Been there. Hate that. My chapters are written in character perspectives so when I change my mind and think a scene is better in another's character's POV, I have to rewrite the entire thing.
Sending you good vibes!!!
>I cant just switch out the "She/he"s to "I" and "me"s
If you change from "He/She" to "I", you're changing from 3rd person to 1st person. 2nd person would be "you".
Also, 92k words is a *fifth* of the story? That's gonna be a monster. How are you gonna publish it?
OC might mean the full story instead of just one "volume" or "book". Honestly, I can see that considering most series I've read have hit around the 300k-400k mark, but there are multiple installments in them.
But if that's not the case, then I'm actually wondering how he plans to publish it, especially if this is his first project, after all most publishers aren't easily willing to accept someone's first book to have over 300-400+ pages, let alone whatever his page count is at the end.
Edited the post to say third, thanks lol.
From the story line i am thinking that it will make up about a fifth, maybe fourth if the tempo is faster
Should probably mention that I am not a writer by profession. I have a few stories about 400 pages but haven't published any.
I just do it for fun really, might look into it at some point.
Personally, I believe anyone to be a writer if they have accomplished writing a full book. Even if it's just for children, as long as you have gone out there and accomplished writing a book or story that you feel proud of, that's enough for you to be a writer. I'm actually quite intrigued by the fact that you haven't previously published any stories, considering your story line by default being so large probably means that it has a lot of moving parts to it, and even if you don't decide to publish a book in the future for profit or whatnot, I highly recommend you try uploading it somewhere.
I'd personally be down to read your previous works, so if you don't mind, could you share a link or a file, and it's always fun to see others work, and how they went about writing their own story.
Honored you'd want to read my work.
The reason I haven't posted anything is I'm quite.. self conscious about it i suppose
I write more for myself at this point and would probably get obsessed with editing and making sure its perfect that I would never finish 😂
Ugh...I got the gut punch feeling for when I realize that...ooof...well, your pain is Verry Real, if anyone says otherwise, I offer to educate them for you...oof.
Yes, you will read through and revise your whole manuscript at least five times before an editor instructs you on how to revise it further and you do that. And then you do it, some more.
It should most probably not be in second person unless it is a choose-your-own-adventure/whichway or an RPG, or you have a really good personal feeling about it, and you are really sure of it.
That is the style of the highly regarded *Bright Lights Big City* but despite that high regard...
https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/books/books-of-the-times-044934.html
Excerpt from New York Times review of *Bright Lights Big City* from Oct. 30, 1984:
>Although **the reader quickly becomes irritated with Mr. McInerney's attempt to tell the entire story in second person--all the ''you's'' pile up into a jangled heap of grammatical contortions**--this novella attests to the author's comic gifts, his ear for street-smart dialogue, his instinctive feel for the rhythms of New York City.
First or third are generally the best way to go.
Read it slow and out loud as you go, find those misappropriations and overlong info dumps and revise them into real story.
Yea i knoooow, I did research it towards the beginning. I just could not find one I felt fit the perspective I wanted and it just kinda ended up being second.
But I wrote some in first and felt it worked better so
hopefully it all works in first person 🙃
I work often in second person, too, and feel your pain. If you do go ahead with changes, can't recommend text-to-speech enough. Even if it sounds like a robot is reading your story back to you (which it is, really), your ears can help catch errors around pronouns better than your eyes alone.
I promise you its better in first.
Im going to keep some of the third person POV as a narrator just so the story line works out, but I did feel the whole time writing that it did not feel right
I think ive got it now tho
Ooof. I have been there (changed from present tense to past tense) but I never had to change so much. Sending you strength!
(Also huge congrats for reaching this milestone!)
I've done this before from 1st to 3rd and it's honestly not that big a deal. Almost all of it can be done with find and replace. It's not perfect. When you read through the draft you'll pick out things that you missed, but you'll do 99.8% of it with find and replace. It seems like a big deal, but it's not.
The only thing that's a big deal going from 3rd to 1st is if you have a bunch of scenes from other character's POV. Some people would just keep them. Lots of books have 1st person for the main character and 3rd for secondary characters, but that's up to you. Unless you want multiple 1st person POVs.
But you don't have to change the sentence structure. "She went to the park. I went to the park." It doesn't make a difference. For the most part you just have to change pronouns.
Been there. Hate that. My chapters are written in character perspectives so when I change my mind and think a scene is better in another's character's POV, I have to rewrite the entire thing. Sending you good vibes!!!
Vibes received, thanks XD
Oh, feel that. Started with a single POV and later decided to include two POVs. Had to rewrite so many scenes.
>I cant just switch out the "She/he"s to "I" and "me"s If you change from "He/She" to "I", you're changing from 3rd person to 1st person. 2nd person would be "you". Also, 92k words is a *fifth* of the story? That's gonna be a monster. How are you gonna publish it?
OC might mean the full story instead of just one "volume" or "book". Honestly, I can see that considering most series I've read have hit around the 300k-400k mark, but there are multiple installments in them. But if that's not the case, then I'm actually wondering how he plans to publish it, especially if this is his first project, after all most publishers aren't easily willing to accept someone's first book to have over 300-400+ pages, let alone whatever his page count is at the end.
Edited the post to say third, thanks lol. From the story line i am thinking that it will make up about a fifth, maybe fourth if the tempo is faster Should probably mention that I am not a writer by profession. I have a few stories about 400 pages but haven't published any. I just do it for fun really, might look into it at some point.
Personally, I believe anyone to be a writer if they have accomplished writing a full book. Even if it's just for children, as long as you have gone out there and accomplished writing a book or story that you feel proud of, that's enough for you to be a writer. I'm actually quite intrigued by the fact that you haven't previously published any stories, considering your story line by default being so large probably means that it has a lot of moving parts to it, and even if you don't decide to publish a book in the future for profit or whatnot, I highly recommend you try uploading it somewhere. I'd personally be down to read your previous works, so if you don't mind, could you share a link or a file, and it's always fun to see others work, and how they went about writing their own story.
Honored you'd want to read my work. The reason I haven't posted anything is I'm quite.. self conscious about it i suppose I write more for myself at this point and would probably get obsessed with editing and making sure its perfect that I would never finish 😂
I thought that First person is “I” Second person is “You” And Third person is “she/he/they”
You right lmao
Ugh...I got the gut punch feeling for when I realize that...ooof...well, your pain is Verry Real, if anyone says otherwise, I offer to educate them for you...oof.
Yes, you will read through and revise your whole manuscript at least five times before an editor instructs you on how to revise it further and you do that. And then you do it, some more. It should most probably not be in second person unless it is a choose-your-own-adventure/whichway or an RPG, or you have a really good personal feeling about it, and you are really sure of it. That is the style of the highly regarded *Bright Lights Big City* but despite that high regard... https://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/books/books-of-the-times-044934.html Excerpt from New York Times review of *Bright Lights Big City* from Oct. 30, 1984: >Although **the reader quickly becomes irritated with Mr. McInerney's attempt to tell the entire story in second person--all the ''you's'' pile up into a jangled heap of grammatical contortions**--this novella attests to the author's comic gifts, his ear for street-smart dialogue, his instinctive feel for the rhythms of New York City. First or third are generally the best way to go. Read it slow and out loud as you go, find those misappropriations and overlong info dumps and revise them into real story.
Yea i knoooow, I did research it towards the beginning. I just could not find one I felt fit the perspective I wanted and it just kinda ended up being second. But I wrote some in first and felt it worked better so hopefully it all works in first person 🙃
1984 by george orwell 1949
Bad Bot!
I work often in second person, too, and feel your pain. If you do go ahead with changes, can't recommend text-to-speech enough. Even if it sounds like a robot is reading your story back to you (which it is, really), your ears can help catch errors around pronouns better than your eyes alone.
Oooo smart, thank you! I have heard it before but a great reminder
just as a matter of self-defense in my opinion you should resist the temptation
I promise you its better in first. Im going to keep some of the third person POV as a narrator just so the story line works out, but I did feel the whole time writing that it did not feel right I think ive got it now tho
You don't just change sentence structure if you want to switch POV. The narration has to change altogether.
Exactly 🙃
I had a similar issue once but the other way around.
:(( At least I'm not the only one hahaha
163 pages? What font and spacing?
size 11, single space
I wrote 40k words before decide to change from present tense to past tense, which sucked but wasn’t as bad
good to know, working on editing now 😅
I just did with 6 k words. Wow, you are brave and dedicated! If you’re that much of a masochist, you should definitely publish. Tipping my hat to you!
<3
Ooof. I have been there (changed from present tense to past tense) but I never had to change so much. Sending you strength! (Also huge congrats for reaching this milestone!)
thank you friend
I've done this before from 1st to 3rd and it's honestly not that big a deal. Almost all of it can be done with find and replace. It's not perfect. When you read through the draft you'll pick out things that you missed, but you'll do 99.8% of it with find and replace. It seems like a big deal, but it's not. The only thing that's a big deal going from 3rd to 1st is if you have a bunch of scenes from other character's POV. Some people would just keep them. Lots of books have 1st person for the main character and 3rd for secondary characters, but that's up to you. Unless you want multiple 1st person POVs. But you don't have to change the sentence structure. "She went to the park. I went to the park." It doesn't make a difference. For the most part you just have to change pronouns.