Friday, August 15, 2008

Authors and narrators

I have a problem. I wrote Zuzu's Petals in the first person, which means that many people think the narrator of the story - Corinne - is really me. They think she speaks for me. They think that her opinions are mine. Yesterday a friend emailed and asked "WHAT is wrong with matching Marks and Spencer curtains and cushions? And magnolia walls?" and I emailed back - "It was Corinne describing Elspeth's decor and ending the paragraph "Very dull." It wasn't me!" (However, for the record, I have just checked the text, and Corinne is actually saying that it's dull to have a print of Monet's garden in Giverny on the wall.)

But I like to write in the first person. Jane and I decided to write Plotting for Beginners in the first person, too, and people assumed that everything that happened to Sally had happened to me.

Do I really have to write the next book in the third person to get away from this confusion? Oh Lord, I do hope not. I am still wrestling with how to tell the next story - point of view and voice - and it's giving me brain ache trying to decide how to do it. I don't want my options narrower than they are already.

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