Writing a series; Third to First person?

[SionR25]

Hi everyone,

At the moment the book I am writing is being told in the third person. The thing is, the way I want the book to end the perspective switches.
At the start of every chapter there is a short paragraph in an almost narrative voice talking about the main character and some other events. I've done this because I think it can work well by providing the reader additional background to what may be happening and having already thought of the ending I know how I can bring this narrative so it becomes part of the main story. Close to the end the character speaking the narrative (who readers won't know the identity of) takes a main part in the story. I was just wondering should I use the narrative part and create him in the first person or carry on the story in the third person?
Hope I made that clear, I find it quite hard to describe .

Thanks

 

[Roc]

I don't see why you can't use both. I am.

I also don't think anyone but yourself is liable to say what PoV you should use for your story.

Good luck.

 

[Anders Ämting]

It's a bit tricky, but it can be done. Jonathan Stroud did something like that in his Bartimaeus Sequence. The titular Bartimaeus is the narrator, so whenever the plot focuses on him, the story in first person. However, whenever the plot shifts to a scene where he is not present, he narrates the story in third person instead. It was actually pretty neatly done.

The tricky part is probably that the narrator can't know what a certain character is thinking or see the scene from his or her perspective.

 

[Feo Takahari]

I always think it's useful to study previous examples of how a twist was used, so . . .

 

[Wanara009]

Personally, I use the point of view to indicate the character's position when they entered a story. This is how I personally choose the point-of-view when I'm writing a story:

-Characters written in third-person usually mean he/she has deeper knowledge on surrounding events (i.e.: they know what happen and has a pretty good grasp on why certain event happen) and/or have goal/motivation that is bigger than them when the story start. It might also denote that the character has a wider grasp over his immediate surrounding (i.e.: s/he has greater spatial awareness, etc). I usually only use subjective third person.

- Characters written in first-person are usually just some random berk pursuing goal that only concern them and/or possess superficial knowledge of the events of the plot (i.e.: they may know what happened but not why it happened, so they assume and this assumption are often wrong) when they entered the story. I also use it to denote that the characters might be more focused on the way they perceive their immediate environment (i.e.: s/he only see what/who she need and not paying attention on the periphery, etc).

Personally though, I find writing in first-person is a lot more fun. It allows me to explore the character's thought, responses, and motivation more thoroughly than third-person.

 

[wordwalker]

Not a bad distinction, Wanara. First-person lets us zero in on how unreliable the narrator is, with his blinders and his very specific thoughts; the standard advice is it's "more intense, but maybe too intense," but that doesn't sound like a bad thing. Third-subjective has the same rules but the tone gives it a bit more dignity. (And third person objective? no way.)

 

[SionR25]

I always think it's useful to study previous examples of how a twist was used, so . . .

Thanks for all the replies. This seems exactly what I am going for though.
Thanks again