Ask the Bard #26: First Person POV, Plotting a Revolution, and a First Ever TBC!

This week's worldbuilding advice column answers questions about first person narratives and how to plot a successful revolution; the first of a two-part Ask the Bard.

Wow! Y’all really turned up this week! This “Ask the Bard” column is meant to be the beating heart of this community, and it’s encouraging to see it starting to grow into that role.

Sure, I want you to buy my fiction. But I also want you to get in touch with the creative fire within yourself and share that with the world! 🔥🌎

Don’t forget, you can share your work in the RbM chat for uplifting, helpful feedback! It’s a wonderful place full of creative people doing fun things in the worldbuilding, fiction, art, and gaming spaces. We give feedback with a “stars and wishes” format to lift each other to higher skill levels and celebrate every story’s beautiful little accomplishments.

I hope you’ll join us!

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Q: What is your opinion of 1st person narrative in story telling?

A: Personally, I love it; some stories can only be told in the first person.

That being said, it’s also got its own list of challenges. First person is a great way to use a carefully crafted unreliable narrator. It’s a wonderful option for a mystery. Hell, The Great Gatsby was written in first person!

Telling a story in the first person is a bold and intimate choice. It’s a wonderful way to create suspense, mystery, and surprise because everything that happens, everyone we meet, everywhere we go is colored by the main character’s experience and opinions. It completely removes all objective fame of reference and leaves us entirely at the mercy of the main character’s inner life.

Another tick in the “Pros” column for using the first person is that it works in any genre, and is especially useful in spec-fic when we have to get the audience on board with some really weird shit, really fast. Some great examples include:

• I, Q by John De Lancie and Peter David (A Star Trek: TNG novel.)

• Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (“Call me Ishmael,” is one of the most famous opening lines in literature.)

• David Copperfield and Great Expectations by Charles Dickens (Just two of many examples from his body of work.)

• The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Bold and intimate, indeed.)

• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn (Remember all of our talks about unreliable Narrators?)

• The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (I mean, duh.)

Finally, as a writer of horror and lover of ghost stories, I think that first person narratives are one of the best ways to convey both strong and subtle emotions to a reader. We are drawn to the stories that others tell us, to personal adventures related by the people who experienced them.

I was driving home from work last week when I picked up a hitch-hiker. I know, I know. I shouldn’t have, it’s dangerous, I could have been killed. Well, here I am to tell the whole creepy story. I swear, if you’d seen her walking alone like I did, drenched from the rain, huddled in a thin sweater that was no match for the chill, well…you’d have picked her up, too.

It doesn’t even matter that it’s a ghost story you’ve heard a hundred times before, telling it from my own perspective means it’s going to be a new version that you’ve never heard before. And that’s enough to hook most human people. It’s part of the psychology of story…as I understand it from my wholly non-professional reading about such things.

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Q: How do I create a believable revolution?…

…What are the circumstances that lead up to one and how do they get resolved if successful? How do you know when to stop revolting?

A: You’re in luck, I know exactly how to handle this because I’ve got a revolution of my own brewing!

Well, I know how to handle the build-up and the execution. What happens after a ‘successful’ revolution…well, that entirely depends on who is successful.

Yes, I’ll explain.

It might help to keep this handy: Haly’s Summer Camp 2023 Organizing Whiteboard. That WorldAnvil white board illustrates the relationship web between all 42 of my Summer Camp 2023 articles…most of which detail the run up to a revolution that is brewing within the city of Central Tilth, the capital of the glass monopoly. The conflict article “Growing Unrest in Central Tilth” gives a pretty concise overview of what has pushed the people to this point, and how the earliest stages are just now beginning to reveal themselves.

So, how to create one?

First and foremost, people gon’ people, no matter where or when. The more you study history, the more you’ll notice that people don’t change, only their access to education and technology changes. People don’t act because they’re satisfied; they don’t even act if they’re dissatisfied, but comfortable. “Eh, sure it sucks, but what are you gonna do?”

People only act when they’re dissatisfied and agitated. And agitation doesn’t come from above, it comes from within the ranks of the dissatisfied. It comes from the people themselves. It’s me saying to you, “Yanno, I feel like if we took action, we could make a change.” The three people on my right might roll their eyes and continue scrolling their phones, but one of the three people on my left might be curious or, hope upon hope, inspired.

Everyone is unhappy. Someone suggests change. Others are inspired to help. That’s how it begins.

Carrying it out, through the plot of a novel or a serial, requires a lot more. First, it requires secrecy and organization, both. This is why most successful revolutions use a cell-structure to limit the flow of knowledge.

For instance, Mon Mothma knows that Leia Organa works under her. Leia Organa knows that Luke Skywalker works under her, and that Luke works with Mara Jade. But Mara Jade doesn’t know Leia, and Luke doesn’t know Mon Mothma, and only Mon Mothma knows who she herself works with and reports to. So, if the bad guys catch Leia, they’ll learn about Mon Mothma, and Luke Skywalker, but Mara Jade and everyone else who Leia doesn’t know…will be safe.

It also requires secret or secure means of communicating, and places to meet. Think of all the great spy movies and heists and let your imagination run wild. It’s time to mention

Neal Stephenson

again, because his novel Cryptonomicon and it’s prequel novels in The Baroque Cycle cover this in great detail (and also illustrate how people gon’ people, 100% of the time).

I feel about those novels the same way I feel about the movie Clue: practically perfect in every way.

As for knowing when to stop revolting…well, all revolutions have a goal. Self-determining government, a restoration of the Galactic Senate, the removal of the caste system and installation of a parliament under the stewardship of an elected representative of the workers. This goal is what separates a revolution from a mob.

Finally…what happens after a successful revolution? Well, who was successful?

In any large conflict, you will have a number of aggrieved parties who all agree on the problem, but cannot agree on a solution. And if you don’t believe me, then kindly read Jefferson’s notes about the Continental Congress. Everyone agreed that England was bad, but once they were gone, no one could agree on what was good!

People gon’ people.

Hope this helped…there’s more to come!

Brevity is not my strong point, and so I’ll have to get to this week’s other questions in tomorrow’s newsletter; we’ll do a “Throwback to Yesterday” for Throwback Thursday! 🤣

In the meantime….

Imagica

You’re absolutely right to be cautious; this week is the first Friday of February, which means I’ll be releasing this month’s interview with my friend and fellow Anvilite, Chris Lontok — better known to many of us beans as

kitoypoy

. We cover this in some detail, and I’ll have more specific advice tomorrow when it’s not bed time. In the meantime, Writing With Color is one of my favorite resources for incorporating diverse perspectives with respect and kindness.

Hippie Drillsgt

Too much…is a loaded perspective. What is too much? We’ll look at this in a bit more detail, but for now I’ll say this… again, people gon’ people, and we are always on the lookout for the easiest thing that provides the least amount of change. And so with transportation, the easiest and most familiar will win out. An abundance of choices will eventually whittle down to the best options for the most people.

I’ll be back tomorrow with more in-depth answers to these wonderful questions!!

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