I’ve been reading Stephen King’s “On Writing” and I’m more than halfway through. It’s giving me ideas. One idea I’ve been having is down-right ill-advised. Or I’m assuming it is. 42,000 words into this novel I’m seriously considering changing the tense. I have never written in 1^st person. In fact, I usually hate it as a reader, but I’m beginning to think it might work for this one.

Right now, the reader knows almost too much. I’ve written this, as I have my other books, in 3^rd person dual perspective. But the plot of this one isn’t served by being in both main characters’ heads. Charlotte’s voice isn’t strong enough currently and Ryan isn’t mysterious enough. Changing to 1^st person and staying in Charlotte’s POV would keep Ryan at arm’s length, automatically granting him some secrecy.

But the thought of re-writing the thing in a new tense is daunting. Writing well in 1^st person is a challenge. There’s the risk of starting with “I…” too often, of secondary characters seeming thin and two-dimensional. There’s also the risk of the reader hating Charlotte to bits from the tips of her work boots to her Dutch braid. Or they may end up only seeing Ryan as a soulless developer and hating him from his Armani shoes to his carefully tousled hair. Which would be unfair since he doesn’t tousle it. He’s just got good genes.  No head hopping means more work.

I had considered, for a very short moment, going full omniscient narrator, but for romance, it’s not as good of a fit. Who knows, maybe I’ll lose my mind and try both. That’s not a terrible idea. Maybe I can pick a chapter or two to rewrite in various tenses and pick the best. Since I’m currently writing at a snail’s pace. It might be a good exercise to get the creativity flowing again.

I’ll let you know how it goes.