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First and second person and novel Q's!



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Sat May 21, 2011 5:57 pm
Matthews says...



I have several questions:

#1) Can a story be written in second person, and if so how commonly is it done? Can you give me a sample of a novel written in second person?

#2) I'm writing a story (novel) and the main character sort of changes. In the beginning, a girl is the MC for a few chapters, then it changes to a boy being the MC, and he's the MC for the rest of the story, although the girl does come back into the story nearing the end. I had it written in third person to begin with, (the plot was for a short-story, which I'm making into a novel, now, going back and re-writing) but I now changed it to first person. My question is, can the first person in a story change, like the MC does? Someone told me you ABSOLUTELY cannot change it, so my first MC can be the only one in first person, and even though she leaves the story pretty much, until the end, I can't have my second MC be in first person. Is this correct?

#3) This might not be the right place to post this question, but how hard is it to publish an original song? A friend of mine wrote a beautiful poem, which I edited into song lyrics, and then wrote a piano accompaniment. It's pretty good, and we would like to get it published. How would we go about doing this?

K, that's it for now!!! If you can answer any of the questions, it would help a TON!!! And PM me if any of these Q's aren't clear.
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Sat May 21, 2011 11:10 pm
Azila says...



Hey there! These are great questions--let's see if I can help answer them.

#1) Can a story be written in second person, and if so how commonly is it done? Can you give me a sample of a novel written in second person?
Yes! Stories can most definitely be written in second person. It can be a little disorienting or weird, though, and I think that's why it's not very common in novels (other that "choose your own adventure" type novels ) but it's used pretty frequently in short stories. Apparently this novel is in second person, but I haven't read it so I can't tell you what it's like. It's been done, though.

#2) I'm writing a story (novel) and the main character sort of changes. In the beginning, a girl is the MC for a few chapters, then it changes to a boy being the MC, and he's the MC for the rest of the story, although the girl does come back into the story nearing the end. I had it written in third person to begin with, (the plot was for a short-story, which I'm making into a novel, now, going back and re-writing) but I now changed it to first person. My question is, can the first person in a story change, like the MC does? Someone told me you ABSOLUTELY cannot change it, so my first MC can be the only one in first person, and even though she leaves the story pretty much, until the end, I can't have my second MC be in first person. Is this correct?
Who told you that? They should be shot in the stomach with poison arrows! Okay, maybe not--but seriously, if it works for you then go ahead. I've read novels like that, and I think they're great--as long as you make the different character voices be very, well, different so your reader can tell the difference from one character to the next. It's a great exercise in writing from different POVs, and it can make for an excellent read as well. I say go for it! ^_~

As for the song: I haven't got a clue about that one, sorry. Contacting musicians would probably be a good way to start? That's just a guess though--I really know nothing about the music industry in that sense.

I hope some of this helps!
  





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Sat May 21, 2011 11:54 pm
Sins says...



#1) Can a story be written in second person, and if so how commonly is it done? Can you give me a sample of a novel written in second person?

Yes, if you want to, it's easy enough to write a story in second person. Well, I doubt it's very easy, but it's definitely possible. I don't think it's very common really, but I do know of some books that are written in second person. Did you ever watch the show Goosebumps when you were younger? Well, books were written based on that series and they were written in second person. I'm guessing they did it because it made the reader more, well, scared because it felt as though the story was literally about them. Here's the wiki page on them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Give_Yourself_Goosebumps I'm sure you can find an excerpt or something somewhere if you Google it.

#2) I'm writing a story (novel) and the main character sort of changes. In the beginning, a girl is the MC for a few chapters, then it changes to a boy being the MC, and he's the MC for the rest of the story, although the girl does come back into the story nearing the end. I had it written in third person to begin with, (the plot was for a short-story, which I'm making into a novel, now, going back and re-writing) but I now changed it to first person. My question is, can the first person in a story change, like the MC does? Someone told me you ABSOLUTELY cannot change it, so my first MC can be the only one in first person, and even though she leaves the story pretty much, until the end, I can't have my second MC be in first person. Is this correct?

Whoever told you that smells. :P Right now, I happen to be writing a double POV novel, and guess what? Both POVs are in first person. I've got a guy who narrates and a girl who narrates, and I think it works fine. I chose do to it because I simply thought it was the best way to write the novel, and I thought both character's POVs were important, so I want readers to see things through both of their eyes. So long as it suits the novel you're writing and you can do it okay, then go ahead!

#3) This might not be the right place to post this question, but how hard is it to publish an original song? A friend of mine wrote a beautiful poem, which I edited into song lyrics, and then wrote a piano accompaniment. It's pretty good, and we would like to get it published. How would we go about doing this?

I don't know how you'd go about getting the song published, but it can obviously be done. Don't take this as a definite answer, but I assume it's not exactly an easy thing to do. Just like the writing industry, the music industry's tough and it's hard to break into. So long as the stuff you produce is good though and so long as you're determined, I'm sure you can get your stuff published. Why don't you Google it? You're bound to find some helpful information about the process there.
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Tue May 31, 2011 2:43 pm
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Dynamo says...



The way I see it, it all depends on what feels right for you. As for me, I write completely in third-person and I use the past-tense in all of my narrative, and so far I haven't had any complaints from the people I show my work to. In fact, I remember having to read a book in summer school that was written completely in dialogue from a character retelling the events he had wittnessed, I'm talking every single paragraph in the book written in quotations. I was too young to appreciate it at the time, and honestly I didn't finish reading it, but thinking back on it now the concept was interesting to say the least. In fact, I think that might be a good example of a story written in second person. I'd give you the title if I could remember, but it's been so long since I've read it.

As for the MC changing, you can do whatever you want as long as it fits with the rest of your story. For example, in my story there's three main characters that all live in the same village, two boys and a girl. But when the crap hits the fan the two boys get conscripted into the army and the military caravan that recruited them gets ambushed by the enemies. Everyone dies except the two boys, who blacked out during the conflict. The main main character wakes up first and sees the carnage and runs off in a panic, thinking everyone is dead. The second boy wakes up later and manages to find his way back to the village. The story is then split into two perspectives that switches every few chapters between the first boy's adventure into the vast world and the second boy's life in the village as they fortify themselves to defend against any attacks that might come their way. I guess it's sort of like the second book in the Eragon series, except the cause of their separation is a little different.

I guess the bottom line is to maintain continuity in your story, both in grammar and plot.

As for getting published, I posted a thread asking about it too and got some great answers. Check it out if you're serious about trying to get published: topic80529.html I wouldn't know anything about publishing songs, so I can't help you there. Sorry.

I hope this helps.
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Wed Jun 15, 2011 7:22 am
Salem says...



My advice for using a double-POV in first person: seperate the sections of the POVs by chapter. That way readers are clear who is narrating. If you change POV in the middle of a scene, it will be really confusing (I think THAT'S probably what the person meant when they told you not to change POVs).
  





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Fri Jul 08, 2011 11:34 am
Crouching Tuna says...



As for your 3rd question, getting a song published is fairly easy.
There are a lot of ways: post it in youtube, ask your music teacher's opinion, etc.

For me, i never really published a song except for a demo for my friend's colege. We recorded the song in this studio, did some editings, and stuff. Our songs are full band songs, tho, so we reckon having it done in a studio is the only way.
Our band plays in cafes where tourists usually hangs, and we often play our originals on that chance.

As for the demo cd, my friend gave it to the colege he goes to, but i dont know what happens with it now. Having it on a demo cd helps a lot, tho, as it's where the proper version of the song is ib, in case we want to show it to people.

So, have an original and show it to people with a copy of that. Getting it published(this also depends on your definition of published) requires you to be either very lucky, or having music publisher contacts.
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