AVERIL ROBERTSON

I generally write fiction in third-person. It’s just always been the voice that’s come out. The other day, however, I had a story I wanted to write for a short-story competition, and I just couldn’t find my voice for it. I had the plot in my head. I knew what themes I wanted to hit on. I knew who the character was. But her voice evaded me, sidestepping erratically away from me every time I thought I had a grasp of her. I had so many false starts. And then I woke up in the night and there was my first sentence. I quickly typed it into a draft email; my forty-something brain wasn’t holding onto that until the morning.

When I reopened the draft the next morning, I sat pondering what I’d written. Why had my brain suddenly decided to lurch sideways into first-person narration? Beggars can’t be choosers, though, so I went with it. I kept her going. What came out surprised me. She had a strong voice. A deep past. A level of self-reflection that I didn’t expect. But what really got to me was how quickly using first-person pronouns allowed the character to embed herself in me. She’s having a tough time in the story, and I found her circumstances affecting me very quickly.

While I was deeply impacted by the lead character in my novel as I wrote it, I didn’t expect the same from a short-story character, simply from changing the narration to first-person. It allowed the story I needed to write to come out, in a far deeper way than I had expected when I first came up with the plot. I have had a similar experience in switching from past tense to present.

So if you find you’re a bit stuck with getting words down for a story, try switching your narrative perspective, or your tense. It can be creatively freeing, especially if it’s different to your normal approach. And if nothing else, it’s a great writing exercise to keep you on your toes with fresh thinking.