Cenonn's How to Holofic and Writing in General

I am the narrator. Listen to me!

Narrators are pretty important and I taught you how to make them good. However, what I said in the previous chapter are only general tips. Things are different for whatever narrator you are using.

Anyways... I'll start explaining what a first person narrator should be. A first person narrator uses the pronouns "I", "me", "we", and "us" in order to tell a story in the main character's perspective. The narrator is a character who experienced the events themselves.

Examples of a first person narrator are VerySleepyMagician's A World of Our Fiction Await, Jin_Writes' I'm a Phoenix, and SampleText56's My Shooting Star.

A benefit of having a first person narrator is that the readers would discover the voice and psychology of a character as told by the narrator. This gives a feeling of "closeness" and "familiarity" for the reader. You can feel that you "are there."

However, there's a downside of having a first person narrator. For one, it's restricting the access of your readers to the inner worlds of other characters. The story is narrated from the perspective of just one person. What they can't see, your readers can't also see. What they don't know, your readers also don't know.

Also, your narrator might not be a likeable character. For example, if your narrator is a psychopath, your readers might be unnerved by the difference of their morals. If your narrator is just plain annoying, then your readers would drop your Holofic.

Now then... Why should you have a first person narrator? By having a main character narrate the story, the reader has a front row seat to the events of the story.

First person gives the story credibility. The story feels "real" because someone who experienced it themselves was telling the story. By destroying any distance between your reader and your narrator, the story will become credible. The familiarity creates a relationship with the narrator and will lead your readers to believe that what they are reading is a true story.

It also expresses opinions. A first person narrator, like every other character, has their own opinions. In other words, there's a bias. By using the pronoun "I", there is a sense of familiarity and thus, the narrator can influence the reader. They can make a reader like or hate another character much more easily than a third person narrator.

The last reason why you should consider writing a first person narrator is so that you can build intrigue. First person is told through the lens of the main character. That means your readers only know what they know. This is very effective if you are aiming to create suspense especially for thrillers or mysteries. Readers will relate more with the narrator especially if both of them would learn something at the same time.

So.... I told you the advantages, disadvantages, and the reason why you should consider a first person. I'll tell ya all about the types of first person.

The first type is the first-person central. In other words, the narrator is the protagonist. They are the ones who will push the plot forward. They are the center of the plot and whatever decisions they make, they will greatly affect it.

The second type is the first-person peripheral. The narrator is a witness to the story. I said that the main character is not always the protagonist, right? This is an example of that. The narrator may just be an observer or someone related to the protagonist. They will tell the protagonist's story from their own perspective.

And now I'll tell ya some tips to make a good first person narrator.

First, a good first person narrator should evoke the senses and not only the narrator's inner world. This is a common mistake that new and veteran writers would make. They would be tempted to write long paragraphs of their narrator's thoughts and feelings. That's a no-no.