Tuesday 28 April 2009

Dick Francis and POV


I've noticed that Dick Francis writes in the first person, too. He doesn't use the I word very much but it is definitely First Person. Here's the opening lines of Under Orders:
"Sadly, death at the races is not uncommon.
However, three in a single afternoon was sufficiently unusual to raise more than an eyebrow. That only one of the deaths was of a horse was more than enough to bring the local constabulary hotfoot to the track."
He's good on first paragraphs, isn't he? It is only in the middle of the second paragraph that the I word comes into play. Now that I think back over the titles I've read over the years, I think most of them have been First Person - and yet I never really clocked it.
It's raining today, but I've been out on my bike anyway. I have to get fitter somehow, and it always seems that I do about a week of walking or cycling and then the good weather vanishes and I find myself staying indoors, lounging around, and by the time the good weather reappears, I've lost that little bit of fitness and have to start again. Stupid really. I've also done the grocery shopping and so can sit down to do some work feeling virtuous.

2 comments:

Anita Davison said...

I used to be a great Dick Francis fan and loved his first person stories. He had the ability to write as so many different people and get into their heads. Perhaps it's the quality of a first person PoV that makes it a bad thing to do. the good ones will always sell.

Jen Black said...

I'm amazed to discover I've been reading and enjoying FP POV all these years!
Jen

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