Character, reform yourself!

On May 15, 2013, Bibliophile wrote, Now, how do you bring about the reformation of a character? Not necessarily from evil to good or vice versa, but one of my characters is very proud, and hates humans, (she’s a mermaid). Unfortunately she has GOT to fall for Prince Coram, or the story is worthless. In fact, the whole story rotates around the fact that she and he got engaged at a ball after her dad transforms her into a human for punishment… long story there. But anyway, in my first draft, she and he just click. All of her hate just melts away for no reason at all. And not because he’s particularly handsome or anything like that; it just fades inexplicably. The reason she hates the humans is that one of them killed her mother long ago on her 6th birthday. Also I am debating about whether or not she can speak on land, or have it so that she can speak, but no one understands her. (The curse of the illustrious Disney!!!!) But she will probably be able to talk, or communicate in writing.

Elisa contributed these thoughts: To reform a character, there has to be the seeds of what the character will be like after the reformation already there. One of my characters is a proud high-born lady, who is, in the beginning, a snob. She’s cold, and sometimes downright ruthless. But she is also lonely. She is afraid of having relationships because her family all died of plague when she was young, and she is afraid to get close to someone for fear of losing them. Her seeds of reformation are her love for children and her appreciation for beauty (she loves flowers) and her random acts of kindness. You see that she’s not really all that bad, just cautious and somewhat insecure. You need to sew the seeds for your character. Maybe make her like the different types of plants up on the earth. Or have her bond with an animal. This is generally a good way to help show a good side in a character. Though, it should probably be a land animal, seeing as she was once a sea creature. Or have her grudgingly help a little girl, and then get fond of her, which will slowly melt down her hatred of other humans as well. Then have something terrible happen to the little girl, (kidnapped, terrible illness?) and your Sea Maiden will have to rescue her. Maybe have her band up with several people, in the case of kidnapping, or, in the case of illness, maybe make the cure be something from the depths of the sea, where she is forbidden to go, but she loves the little girl so much that she will save her no matter what, so, she goes back. Maybe have the prince help her somehow. You have to build up her affection for him someway, so having them work together might be a good idea. Have her save his life maybe, or him save her. Or both.

The prince is Coram. Let’s call the mermaid Ondine, after the play Ondine by the French playwright Jean Giraudoux, which is a marvelous and tragic mermaid fairy tale. Do any of you know it? Giraudoux died before I was born, but his work was popular when I was a teenager. Wikipedia cites a marvelous quote from him: “Only the mediocre are always at their best.” I haven’t read the play in decades, but I just revisited it on Wikipedia, and it sounds appropriate for middle school readers and up. To be sure, show the plot summary to a parent or ask a librarian for an opinion. However, I suggest you read the actual play rather than the summary.

Onto Bibliophile’s question. Reformation is bigger than mere character growth or character change; reformation is fundamental. So my question is, Must Ondine reform? Can she fall for Prince Coram and go merrily on hating humanity?

As for falling for him, I’d suggest connecting him somehow with the sea or with the mer or just with water. Suppose, for example, Ondine, in rebellion against her fate, contrives at the ball to spill a pitcher of festive punch on him, and when she sees his face dripping wet, he becomes familiar in her eyes. His wet skin glistens; his eyelashes are especially compelling, and she stops regarding him as the despised other. Or, suppose he prepares for their meeting by becoming familiar with mer customs. He greets her in the mer way. He disarms her with his understanding. She’s halfway there – and then they go outside, where the fountains send sparkling spray into the moonlight.

But if you’re after real reformation, if Ondine’s hatred of people has been so longstanding that it’s become ingrained and she has to come to feel differently for the story to work, then more has to happen. There has to be a powerful reason and a decision, an act of will.

I hope there’s character change in all my books, but for true reformation, I identified six: Ella Enchanted, The Two Princesses of Bamarre, Fairest, Ever, The Fairy’s Mistake, and For Biddle’s Sake. In Ella Enchanted, Ella has struggled against her curse all her life. The reader endures with her as she makes attempt after attempt to break free. It’s only when she becomes a danger to Prince Char that she can summon up – with great difficulty – the will to disobey.

In Fairest, Aza’s suffering stems more from her own self-hatred than from the scorn of Ayorthaians. After instance upon instance of trouble for trying to change her appearance, by the end of the book she’s beginning to accept herself. She’s on her way to reformation, but it isn’t even complete by then.

One more example: In For Biddle’s Sake, which is completely lighthearted, the fairy Bombina’s favorite activity is turning people into toads. However, her heart is touched by the child Parsley, who only eats – you guessed it – parsley. The fairy adopts Parsley, and the girl disapproves of the fairy’s hobby and withholds her smile, which Bombina adores, unless Bombina gives it up. With great difficulty the fairy does, until she has a relapse, with disastrous consequences that teach Bombina her lesson forever. It’s my favorite of my Princess Tales.

In each of these cases, the reformation is hard won. It’s the focus of the book. For the reader to believe it, we need to devote a lot of pages to it. Change has to be preceded by suffering, and generally more than one instance of it. In For Biddle’s Sake, first Bombina is sent to jail by the fairy queen. When she comes out and adopts Parsley and then again turns somebody into a toad, she loses Parsley’s smile. Then, the final misery, she loses Parsley entirely, which does the trick.

The reformation is a decision that Ondine or your MC makes, which is quite different in most cases from falling in love. The word falling suggest that love comes from a loss of will (I don’t know if this is true in real life!). Reformation calls for an act of will or many acts, not so different from overcoming a bad habit, like not studying (or studying only one’s favorite subjects) or overeating or mercilessly teasing a brother or sister.

Surprise can be a factor leading to reformation. I think Elisa’s suggestions are along these lines. Ondine has long-held beliefs about the brutality of humans. On land she’ll see examples of kindness that will surprise her and may make a dent in her prejudice, but for reformation to be profound the change needs to be more than intellectual. Still, that can be a beginning. For example, she can start to believe that harboring hatred violates what she considers the best part of being mer.

Here are three prompts:

• Someone you know has a bad habit, the ones I suggested (not studying or overeating or merciless teasing) or some other. Fictionalize this real person and write a story in which he or she conquers the habit.

• Turn the bad habit into something bigger. Your earlier MC couldn’t stop smoking cigarettes, for example. Transform this into something else, like a deep-seated need to sleep on pillowcases made from butterfly wings, or pick your own. In my example, butterflies are being slaughtered in great numbers and may go extinct. Reform him for a happy ending or make him fail and create a tragedy.

• Take on your own version of our Ondine story, with or without a prince. With every fiber of her being she hates and loathes people. Her reaction to humans is similar to mine to cockroaches: Yuck! Ew! Get away from me! Die! Now bring her around to love and admiration.

Have fun, and save what you write!

75 Responses on “Character, reform yourself!”

  1. Bibliophile says:

    One thing I forgot to mention, if anyone knows that she is a mermaid they will torture/imprison/kill her because of trouble they have been having with a mermaid-siren cult. And her name is Aria, but I might change it to Ondine now because well… it's just AWESOME!! He also rescues her from drowning after her father does the whole mermaid-human-transformation-thing. And he is a huge ocean fan, and they both love horses… and eventually she saves his kingdom… because it is between him and some crazy megalomaniacal magician… and between times it gets all difficult between his ruthless mother who is fiercely protective of him and wants only the best, his father who doesn't dig the unknown creature stealing his son's heart, and the creeper magician that wants to take over the kingdom. Not to mention that Aria or maybe now Ondine, has to get with the the outline and get over her human hatred to fall in love with princy dude. The two things are very related in my case, she is just one of those people, besides it just makes more sense to me to have it that way.

    WOW I HAVE A LOT OF WORK TO DO!!! THANKS FOR THE POST AND ANSWERING MY QUESTION MS. LEVINE!!!!

  2. Bug says:

    I have a bad guy in my story, but I have trouble making him…evil. I don't want him to be cheesy, and I want my readers to be interested, but I am just having a hard time making that happen.

    • Jennaral Lee says:

      What kind of a villain is he? Are we supposed to hate, Hate, HATE him; or do you want us to feel sorry for him at the same time? What's your goal for him? I personally sort of like it when I can feel sorry for the villain and want him to end up turning good (although it's also really hard when I know he won't, like with Loki in THOR and THE AVENGERS). Going with the Loki example, it's the relationship with his brother and his confusion about himself that makes you ache for him while at the same time hating what he does. There's a lot of complexity there that keeps me hooked. I realize this is a movie example, not a book one, but I think a lot of the same principles apply. Anyway, there's one example of a complex and, in my opinion, very interesting villain. Like carpelibris said, there should be some layers, not single-minded evil-ness. 🙂 I'm kind of trying to work out my villain too; I'm not entirely certain what his motivation is, though I have a couple ideas. I guess I'll cross that bridge when I come to it–you don't even realize he's there until farther along in the book, because he's disguised.

    • Elisa says:

      Jennaral, that sounds cool. Bug, my villain is evil, not the type you can feel sorry for. He's greedy and power hungry. The only person I can think of to compare his personality with is Hitler. Lord Farworthy (That's his name) is the one who forces Saphira's sisters to dance at night, letting them stop only if Saphira has brought him information about the war that he deems useful. He is absolutely detestable. He is an egotistical, lying, wicked blackmailer. He is also cruel. The reason he decides to make the girls dance is because they loved it. He wants them to start to hate something they once loved by using it to kill them. That is how evil he is. I want every one who might (eventually) read my book to HATE him. See, that's how I make a vile villain. I make him self-centered, cruel, ruthless and despicable. I have lots of fun with him, making him as terrible as he can possibly be, and then destroying him in the end (Well, actually, he just gets horribly maimed, and escapes, so I can use him later, but, you get the point). I hope this helped.

    • Elsabet says:

      Think of what motivates them, if you can't come up with anything, think about real life villain, such as Benedict Arnold, King George, (The one who was oppressing America, at the moment I forget the exact number) Hitler, Stalin, Vlad the Impaler, (Also known as Count Dracula) John W. Booth, Emperor Nero, Caligula, and even Satan (The ultimate villain) had reasons.

    • Kenzi Anne says:

      Something I try to do with my villains to make them frightening (or at least seem villainous) is by allowing them to hurt my characters–not necessarily physically, but to be able to truly destroy their lives or make them eternally miserable. If that's hard for you to do, it is for me, too. I hate hurting my characters! Which of course is exactly why we hate the villains:for causing our characters pain! There is nothing stopping them from doing horrible things, and there's no easy solution for defeat, which makes them all the more dangerous and villainous, in my opinion. Hope this helps 🙂

  3. carpelibris says:

    Most people don't think of themselves as evil. They just want something so badly they don't care if they hurt others to get it. Or they think they're doing something for "the greater good," or some other justification. 100% evil is kind of boring.

    BTW, way back when I asked for fairy tales to write about, Gail suggested Humpty Dumpty. The Humpty Dumpty story became the last installment of my Twisted Fairy Tale series. Daily Science Fiction sent it to subscribers today, and next week it'll be in their archive for anybody who wants to read it. Thank you for the suggestion, Gail!

  4. Eliza says:

    Maybe your mermaid thinks of humans as brutal monsters, but then she sees works of art they've created or watches them care for their young, just like mermaids do. Eventually she realizes humans are just mermaids with legs. In most stories I've seen with fantasy racism/perjudice, the change comes when the hero realizes they're not so different.

  5. Bibliophile says:

    So, how do ya'll feel about Amazons????????

    I'm playing with this story where an Amazon princess, Ara, is captured by the prince of Tuble, Treyvellan. And of course they fall in love. (This was another reason that I favor Ondine now, I have a bad habit of giving my heroines similar names) There is more to it of course, including a fight to the death to defeat Ara's evil queen mother, Calyx, and the (thank GOD!!!) already planned out character development of Ara from tough girl to normal girl. Not to mention the tension of dealing with being transplanted to a new lifestyle of an actual 'Court'. (she is the ONLY prisoner of the Tublians…. For totally understandable reasons that I don't want to go into right now. She is also kept at the court for Chivalrous reasons, don't you love those knighty peeps!)
    Anywho, what do ya'll think, is this a keeper or a tosser?

    BTW, STEAL THE STORY AND FACE MY WRATH!!!! It is a personal pet of mine.

    • Elisa says:

      Well, not wanting to discourage you, but it sounds a little clichéd. That is my personal opinion. I don't especially like Amazons either. Again, this is only MY opinion. I think the story could, however, be tweaked, and be really good. More on this later, after I do some research.

    • gailcarsonlevine says:

      I'm weighing on cliches, about which I've written two posts that people may want to revisit by clicking on the label. Fictional topics are used over and over. Basic plots give rise to myriad stories, because there aren't that many. What makes a story original and not cliched is how a plot is recreated, which has first and foremost to do with the characters. If they come alive, if their actions aren't predictable (check out my post on predictability, too), the story will feel fresh.

    • Xmay says:

      I actually like Amazons, however the plot line 'falling in love with kidnapper' (or Stockholm Syndrome)is a little cliche. But, like Mrs. Levine said, it depends on how you work the plot, the development of characters, the unexpected twists, etc.
      Overall, though, I think you should definitely give it a try.

    • Elisa says:

      Okay, I'm back. Yesterday I looked up the books that reminded me of your plot. I can only remember a few of them, but here they are: Crown Duel, By Sherwood Smith (Also the sequel, Court Duel, which really should be read immediately after the first book), Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale. Read them and see if you can make yours different. I'm sorry if this comment is a little brusque, but I have a restricted time limit. Sorry, I hope this helped.

  6. Jennaral Lee says:

    Mrs. Levine, my sister and I finally got to read FORGIVE ME, I MEANT TO DO IT recently. I've been really wanting to, but our library didn't have it; I had to order it to come to a nearby library in a different system. The poems were funny, and I liked the illustrations too. I especially liked the one where you explained about putting the introduction in the middle. 😀 My sister loved the book; she really enjoys that kind of humor. Her favorites were the ones fairytale ones. She wanted me to tell you. 🙂

  9. Athira Abraham says:

    How can I come up with original plots? I've searched up on the Internet, and I know that you should write the story you want to read, but I'm sick and tired of reading books on quests, rescuing,riddles, forbidden love, escaping, or revenge, though it seems like all books and stories and plots fall under these categories and more. But I want my plot to be more enticing to the readers that read it and to myself. I want it to be new, original, and unique.

    I do like quests and escaping an evil enchanter etc., but its so common. How can I accomplish this?

    • Bug says:

      If you are talking about just writing any genre, I suggest not doing Fantasy. But if you are like me, then you prefer fantasy. Cuz it's fun. If so, I'm sorry, but I was actually wondering the same thing, so, I'll be glad for input, too! Sorry!:)

    • Tuong-Phi Le says:

      Building off tropes is not always a bad thing; tropes are used often because they work, but the trick is taking a trope and making it your own–adding your own interpretations, twists, and ideas. I strongly recommend the book 45 Master Characters by Victoria Schmidt (Amazon link here), which shows you not only how to craft original characters, but has two chapters in the back that analyze the masculine and feminine journeys, so basically two very old, well-tried, types of quest tales that you can use as a foundation for your story.

      Another way to craft a story that is organic if not, perhaps, brilliantly original is to do a solid job of worldbuilding–create a believable, diverse world, with believable nations and peoples and geography and languages and religions/philosophies (yes, you need most if not all of those to make a world feel complete). A strong setting will help you generate plot that works in that setting, and that will make your story feel less contrived, less typical.

      In all honesty, though, the best way to write original stories is to practice, and to revise. Don't worry about whether it's original or not, at least not on your first draft. Just write what feels right. Best of luck!

    • Jenalyn Barton says:

      The only advice I can give was best said by C.S. Lewis:

      "Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it."

    • Michelle Dyck says:

      I begin with a seed of an idea. I let it percolate in my mind for as long as it needs (which can be months), and then I write an outline.
      I'm not really a seat-of-the-pants writer, since I tend to get lost and veer completely away from my vague destination. But I'm also not the kind of writer who plans EVERY single detail either. I fall somewhere in between. My outlines are divided into chapters, and each chapter has several brief points. This helps me keep my story heading in the 'right' direction and still allows for the joy of on-the-spot creation. If the story doesn't want to follow my outline, that's okay — I just re-evaluate and shift the outline.
      Once I've completed an outline, I start typing away on my laptop. I finish that first draft, and then let it sit for a little while. After that, I read it over and edit it. At first, this consists of giving myself suggestions/corrections by means of comments (on the Microsoft Word document). Then I change things. And change things. And change some more. Refining, cutting, adding, etc. This takes a looooong time.
      As my last (or close to last) editing stage, I have my brother read the story out loud to me. He's a good reader, and hearing it aloud helps me catch wording problems and plot holes I hadn't seen before.
      Seeing as none of my serious WIPs are quite complete yet, that's as much as I can share. 🙂 Hope this was helpful! (And, just saying, my first book has been in the works for around four, five years. I'm learning a ton, so book 2 should go faster!)

    • Athira Abraham says:

      Really?? You've published a book? What's it called? I'd love to read it! 😀

      And also, how do you write every day? (e.g wake up, turn on computer, start typing story, take a break etc.)

    • Jennaral Lee says:

      Wow, Michelle! Your process is so neat and orderly! Mine is hopelessly messy! I use some of the methods Mrs. Levine has suggested, like saving a document again when I want to try taking it in a different direction or am doing major changes, and using notes. But I also do a lot of writing and rewriting my scenes: changing from the POV of one character to that of another, switching from first to third person and back, just trying to flesh out as much as I can before bringing it all together. At least, that's the general idea; how well the "bringing it all together" goes remains to be seen. I also end up purposely writing extra scenes sometimes, ones I don't plan to use, but that just help me with character development. And then sometimes they get incorporated anyway. All the rewrites is probably part of the reason I don't often finish things, but I have to do it in order to move forward at all. Without my rewrites and extra scenes, I would know very little about my story world or characters.

    • Xmay says:

      Unlike Michelle, I don't really outline at all. Usually if I have an idea, I write out a the general idea and then if I get more inspiration for the story I just start writing. Sometimes I will have a general idea for the next chapter, climax, or ending, but usually I just let the characters and plot take me along for the ride.
      Writing every day is kind of a problem of mine too…I think to myself, 'I'm going to write 1500 words' and then I don't write anything. And that just ends up making me angry at myself. so I don't really have an answer for that one…

    • Michelle says:

      When I started my first novel, I actually came up with the title first, and my imagination took off from there. That's never happened before or since. But I had seen an e-book's title, and it gave me an excellent idea which inspired my whole book! I wish everything were that easy!
      Of course, that's not how I usually work, but I just thought it would be an interesting comment to add.

    • Michelle says:

      Athira Abraham, in answer to your question on uniqueness, I can only give my opinion. It will probably be different for everyone.
      I think that perhaps the reason that these topics are used so much is because they're popular. For many people, these adventures are so exciting and suspenseful that they never get boring. Of course, the success of a book depends on its author. If you feel bored with these topics, don't use them. There's a good chance that readers won't be interested if you're not.
      Write about what you think is interesting. As for the uniqueness, I don't think there is any advice to give. It's a hard question.
      But, I do think that every plot, even original plots, have piggybacked off others at one point or another. If you like quests and an escaping evil enchanter, ponder those topics. And eventually, ideas will come. Good or bad, they always do.
      By the way, if you've done research on the internet, this means you're a serious writer. You have an imagination. And if you have an imagination, there's nothing to worry about.

      As I said, this is only my opinion. It is not necessarily true. Just clearing that up.
      Anyways, hope that helped! I know you'll do great on your stories!

    • Athira Abraham says:

      Sorry, I might not have made myself clear. By writing process, I meant how you spend your time writing every day- e.g wake up, turn on computer, and then what you do.

      But I don't mind reading a post about writing processes! 😀

    • Michelle Dyck says:

      Oh, sorry for the misunderstanding! You can blame me for setting everyone off on the wrong track. 😛
      Well, this kind of writing process is not quite as orderly as the kind I talked about before… I think I've mentioned that I don't have a set schedule. I write at whatever time of day works for me.
      As to what I do… I turn on my laptop. Sometimes I fool around with Solitaire or Minesweeper (how boring, right?) for a few minutes. That's probably a bad habit. After that (or right away, if I didn't fool around), I'll either start working on my story right away, or do a self-made writing exercise. Those exercises were inspired by the creativity of Mrs. Levine's WRITING MAGIC prompts. 🙂 I keep them short, but they're fun to do and they often get me 'warmed up.'
      When it comes down to the actual WIP, I usually read over a page or so of what I last wrote. If I can see big changes that need to be made immediately, I make them. And then I write. 🙂

  11. Michelle Dyck says:

    @Athira Abraham: No, I haven't published a book. Yet. 🙂 Book 1 is called THE PROPHET'S QUEST, and I'm planning for there to be three or four installments (the series is called Journeys of the Chosen). I will definitely announce it on here once it gets published!!
    As to writing everyday… Good question! I'm not sure I even know how I do it. I love writing so much that it's usually not too hard. (Boy, that was helpful.) I don't have a set schedule, partly because I'm homeschooled, but I generally get some writing/editing done once my mandatory tasks are over. Sometimes I only write for 15-30 minutes, sometimes (when I'm really on a roll) for a couple hours. That's when I have to make myself take a break. 🙂

    @Jennaral Lee: Thanks. 🙂 There are times when my process gets hopelessly messed up as well! (Book 3, for example, is only partially written, but already is a tangled mess. It'll need lots of work when I get back to it.) Don't worry about having a 'messy' writing process, though. Everyone writes differently! My favorite author (Bryan Davis) writes wonderfully complex books… and he's a seat-of-the-pants type of writer. He doesn't know what's going to happen until it happens. I myself don't think I could write anything cohesive that way, but it works really well for him.

  12. Aspire to inspire says:

    I have a problem a bit like this. The forest where the girls live is supposed to be evil, but it isn't coming across that way. There is supposed to be monsters and death around every corner, etc.
    The girls have lived there for 6 years by chapter 2, and the only fear is expressed in the first chapter, but not much even then, because thy all ran away to get away from something much worse than the wood, so they are not scared of it, in a way.
    I think one of my character quotes around these lines.
    "The Wood was death, that was why it was named the woods of Deprave. Folk didn't enter it willingly. But somehow, I was never scared of it. I was always grateful for the chance to escape- and to be free from my bonds.''
    So how can I get the effect across? I need to make it so they are not scared of it, but not that it is not scary.
    Any help????

    • Agnes says:

      Emotionally the girls may not find it scary, but that does not stop them from being affected by it. Lets say there's a werewolf in the forest, on the night of the full moon you see the girls getting ready covering up the smell of their house and getting small weapons, they aren't scared but they are aware of the danger. Or lets say every night one of the girls goes out to gather food, they assure each other the smell is covered up that the gatherer is quite sure what she's picking etc. Again they are aware of the danger but they aren't cowering in their house.
      You might want to make sure that they don't appear foolhardy which is not the best attitude to have in a forest full of death:)
      Hope this helped!

    • writeforfun says:

      I do agree with Agnes, by the way. Very good suggestions!

      It also might help if you just tried to make the girls sound a little more scared of it. In the quote, the woods sounds sort of peaceful, which I don't think is the idea you're trying to get across. It's your story, and obviously I don't know anything else about it, but would it work if when she talked about it, she said more like, "The Wood was death, that was why it was named the woods of Deprave. Folk didn't enter it willingly. Still, even the evil woods of Deprave was better than the troubles I had to face back home." You probably wouldn't use that line exactly, but could you just try to make it sound like she isn't terrified of it, but it's not exactly the type of place where she'd like to take a picnic, either. Just some food for thought. Good luck with your story!

  14. writeforfun says:

    Sorry, I didn't mean to reply to Aspire to Inspire's question.

    Hi again! I was hoping to get lots of writing done this summer, but so far I haven't had any time to write or read! So sad:) I just got caught up on all the posts I've been missing. Several great ones, Gail! Especially thanks for "R Trouble." Excellent advice!

    While I haven't had any time to write, I've been mentally planning my next book. It's the third book in what has become a trilogy. The first two books are written in third person limited POV, alternating from character to character. The third book will mostly be about the daughter of two of the original MC's. I'm really tempted to write this third book in first person POV, just because it seems natural to me to do so, but that would be totally different from the first two books. Would it be alright to write my third book in first person, or would that be a bad idea? Should I try to keep them all in the same POV so that there is unity to the series? I'm just not sure! I've never written a series before!

    • Michelle Dyck says:

      My first response would echo Athira Abraham's. That's probably because I've never read a series where the POV changed like that.
      But if you have a strong, legitimate reason for doing so, I'd say go for it (as in, write book 3 in first person). I've heard it said that the only unbreakable rule in writing is that every rule is breakable. 🙂
      (Welcome back, by the way.)

    • Elisa says:

      I would do it in first, if that is what seems natural to you (I'm a first person writer too.) As for finding a series with both POVs in it, look for Megan Whalen Turners The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, and A Conspiracy of Kings. the first book, The Thief, is told in first person, The Queen of Attolia and The King of Attolia are both told in third, and A Conspiracy of Kings is told in both. Just do what seems natural to you, because if you don't it really messes with the story. (I know, I've been writing in third person, and then started, without meaning to, into first, and I didn't realize until later what I'd done. I confused myself grandly.)

    • Elisa says:

      Oh, I think I aught to mention that the characters in these books swear. The book with the most is the King of Attolia, because it's told through a soldier, who is expected to swear. My Mum let me read it because she thought I could skip over the bad language. Besides that, the books are very well written, and the plots are quite interesting and entertaining, although, the people in these books worship gods that are not from this world.

    • writeforfun says:

      Thank you all for your input! I feel much better about it now! I was thinking about it, and my third book is really a lot different than my first two in other respects as well, as the first two centered on my six adult MC's and their epic missions, and this one will be about a little girl and her strange, but fairly un-epic life. I think I will try going with first person since it feels so natural to me, and see what happens!

    • Jenalyn Barton says:

      Might I suggest an alternative? There's a type of POV in creative writing called "free indirect discourse" (FID). What it is is a type of third person that has the feel of first person. You can still have the "he/she said" of third person without having to use "he/she thought". It's kind of hard to explain, but I really enjoy using FID because of the freedom it gives you.

      Here's the url to the wikipedia page:
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_indirect_speech

      Hope this helps!

  15. gailcarsonlevine says:

    This came into the website:

    About the blog post's questioner wondering what to do about her human-hating mermaid, I would recommend the book 'Breaking Stalin's Nose', which I stole from my sister when she read it for a book club.

    It's very short, and for those who haven't read it, a little boy in the USSR idolizes Stalin, but by the end of the book is not so sure whether he likes the system. If the author had stayed to keep him around a few years instead of about a week, I can easily see his idolism of Stalin believably turned from distrust to hatred—though maybe love to hate is easier then hate to love.
    Lydia

  16. Michelle Dyck says:

    Mrs. Levine, my brother (age 15) just read THE FAIRY'S RETURN to our younger sister last night, all at once, no breaks in between. He wanted me to tell you he enjoyed the book and appreciated its humor. 🙂 (Especially the king's humor!)

  17. Bug says:

    Mrs. Levine, my cousin and I were talking about Ella Enchanted, and we just wanted to let you know that we love it! (Even my eleven year old brother, who so far has hated reading anything that has to do with girls, took it and didn't want to give it back!) It's my favorite book of yours, though I haven't read a few, so that might not be fair. 🙂

  19. Athira Abraham says:

    Seeing everyone is letting you know about your books, I'd also like to add that my 18 year old sister who is soo picky about reading books LOVED Fairest! Fairest is also one of my favourite books too!

  20. Writer Person says:

    Does anyone have any ideas about introducing new races? In my story I don't have any humans… each race is like a human, but is distinctly different, and this is really important to the story, but it's hard to explain to the reader… help?

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