Multitasking

Taking a break from proofreading "Stranger Faces," lest I get too close to it to see mistakes, which happens far more often than I'd like to think.

Spent some time today going over "Seer Tyro Fiend" to sort of get reacquainted. After several days away from a project, I often find it a little harder to get back into the feeling of it again, and rereading what I've written thus far helps to build up the story in my mind. Of course, I've been thinking about where the story is headed and had some good ideas for upcoming scenes.

My main concern after today's reading exercise is that the puzzle is going to be too easy to figure out. Does it only seem so to me because I already know who the bad guy(s) is/are? This novel is not a typical whodunit since there is no murder to contend with (yet). Stefanie is going through some changes here. In "Dabblers," she reached a new level of acceptance of her psychic gift, and in "Seer" she'll go to the next level since she has a better support system in place, i.e., people who know about the Ken and do not look at her differently for it.

Not so long ago, I read an article on another author's blog about the problems with writing in the first person, as I have in the Faces series as well as this one. He said that first person is not a natural way to tell a story because that POV character could not possibly remember all the details that must be included. I kind of smirked when I read that. Stefanie has an eidetic memory and remembers everything in detail! Ha! When I reinvented the character a few months ago when reworking "Dabblers," I had not been concerned about this memory issue when telling a story in first person. It makes me rather proud of the traits I assigned to Stefanie: her memory, the Ken, being a prodigious savant. They all fit together.

I still think people accept reading first person and don't think it strange. I've never had a problem with it when it's done right. Some of my favorite mystery authors write in first person: Kathy Reichs, Sarah Paretsky. Two other favorites--Michael Creighton and Dean Koontz--jump back and forth between first person and third person. In the Jack Watson series, I wrote in third person for several different POV characters, mainly to get the story into the hands of the character best situated to convey that part. I even took a crack at writing first person POV for a male character in one of my short stories, "Mr. Fixit." In most cases, however, what POV to choose is not a subject of intense contemplation for me. I wind up using whatever feels most natural at the time.