- Joined
- Jun 12, 2018
- Messages
- 1,467
Is there a practical number for first person voices in a single section of a story?
Multiple first person voices can get the the story moving over wider fronts via parallel processing but can sacrifice readability. One first person voice uses serial processing which can result in the lead character being assigned multiple functions resulting from the need for certain jobs to be done in the story, but instead of creating multiple characters, one character is created to do all the work. This creates a super hero type character where none existed. Keeping the number of first person voices down in a section increases the capacity of the audience to successfully follow the story. Too many first person voices all at once and it is possible for people to start assigning the actions done by the characters to the wrong character. Two first person voices works okay when the two characters are lovers, so the audience treats that character combination as a single entity. You can slip in another first person voice and still have only two character type entities being tracked, instead of three by the audience.
Another way of keeping first person accounts down is to limit only one first person voice to a chapter, switching from chapter to chapter to get the plot assembled. This stretches out the plot actions over multiple people but also seems to isolate the plot line from the other characters and the unfolding story. It seems like you need a whole lot of short chapters to keep everything in focus.
Multiple first person voices can get the the story moving over wider fronts via parallel processing but can sacrifice readability. One first person voice uses serial processing which can result in the lead character being assigned multiple functions resulting from the need for certain jobs to be done in the story, but instead of creating multiple characters, one character is created to do all the work. This creates a super hero type character where none existed. Keeping the number of first person voices down in a section increases the capacity of the audience to successfully follow the story. Too many first person voices all at once and it is possible for people to start assigning the actions done by the characters to the wrong character. Two first person voices works okay when the two characters are lovers, so the audience treats that character combination as a single entity. You can slip in another first person voice and still have only two character type entities being tracked, instead of three by the audience.
Another way of keeping first person accounts down is to limit only one first person voice to a chapter, switching from chapter to chapter to get the plot assembled. This stretches out the plot actions over multiple people but also seems to isolate the plot line from the other characters and the unfolding story. It seems like you need a whole lot of short chapters to keep everything in focus.