Graham Swift Puts Himself under Pressure

I seem to be in quotation mode at the moment, moving seamlessly from Scott Fitzgerald yesterday to Graham Swift today, but with good reason, because where can you learn to write except through the work of other writers?

Swift says, "I favour the first person.  The reason I do so is that I do not simply want to tell, out of the blue, a story.  I want to show the pressure and the need for the telling.  I am as interested in the narrator as the narrative.  I want to explore the urgency of the relationship between the two."

I think that the third person (a story told from the point of view of he or she) can work brilliantly if you are doing a pacy, plot-driven book where the idea is to get from A to Z as dramatically as possible and so quickly that you hardly touch the sides. Fast food, if you like.

Graham Swift is opening up the possibility of something more complex and more subtle, which could add another dimension, almost a commentary, to your narrative. If you are writing in the first person (I), you automatically create a relationship between the teller and the tale.  You can, of course, ignore this opportunity and write a pacy, plot driven book even in the first person, but why not max out your potential?

Ask yourself why your central character is telling the story....

• Is it to right a wrong? 
• Is it to set the record straight?  
• Is it because they are in fear of their life?  
• Is it to try and come to terms with what has happened?  
• Is it to shaft an enemy?
• Is it to claim a reward?

Already you are starting to add some depth to what would otherwise be a straightforward plot.  This can lead on to other interesting questions...

• Is your narrator reliable, or are his motives suspect and if so why?
• Is he telling the whole story, or just edited highlights?
• Is it even his story to tell?

By considering all these possibilities, you can create amazing texture in your work. It's the difference between bowling a straight ball, or putting some spin on the delivery (it is the Ashes at the moment, after all), so that your book becomes unpredictable, harder to handle and more exciting.