First Person
I went to a book launch yesterday evening at the Sauchiehall Street branch of Waterstone’s, despite the rain and a Glasgow brought almost to a standstill by the hordes heading for a Neil Diamond concert. The particular book being launched was Hope for Newborns, the second novel by Rodge Glass, a Glasgow-based writer who — perhaps unusually, these days — I don’t know.*
*I’m not, for a moment, suggesting that I know every single author living and working in Glasgow. It’s just that quite a few people I know are published authors.
Glass read confidently, giving us extracts from throughout the novel. He answered some questions from a Faber&Faber representative whose name I’ve already, sadly, forgotten. And then it was opened up to the audience — including one comment from Glass’s mum, bless. Progress was slightly hampered by there being only one microphone to be passed around, but on the whole the Q&A went smoothly, with only the occasional well-timed comment from the back of the audience by Alasdair Gray, the subject of Glass’s forthcoming biography (to be published in September). Then it was time for me to join the queue to get a copy of the book signed — it’s obligatory, you know.
Backtracking slightly…
During the open Q&A, I goaded myself into ask a question: namely, as both his novels were written in the first person, I wondered if doing this helped him to latch onto the central character. Glass answered in the affirmative, suggesting that it was actually easier for writers to stay inside the head of just one character rather than trying to keep tabs on a host of characters viewed from the position of an omniscient third person narrator. He did intend, however, that his next novel would be written in the third person.
As my fellow GSFWC-scribblers are only too aware, I have something about first person narratives. Generally speaking, I find it slightly more difficult to suspend my reading disbelief when the narrative is being told to me by an “I”. I don’t know why, beyond the fact that I’m somehow always thinking: “When am I being told this?” or “So at least he/she survives.” It hadn’t actually occured to me as being potentially easier, though; mind you, as an author you still have to work out what makes the other characters tick, surely…
Anyway. I’m not entirely against first person narratives; hey, I’ve written a few myself over the years. I know enough about writing to realise that sometimes it’s just the right way — indeed, the only way — to tell some stories. But I’m still interested in the process of making that choice.
Incidentally, during the launch, I was sitting next to Simon Biggam, who wrote the excellent These Are Only Words, which (yes) was — indeed, just had to be — told in the first person. According to him, about 80% of literary fiction (which is probably how both his and Glass’s work will be described) is written in the first person, much to the annoyance of some publishers. Which might be worth remembering, when I eventually get round to writing that great novel of mine…
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