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Genre – Science Fiction
Rating – R
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Finding Your Voice: Writing in First Person (or Third)
by Lindsey Pogue & Lindsey Fairleigh
Deciding which point-of-view to use when writing our first book, After The Ending, was probably one of the most difficult decisions we had to make…and the most time consuming. The POV is so immensely important to a storyline, allowing the readers to get into the characters’ heads and experience the story along with them, or to be omniscient and know things the characters themselves aren’t aware of. We knew that making the wrong decision would have devastated our goal to engross the reader, to make them care about what happened to Dani and Zoe as the young women learned to survive and thrive in their post-apocalyptic world. Although After The Ending is written in first person, it definitely didn’t start out that way, and making the decision to change it was a trying process.
After The Ending has gone through so many different stages that it’s become a completely different project from the one we initially set out to create. While the concept and storyline has essentially remained the same, the format of our work has gone through multiple revisions, transforming the original online blog version into the nearly 500-page book we finally published.
Because our initial idea was to start a blog where our two characters documented their apocalyptic survival experiences solely conveyed through emails, we started off writing in first person…and only in the format of emails between Zoe and Dani. It didn’t take us too long to realize that we were severely limiting the story that Dani and Zoe could tell. As the After The Ending developed, we were unable to convey the depth, dynamics, and true nature of our characters because we only allowed the reader to see them through their silly, realistic, and sometimes melodramatic emails.
Halfway into the storyline, we found ourselves wanting to share our characters in a way the emails wouldn’t allow, so we did a complete overhaul of everything we’d written, combining the emails with third person narration. The revisions not only allowed us to learn more about our characters, but also enable our readers to see beyond their quirky emails–to see Zoe and Dani as they truly are, including their fears, passions, and even their secrets.
As Zoe and Dani’s Abilities–what we call the extraordinary powers that some survivors develop early on in the book–began to develop during the writing process, we wondered if using the first person POV would be a better way to share what our characters were actually feeling and experiencing. We wanted there to be a personal connection between the reader and Dani and Zoe, and we felt that using first person could establish such a connection far more effectively than using third person. However, we also worried that by limiting the POV to first person, we were taking away from the development of the other important characters, somehow making them seem less important or relatable.
Conflicted, we asked fellow authors how they went about deciding which voice was best for their stories, in hopes they could help us make up our minds. As expected, all their advice was the same…what do the characters want? What does your gut tell you? We knew the answer, and it was then that we made the decision to do another huge overhaul and change everything to first person. Because Dani and Zoe are so essential to the story, we wanted them to be as alive as possible–for the readers to be able to connect with them and grow to love or hate the supporting characters as the women do. Since we made the change, we haven’t looked back.
Even though we decided to write the entire series in first person, we’ve come to realize that we don’t have to limit ourselves to Dani and Zoe’s perspectives. There’s still a lot of story left to tell and the two young women are only part of the world of The Ending.
The Virus spread. Billions died. The Ending began. We may have survived the apocalypse, but the Virus changed us.
When people started getting sick, “they” thought it was just the flu. My roommate, my boyfriend,
my family…they’re all gone now. I got sick too. I should have died with them—with the rest of the world—but I didn’t. I thought witnessing the human population almost disappear off the face of the earth was the craziest thing I’d ever experience. I was so wrong. My name is Dani O’Connor, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.
The Virus changed everything. The world I knew is gone, and life is backwards. We’ve all had to start over. I’ve been stripped of my home, my dreams…all that is me. I’m someone else now—broken and changed. Other survivors’ memories and emotions haunt me. They invade my mind until I can no longer separate them from my own. I won’t let them consume me. I can’t. My name is Zoe Cartwright, I’m twenty-six-years-old, and I survived The Ending.
We’ve been inseparable for most of our lives, and now our friendship is all we have left. The aftermath of the Virus has stranded us on opposite sides of the United States. Trusting strangers, making sacrifices, killing—we’ll do anything to reach one another. Fear and pain may be unavoidable, but we’re strong…we’re survivors. But to continue surviving in this unfamil-iar world plagued by Crazies and strange new abilities, we have to adapt. We have to evolve.
EXCERPT
Looking around apprehensively, I made my way toward the convenience store in hopes of finding a bathroom. The vacant world around me was eerily silent. All I could hear was the creaking of a giant wooden billboard being assaulted by the wind.
How long has it been since anyone was here? Through the dark windows I saw a bathroom sign that looked promising, but I couldn’t bring myself to enter. I wonder if it’s safe… As I stood outside of the store, I noticed a newspaper box still filled with papers. I leaned closer. The headline read, BILLIONS DEAD, and the paper was dated December 9, right before everything had started to shut down. I inserted a quarter and snatched out a paper. Scanning its contents, my mouth grew dry and my body stiffened.
…the H1N1/12 pandemic…
…looting and riotous outbreaks everywhere…
…end of civilization as we know it…
…survivors losing their minds…
…governments can’t control…
…the Apocalypse…
The newspaper slipped from between my fingers. Frozen in place, I was suffocated by the reality of our situation. This isn’t going away. The world ended. Thinking of the strange feelings I’d been experiencing, I once again questioned my own sanity. My thoughts were too loud to silence. My heart thudded, and I couldn’t swallow the lump in my throat. Looking out into the abandoned world around me, I realized how alone we really were. I bent down to reclaim the paper and turned on my heels to head back toward the truck, completely awestruck as the words I’d read replayed in my mind. Each was a reminder that the only world I’d ever known had ended.
Author Bios:
Lindsey Fairleigh lives her life with one foot in a book—as long as that book transports her to a magical world or bends the rules of science. Her novels, from post-apocalyptic to time travel and historical fantasy, always offer up a hearty dose of unreality, along with plenty of adventure and romance. When she’s not working on her next novel, Lindsey spends her time reading and trying out new recipes in the kitchen. She lives in the Napa Valley with her loving husband and confused cats.
Lindsey Pogue has always been a little creative. As a child she established a bug hospital on her elementary school soccer field, compiled books of collages as a teenager, and as an adult, expresses herself through writing. Her novels are inspired by her observations of the world around her—whether she’s traveling, people watching, or hiking. When not plotting her next storyline or dreaming up new, brooding characters, Lindsey’s wrapped in blankets watching her favorite action flicks or going on road trips with her own leading man.
The Ending Series / Barnes and Noble
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