How can I avoid always starting with I when writing first person

Forums:

Writers' Forum

Taxonomy upgrade extras:

I realized I was starting almost every sentence with I. It gets monotonousness to read it and to write. Can someone help me?

Like this post:

Start with a phrase....

...for example, to use your blog?

When looking over my recent chapters, I discovered that the pronoun "I" was appearing much too frequently for my satisfaction.

Or...

It's become tiresome to use the pronoun, "I" when writing in first person. Can anyone suggest some alternatives?

Both sentences imply "I" without actually using it.

another example might be:

Instead of "I was nearly hit by a car," you might say, "The driver paid no heed to me and nearly ran me down."

Your editor should be able to suggest some alternatives.

Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

Try starting your sentence with a verb or adverb ...

Instead of:

I went for a walk the other day and saw a big German Shepard being chased by a small house cat.

something like this:

Going out for a walk the other day, I saw a big German Shepard being chased by a small house cat.

or something like this:

When out for a walk the other day I saw a small house cat chasing a big German Shepard.

The other day when out for a walk I saw a big German Shepard being chased by a small house cat.

If you are starting a dialog sentence with 'I said', think about moving the attribution 'I said' to the end of the sentence.

Often when I am editing make a suggestion of this sort. There are other ways, too, but these are the first ones than sprang to mind.

Itâ€™s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets weâ€™ll have,
David Weber â€“ In Fury Born

Holly

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

Holly

Call me Ishmael.

Most of us might recognise the first line from Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

It's an interesting choice, because hardly any of the book deals with his own actions or thoughts. He's just the storyteller, for the most part, but he's also used to reference the Bible by proxy, since he's been miraculously rescued from the sea ("Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink" -- Coleridge - Rime of the Ancient Mariner) where the Bible character was tossed out into the desert with limited food and water, which quickly ran out, but Ishmael and his mother were saved by the miraculous appearance of a well of water, an interesting symmetry.

Cheers,

Puddin'

A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style

simplest solution would be ..

simplest solution would be to use actions, or self reflection of the situation at hand. Also posing a question is a nice trick.

Best advice crack open a book written in 3rd person perspective to get an idea how some authors keep the flow of there story going. Also don't freak out to much if you notice an over used pattern, get the story down first then run through it on the next draft and start to refactor the word prose.

anyways that my semi humble advice.

Great idea, dark ice.

I often tell a writer not to try and write a story with perfect grammar, but rather, to get the story down, then fix the grammar later. It is more important to get the story down, than to lose a train of thought and hurt the story by trying to fix a grammar or spelling mistake while in the creative state.

You may also find, when going back to fix things, you have given yourself a chance for new ideas to pop up.

Holly

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

Holly

Something simple hunny

as an example:

The mountains glazed like gold in the sunset, stretching and creeping, I only wonder why does the snow not melt, the mountains themselves make me feel warm and yet the mountains as sturdy as they are are so cold.

So in otherwords try writing about something a thought without directly off the bat assumpitons into first person characteristics, it is more fun when u get the hang of it dont worry be happy huggies u sooo much :)

With Love and Light, and Smiles so Bright!

Erin amelia Fletcher

Amelia Rosewood Year two.png

With Love and Light, and Smiles so Bright!

Erin Amelia Fletcher

This author uses the first person quite a lot.

Including my notorious Bike series and more recently, Norfolk Broads neither of which one hopes are too repetitious.

Angharad

Me too

Almost all of my stuff is first person; probably only "A Seasonal Tale" isn't. Plenty of tricks/tools, well described above.

Not using "I".

This is something that is of increasing importance to me in writing later stories, having been told that those who use "I" too frequently are self focused. And for me, there is no telling if that is accurate or not. The motive for me is to become mentally healthy first and secondly to become a better writer. The use of the first person singular just feels like it is much easier, so it takes a lot of work to erase its use.

Much peace

Gwendolyn

There is nothing wrong with using "I" in first person.

But when every sentence or paragraph begins with the same word it can become a bit annoying for the reader, even if they do not realize why.

Notice in my first comment, I just showed ways to move it away from being the first word in the sentence.

Itâ€™s not given to anyone to have no regrets; only to decide, through the choices we make, which regrets weâ€™ll have,
David Weber â€“ In Fury Born

Holly

It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

Holly

Oh, I use "I" plenty...

I wuz just windin folks up, eh what?

Gwendolyn