The Writing Journey: First, or Third-Person? That is the Question.

I had a moment yesterday, when I started to question what I was doing. It was very specific, concerning a project that I have been working on since late last year, when I decided to try my hand at writing fiction.

The end result is now within sight. I am writing the final chapter and conclusion. 

So, the end is within reach. 

However, yesterday I was on Twitter X, and noticed in my timeline there was a tweet asking about books written from a first-person perspective. The question was, what did people prefer, first or third person? Many replied, saying that they did not like first-person books at all. It seems to be like marmite, you either like it or you don't.

I had not given it much thought, but I was writing this book in first-person. I did so for the following reasons.

1) It seemed to suit my writing style. The story is told from the point of view of the narrator. It is similar to writing non-fiction from personal experience.

2) World building is not my writing strength, at least it wasn't when I last wrote fiction, which was many years ago at school. Writing in third person probably requires more world building than writing in first person. 

3) It appealed to me that my protagonist did not know everything that was happening to him and everyone else. He finds out more as the story develops. It adds to the mystery of the story.

It does raise some interesting questions, though, like am I using "I" and "me" too much? It can become a little boring after a while to see the same words being used.

Then I thought about something else specific to first person. Does it make a difference to whom the likely reader will be, depending on whether the main character is male or female? My first-person protagonist is male, will women want to read it? Then it occurred to me that in most of the first-person books that I had read, the main character was male (that was not my choice, they just happened to be male). I do think that the story I have written does have strong women characters. At least, I would like to think so.

I began to have doubts about first-person. 

For now, I will continue. First draft is almost finished, next begins the editing and rewriting. I think there is a lot of tidying up to do.

I was watching a YouTube video a couple of days ago, where an author suggested that once the first draft is complete, the writer should leave it for a month. Then read the story again, to see how you feel about it. I might try this, to see if I still feel the same way.

Would I have the enthusiasm to change it from first to third person and rewrite the whole book? I don't know if I could. I'm more inclined to stay with first person and try to make it work. As the writer, I think you have to stay true to what works for you.