Aspiring Writers Info: Rhiannon Frater on Why Third Person Narrative Rocks

So, do you prefer first person POV or third person POV?  Or third person limited POV, where the book has the slight distance of third person, but it's told from one person's POV throughout?  Rhiannon Frater listens to her characters to see if they want to speak in first or third person, but she tends to prefwr third person.  Here's why.  (I tend to agree with her.  I tried to write the Allie books in third person, but they just didn't work.  Nuala is third person, Alfreda first person--and the new book?  I think third.  Maybe a blend.  We'll see how it goes.)

The publishing aspect isn’t the only part of the publishing industry that changes, but also books themselves. When I was a kid, Young Adult meant books like Where The Red Fern Grows and Catcher in the Rye. There was also fluffy fun stuff like Sweet Valley High, scary Goosebumps and old standbys like Nancy Drew and the The Hardy Boys, but it was tweens that were eating up these books. Teenagers had already graduated to the likes of Ann Rice and Stephen King.

Now Young Adult is huge. It’s not just tweens and teens reading  the genre, but adults as well. Urban Fantasy didn’t even exist in its current form when I was growing up, but now it sits beside its fraternal twin, Paranormal Romance cluttering huge portions of bookstores.

With the advent of these newer, more popular genres, first person storytelling has become the dominate voice. Most of the books I read now are from first person points of view (POV). It’s rare to find a book in this genre that is not first person. Because readers are so used to first person POV, they sometimes find it difficult to immerse themselves in third person narratives. Add in multiple POVs, and some readers balk completely.

Storage Ruins My Life

So some of my things are in storage right now.  You put things in that you don't think you will need for the six months you are elsewhere.

My cat needs steam now.  So where is my nebulizer, which has not been used in three years, since his brother was ill?  Not a clue.  I could tear the entire storage unit apart and might not find a box the size of a shoe box, inside other boxes.  Running the shower to steam a room may be silly.  I am going to try to fill the sink with boiling water, stick him up hear the sink with a towel over his head, and hold him there for five or ten minutes, which is about the limit for steam with a cat.  He needs food and to breathe.  Operatiom steam commences.

Maybe set the cat carrier next to the sink with a towel over it....

Will take him to the vet Monday, but they would go "Yup he needs steam" and charge me several hundred dollars to steam and board him.  I 'll go buy another nebulizer first.

I am supposed to be writing an article due tomorrow.  Argh.

EDIT: I made him a little tent next to the master sink, and set a timer.  He loves it, and demanded to be put back in a few minutes ago!  I will open the tent at 20 minutes, and let him stay longer if he wants.  There's no med dose or equipment about to burn out this way.

Finally, finally, real rain...

All day rain, steady, misty, driving...

In an apartment in a large Texas city, you never hear the rain unless it's nuts outside.   Complexes have sliding doors, not windows.  Here I can open the windows and hear the rain dripping off the trees, sliding off the roof, overflowing the gutters, hammering the lawn furniture with a queer splat.

It's like a rainy day up by the great lakes.  I can't dwell on it too long, or I will cry.  If I can just figure out how to make a living off the Internet, I will go find a little place up there.  Too far from home.  Sometimes you carry home with you, and sometimes home is a place.  I have always carried home with me, with my cats.  But behind that is a place.  And it's calling me.  Problem is, the odds of making a living up there with my skills are unknown.  So...back to work.