New Perspectives on Old Works

Well, it's a rainy, miserable day here today - perfect writing weather, to be honest! The garden is looking great outside, our fur babies are snuggled up in their hay inside, everybody's wrapped up warm, and there's not much to do except... work on the novel.

So, about that.

I've decided, in a fit of madness, that I'm going to re-write the entire book from a different angle. It's something I've been toying with for a while, but haven't been able to bring myself to do, purely for how huge an undertaking it will be. However, I feel now as if the time is right and it's the best thing to do. Eek.

One thing I've always wanted, first and foremost, is for it to be personal, realistic. A fantastical tale that readers can get involved with, full of characters they can fall in love with, to enthrall and to captivate and to transport you to another dimension, yet still retain its reality and normality, so readers can still relate to the characters and get inside their heads. So trying to decide whether it should be in the first person, from the protagonist's point of view, or third person - or first person from a combination of character's points of view - has been a difficult decision, and something that I've been pondering since the outset of the project.

I figure first person is more personal. You get inside their head; their thoughts, feelings, ideas. They tell you their story and you can feel as if you're really there. However, telling it from the omniscient viewer's perspective in third person gives an opportunity for less clumsy detail and more interesting notes that the protagonist wouldn't know and therefore cannot say, so it can round out the story a lot better. A dilemma, indeed!

Last night, I decided that unless I saw the whole thing written in first AND third person, I'd never really know which would be better. And ultimately, I want this work to be the best version of itself it possibly can be (obviously). So I've begun to re-write in the 'other' person from how it is at present.

I'm not sure which I prefer, to be honest. The first chapter is done, and it's difficult to say at this juncture which I'm happiest with. Just personally, I adore the first few chapters regardless, I think they set the scene beautifully and introduce the setting and the people well, so it's very difficult to see which is best. I'm hoping by chapter five or six I'll have a better idea.

Either way, it's a great exercise to be doing, giving a whole new level of understanding of the minutae of the work, the prose, the subtle nuances I somehow wrote but missed on a conscious level. I'm glad I'm doing it for the sheer way in which it's improving the work on every level anyway. Tidying up the mess and clearing out the unnecessary.

I think, perhaps, the best way to decide will be to let the readers do it for me, and find a few people willing to read and critique and give an opinion. If you're interested, let me know.

Until then, however.... back to the books!!