the short story, every single word counts. You don't get to linger; you have to sprint into that darkened room, grab what you need, and rush back out again.

My best short story feels to me like a novel in miniature. It's just a series of tiny scenes profiling different characters, and every word of it feels right.

I have a few other pieces that I'm proud of, to varying degrees. Certain ones still need work. Some I never want to see again. And there are ideas floating around in my brain, ideas for novels that could be given a trial run as short stories somewhere along the way. Then, if I never got around to doing the whole book, at least I'd have the story.

Today at work I scribbled down a note: “Shouldn't put all your literary eggs in one basket.” Meaning, working straight through on one project for a year or so, without taking time out to play in other sandboxes once in a while, is probably detrimental to an intuitive writer. Maybe not a writer who thinks more in analytical, scientific terms-but I am not that writer. I write from the point of view of emotion far more effectively than from the point of view of logic. That's why, for my Senior Seminar project in college, I chose to do a creative-writing project rather than a formal paper of some sort. My heart knows more truth than my mind does.

New methods for writing stories:

Write down random words and potential titles in a notebook. Leave them alone for a while. Come back to them a few days later. Choose one and write a spontaneous story about it. (This method worked with staggering success for Ray Bradbury.)

Along those same lines, write down a few opening sentences. Try to come up with openers that make you wonder what happens next. Example: Gus knew he was in trouble when the Vice-President pissed on him and called him a greasy pimp. See, that's a story I would love to read.

The length of a piece is not counted in pages, but in words. And it's the word count that determines which of the three you're writing. The three magic numbers designate the borders between the three formats, but they are only vaguely defined. So the numbers I give should be considered as general guides.

The 15,000 word-mark is the blurry border of the short story. Most short stories hit somewhere around three to four thousand, though many do go into the ten-thousand range.

Once you get over the 15,000 word-mark, you're venturing into the area of the novella. It's the middle-land between the short story and the novel, where you can draw the story out a bit more while still keeping it somewhat condensed. Two examples of well-structured novellas are: “The Mist,” by Stephen King, and “The Hellbound Heart,” by Clive Barker. Novellas generally don't go much over twenty thousand words, but the third magic number is 35,000.

When you reach 35,000 words, you're writing a novel. While novellas have been called “short novels” or “little novels,” those descriptions aren't entirely true. A short novel, in my mind, is a novel around 40,000 words or so. Most novels nowadays range from 100,000 to 200,000 words. A good example of a short novel, though, is “Carrie,” by Stephen King; another is “Vittorio The Vampire,” by Anne Rice.

So, what we have is:

1 to 15,000 = short story.

15,000 to 35,000 = novella.

35,000 to the stratosphere = novel.

As I said, the numbers aren't definite. No one ever made a rule about length as it applies to the different formats. But they do give good guides for keeping track of where your piece is heading as it begins to grow.

In an essay or an article, sometimes the most you can hope for is giving the reader something to ponder. Yet you must lead the reader into it by “seducing” them into going to the next paragraph or turning the page. In a piece of fiction, of course, you can go much further; in the case of a novel, you want to ease your reader into the moment, hook them, find common ground with them, and make them laugh and cry and scream and beg for more. The goal with the novel is to please, of course, but also to keep the reader until they reach a point where they don't want to leave.

Writing is a very intimate act, especially if it's something straight from the heart or the places of one's mind where no one else could ever visit. And when someone reads your work, and it touches them, there is an intimate connection.

Just as in a relationship, a writer must respect his or her readers. If the writer acts like they're inferior or beneath him/her in some way, he/she will lose them. Most writers develop a certain readership, something of a cult following, and if the writer remains true to them, they remain true to the writer. Give and take. A two-way street.

A short story is like a brief love affair, or perhaps a long date. A novel is more like a marriage, something that, if it works, you want to stay with it until the end. And without the intimate meeting of the minds that happens between reader and writer, it won't work.

Words can soothe. Words can hurt. Words can build or reshape worlds. And they can destroy dreams. This is true in a relationship, and it's true, in a less tangible way, in writing and reading.

There seems to be a stigma against authors who publicly, written or otherwise, say “thank you” to their readers. I've heard that there should be a distance between the writer and his/her readers. While distance has its purpose, even in relationships and marriage, it should by no means be cold. If a writer can show everyone else that he/she is human too, their readers will only love them for it. Saying “thank you” can go a long way in relationships and marriage, and the same is true of the relationship between writer and reader. Sometimes the little things matter.

I can't speak for anyone else, but as an avid reader, I want (and possibly need) a working relationship with the writer, at least for as long as I'm reading their words. And that working relationship is certainly important if I'm a regular supporter of that writer.

Sex is a natural part of life. It is the means of creating life. Marriage is a partnership, not always easy, but worth every moment - if you're with the right partner.

Writing is one of the Creative Arts, and humanity without creativity isn't human. It's also a natural state of the human condition. And the partnership between the artist and his/her craft, and that of the artist and his/her devoted audience, is a marriage of a sort.

It's true of music, too. Music can raise the endorphin level like nothing else. I've seen this from the audience and from the stage countless times. I've experienced it: stepping out for my guitar solo, going to la-la land, and living eternity in euphoria for one sweet moment. Yet there's a marriage-thing going on there, too. A guitarist who isn't married to the guitar will never reach his/her full potential. And a successful recording artist who isn't married to their fans isn't successful for long.

As a novelist, I tend to think in terms of long fiction writing. That's possibly because I grew up with novels, too (short stories were rare for me when I was young, for some reason). Sex is an investment of the mind and the body, and, as with any investment, you want a good return. It's the same with fiction, writing or reading. Marriage is an investment on a grand scale, in which two people have to learn as they grow and change and age how to communicate again and again. Writing and reading are similar: you must relearn your craft and look at it from various angles over the years in order to stick with it, and if there is no growth of communication, your readers will leave you.

Writing requires time and work from the writer. Reading requires time and work (at least mental work) from the reader. The two work together for pleasure, and together, they can hopefully overcome pain.

Word Spy

Devoted to lexpionage, “The sleuthing of new words and phrases”.

Write Express

WriteExpress is a comprehensive rhymer's dictionary that consists of more than 93,000 words. Perfect for poets and songwriters in need of that one right word to complete a masterpiece.

Wordie

Wordie lets you make lists of words and phrases that you love or you hate, so that you can share them with other Wordies on the site. This is the first social networking website that I have seen that is dedicated to people that live to love words.

Confusing Words

The English language is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world and here at Confusing Words the reason why is apparent. Confusing Words is a collection of 3210 words that sound alike, but are spelled and used differently. A great website for both readers and writers to learn the difference and stop being a confused word victim.

Virtual Salt

Here word lovers discover a 1062-word vocabulary that is practical for everyday usage. The list emphasizes words that are needed to build a functional foundation for a comprehensive vocabulary.

100 Words

Write 100 words a day, every day, for one month and you can write about “Anything”. 100Words is an exercise in disciplined creativity that challenges talented writers and wordsmiths to writing exactly 100 words at a time (and making those words that are used make sense in the process), not a single word more, not a single word less.

101 Words

Here writers write 101 word short stories as an exercise in creative discipline and clever wordplay. So really, the more words that you know, then the better you'll do in an exercise like this. A good story needs to process an interesting beginning, a captivating middle and an explosive ending.

”Words matter and unleash a wave of power that is unimaginable to those who don't process the power of the vocabulary.” - Nelson Doyle

“For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

Following in his footsteps, more writers rose to the challenge of writing short stories using just six words. Here are some of the best I've seen:

Inspirational

• “Failed SAT. Lost scholarship. Invented rocket.” - William Shatner

Comic

• “Longed for him. Got him. Shit.” - Margaret Atwood
• “We kissed. She melted. Mop, please!” - James Patrick Kelly



• "I couldn't believe she'd shoot me." - Howard Chaykin
• “Easy. Just touch the match to…” - Ursula K. Le Guin

Tragic

• “With bloody hands, I say good-bye.” - Frank Miller
• “Three to Iraq. One came back.” - Graeme Gibson

Thought-Provoking

• “Epitaph: Foolish humans, never escaped Earth.” - Vernor Vinge
• “It cost too much, staying human.” - Bruce Sterling
• “TIME MACHINE REACHES FUTURE!!! nobody there…” - Harry Harrison



• “I saw, darling, but do lie.” - Orson Scott Card

1. The most important thing is to create character. Create a living, three-dimensional character, inhabited by real feelings and thoughts, and motivated by real-life desires and fears.
2. Set your work in the real world.
3. Create real people who have real feelings and who exist in real situations.
4. Human motivation is basically simple. Universal, elemental desires operate within all of us.
5. The seven deadly sins are pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth
6. A character is the particularization of a type
7. Character drives action-not the other way around
8. Real people think real thoughts. Have your characters think. The most significant action is always in the mind.
9. The wise are not continuously wise. The foolish are not continuously foolish.
10. Find the “telling” detail.
11. Find the “telling” remark.
12. Find the “telling” action.
13. Avoid “drama.” Most life is not “dramatic” in the Hollywood sense.
14. Don't create superheroes; they don't exist.
15. Don't create monsters; they don't exist.
16. No real person is ever one way all the time. Everyone's a mixed bag.
17. Explore the ordinary, but shun the mundane.
18. Life is not a story, but life does provide stories. Be alert!
19. We are surrounded by the material for art. Pay attention!
20. Don't be boring. To avoid being boring, know what it is to be truly interesting.
21. Language is made memorable through attention to letters and sounds-through consonance, assonance, alliteration, and rhyme. Make your characters' language memorable and your characters will be memorable.
22. Ideas are made memorable through associations-examples, analogies, similes, and metaphors. Make memorable your characters' ideas and your characters will be memorable.
23. Pay specific attention to language in general.
24. Pay attention to your own language in specific.
25. Look at your writing globally and locally at the same time.
26. Readers will follow what's easy to follow. Parallelism (of words and phrases, of character and situation) makes things easy to follow. Strive to be parallel.
27. Know where you're going. Put up signs along the way.
28. Repetition creates meaning. Variation creates life.
29. Too few details erase; too many details obscure.
30. Too much to look at is as great a fault as too little to see.
31. Try not to be predictable. Do not, however, in the effort to avoid predictability, be absurd.
32. The unexpected is never impossible.
33. Don't pick scabs. That is, don't try to write about anything that hasn't fully healed within you.
34. If you want to pay someone back for something, don't do it in your writing. If you try to use your writing for revenge, you will falsify your art.
35. Do not use your art for praise or promotion. Art is not a vehicle for the dissemination of reward, particularly trophies of the self.
36. Avoid clichés--clichés of speech, clichés of character, and clichés of situation.
37. If you must use a cliché, freshen it.
38. Tie abstractions to the earth with specific instances, vivid examples, and concrete details.
39. Details, specifics, and examples unrelieved by ideas form a bog of badness.
40. In order to write well, think clearly and write simply.
41. Practice thinking in images.
42. Edit your own work. Editing is cutting and polishing a rough, dusty diamond until it shines. This works on precious stones, not lumps of coal. Know what you have in front of you.
43. Learn from others. Reading is a form of experience. So is observation
44. The lesson of Shakespeare and Dickens is that even minor characters are whole human beings.
45. We learn to speak by hearing speech and imitating it. We learn to write the same way-by reading writing and imitating it.
46. When we see what has been done, we can see what can been done.
47. If you don't have a clear sense of badness, how will you know how to avoid it?
48. It's as easy to have good taste as it is to have bad taste. Hang around the discriminating and you'll acquire better taste.
49. The process of revision is a constant asking “What if?” What if I change this word, this line, this idea, this event, this point of view?
50. An editor asks optometrist's questions. “How is this? Better? Worse? How about this?”
51. It's not enough to ask yourself if you were specific. Ask yourself, “ Can I be more specific here?” Then ask yourself, “ Should I be more specific here?”
52. There is no art without selectivity
53. Taking out is more important than putting in
54. An unusual word is unusual only once
55. Too much of a good thing is a bad thing
56. Too much of any one thing makes you sick.
57. Care about your work. If you don't care about it, why should anyone else care about it? If you don't take it seriously, why should anyone else take it seriously?
58. Think about why you are writing. Ask yourself what you really want to do in your writing.
59. Don't write garbage.

Over the years, computer technology became a focal point in my house. Talking to friends and sharing thoughts wasn't as simple as picking up the phone anymore. It involved typing and stringing words together in a cohesive, expressive manner to make up for the loss of body language. Essentially, it was creative writing. The Internet exposed me to worlds I'd never known, people I'd never met, and a few that I did meet.

My son and I both hit teen angst at the same time, although we were twenty years apart. He poured his frustrations and rage into an unbiased machine, a blinking box that didn't care about rhyme or meter. His short stories and poems, snapshots of life's misery, were wonderfully descriptive. It rekindled an interest in writing my own prose.

Disillusioned with the way my life had materialized, I sought and found solace on the Internet. I began an affair that was supported in no small part by the emails and stories we wrote to each other. It was a return to old-fashioned romance, when men and women courted one another with love letters and poetry. Of course, it was fantasy too, because it was missing the reality of everyday annoyances and stressors. But the affair continued, and my writing kept improving with each keystroke. The man I was involved with was also a prolific storyteller. With his influence and encouragement, I continued working at my new hobby.

Some might think that my marriage collapsed because of situations made possible by the Internet, like the affair. Truth is though, there were already cracks as big as caverns in the relationship. It was the Internet, and the people I came to know on it, that gave me the strength to break free. I was closer to my "imaginary friends" than I was to my own husband. I found I could express myself much more freely online than I could verbally...I had control over what I was saying without interruption, and I could edit what I didn't mean to say before committing with the send button. Hiding behind the monitor, I was safe in my anonymity; I could say and be anything I wanted without fear of ridicule.

I began to use writing as a means of venting the pain, anger, loss and violation that I experienced as my marriage ended. I went public with the affair and wrote educational, informative articles on the subject. The feedback from the online community was extremely positive, and spurred me to continue. I joined writer groups, pushing myself with their prompts and suggestions. From erotica to non-fiction, I tackled genres just to prove that I could do it, or at least learn something in the process. I evolved far beyond anything I'd ever dreamed of.

The Internet hasn't been all give and no take though. The affair that gave me my initial start ended, via email. However, it was the friends I had online who rallied behind me and got me through yet another emotionally trying period. It was a few months before I felt as though I had anything worth writing about, but it slowly came back.

In just five years, I've progressed from those first few tentative sentences to published articles in national magazines. The short stories and poems that have entertained online have given me the confidence to work on a novel. In trying to help myself through some difficult times, I have in turn helped others by writing and sharing those experiences. Where will it go from here? I have no idea, but I refuse to see a ceiling. I love the challenge of writing and the endless combination of possibilities.

Though it's wonderful having a nod of approval from editors and publishers, I've finally learned an important lesson that was never taught in school, and should be. The lesson is that we should write for the sheer joy of it, to express ourselves, and to share the gift of our being with the rest of the world. Too many people stop short, as if there's an unseen instructor hanging over their shoulder waiting to grade their paper. In the privacy of your own home, there is no right or wrong way to convey your thoughts and feelings. The only real crime is not doing it at all.

I felt a sharp sting in the back of my head. I had only just gotten the pen out when the whole sordid plan came, like a diamond bullet, to invade my brain. I would be gone by tomorrow morning, if I could stay in control, stop my mind from wandering. I paused for a second, the whole world froze, I noticed the calendar hanging on the fridge, the washing up I had meant to do before I went to bed, the swirls of varnish in the table. When your whole world collapses, you become an animal, rely on instincts, capture every moment, loose your ability to think; the bullet lodged in my cerebellum didn't help.

His retreat was a quick one. There wasn't much time to think about being naked only the possibility that he might be dead and naked in a few seconds made him run like a drug-addled steroid abusing athlete. All he could think of where those damn lips, soft, moist, to die for. Broken glass punctured his back as he skidded to the floor, he got back up running as fast as he could The blood from his back made him look like a comet yet still all he could think of was those damn lips. He could feel them tender to the touch, rubbing his bare skin. It had been risky, he almost got killed, and now all he could think of was a pair of luscious lips. He realized that sometimes he was just too horny for his own good.

You walk in the room, the naked young prostitute looks at you angrily, opens her mouth to swear then notices the magnum in your hand. Your target is sprawled on a mattress, soon to be stained with red. You calmly lift up the gun, aim it at his chest and laugh as six pieces of metal puncture his skin, showering the room with blood. She asked you “why?”. She spoke quietly and slowly as if on some shyness inducing drug. Your response to her was kind of juvenile you now realize… “your not from round here are you?” she blinked once and started to cry.

I was gob smacked, startled, shocked, frozen by what I had just seen. I have witnessed many strange things in my life but none quite like this. I went to India once and saw a monsoon ravage village upon village. I went to France and saw students throw paving stones at universities. I went to Florida to see a rocket commence its trajectory into space but nothing compares to what I saw, calmly sitting down in my living room enjoying my cup of coffee. My daughter, my American, Christian, educated daughter, went up to me and calmly, without even flinching said to me “thank you.”

My boss is fat, balding, with all the intelligence and mobility of the average foetus. As I walk down the corridor, briefcase in hand, I told my boss to go get f----ed. He responded by saying “thank you Joe, I do try my best”. People will always hear what they want to hear. Listening is a quality mankind has yet to develop. In any conversation, there are no listeners, there are only those talking and those thinking about what to say next. That's why I like writing so much, it saves a long wait.