The story I just finished used a technique that happens around here fairly frequently, a first person narrator telling the story in the past tense. And as with many pieces, my narrator starts out male and becomes female at the end. But as I was editing it, I noticed that the voice of my narrator starts out from the point of view of a man, and gradually shifts to that of a woman. I didn't want to do a rewrite, since it seemed to work, but isn't it cheating, in a way? If the story is being told in past tense, shouldn't that mean my main character has already become a woman before she started telling her story, so starting it out with a masculine tone to the narration is wrong?
How do the rest of you feel?
Fine print
Look closely at your literary license, you'll find that such techniques are not cheating but perfectly permissible under subparagraph 7b. :) As long as you've got your suspension of disbelief mojo working, it's copacetic.
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Of Course...
its cheating, but its only a story!
It's a writers trick ...
... and a darned good one, even when you never actually plan for it to happen. Shifting the narrator's voice is a subtle way of taking your readers along for the ride, so to speak. So it's not a cheat, IMHO. It just makes for a more engaging and entertaining tale.
And isn't that what we're all settting out to create? *grins*
Randalynn
Often it's required
I think very often that is what the story requires. The narrator is using past tense but the events are on going. Just like a cooking show hostess might say, " I stirred in the cream<" even as you are watching her do it.
Especially a first person narrator may not be aware of the events that haven't yet been told, and this should effect the voice. This is also why descriptions are present even in past tense stories. "She has golden hair and violet eyes; they stared at him with longing and malice."
And almost the most important rule is: if it works, keep it.
Jan
Comparatively speaking
It depends to a degree if the past relates to twenty minutes ago or one already fading into the mists of time, relections looking back over one's lifetime, 'nodding by the fireplace, full of sleep', considering 'old forgotten, far off days'.
And of course gradations covering the interminable hours, weeks, months, years between.
In the extreme latter case above I think it might strike a slightly discordant note. Erin's suspension of belief mojo might show signs of creaking under the strain. At the other end of the scale it is perfectly feasible to narrate in the past tense events that are, to all intents and purposes, currently happening. In which case it would be perfectly legitimate. And so a man could quite conceivably start the story before he became a woman irrespective of the tense used.
And for the grey areas of time that lie between? Well there's lots of leeway. Depends of how clever you are and how engaged the reader is.
In your case I would suggest that if you didn't notice it yourself during the writing then it probably works just fine. And you do say that the shift is gradual so all you are doing, have done :), is moving the time perspective slightly.
Fleurie.
Don't understand
I'm not sure what you're saying.
If a story is being written in first person past tense, and the main character becomes a woman, then why should there be a conflict? Isn't the main character still relating events as they happened, from a man's perspective when he is a man, and from a woman's perspective when she is a woman? How could it be any different?
If you are relating events from a time when the main character is now a woman to a time when she was a man, I'd call that a flashback.
Example:
["Helen, I'll prepare Tarheel, our friendly ram, and I'll let you do the honors."
"Oh, Doctor, it would be an honor!" she said, jumping up and down.
I beamed at her buoyant enthusiasm. "You've earned it. You've put in as many late hours as I have working for Gendertech."
As I thought back, years later, I believe that this was the real moment of my awakening, when she picked up the Gender-Ray (TM) gun and waved it inadvertently in my direction, and I felt a tingle of anticipation over my whole body.]
That's fine. This sort of foreshadowing has its uses, but you do risk taking the reader from the immediate scene. It's a trade-off. If it does more harm than good to the story you want to tell, don't do it; if the opposite is true, than leave it in. How clear and simple (and muddy) the answer is!
Aardvark
"... those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
Voltair
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
The narrator's tone ...
... is what's at question, Aardie. To posit an extreme example ... suppose our gender bending hero starts the story as a Damon Runyon-esque wise guy, and his voice telling the story reflects that -- full of "des" and "dos" and colorful metaphors. If his gender changes over the course of the story, AND the voice with which he speaks to the audience changes as well to reflect his new status as a showgirl, the issue is whether that change is legit in terms of the narrator's voice, or if the narrator's voice should always have been the showgirl's voice, since she's telling the tale in the past tense.
Hope that clears it up a bit. *hugs*
Randalynn
Well, uh, 'bout dos tings...
I sorta took it for granted that the voice would change as the character and perspective changed. I mean like, I assumed, you know. :)
TG stories generally use the basic transformation plot, rather than the adventure, revenge, forbidden love, escape, and so forth. Naturally, an author may use a sub-plot to spice things up, but why bother writing a TG story if you don't have a serious growth/transformation component in your character? At least, that's the question I ask myself at least twice a day. ;)
I pretty much expect a main character to change. I look for how they handle it. The voice changing as the "adjustment" progresses is a natural fit and a sign of good writing. If a character has no problem with their new female body, or is more interested in how to put on a bra than the weirdness of dealing with others as the opposite sex, it gets boring to me fast. If that happens, then the TG, to me, is incidental, and the main plot better be good to hold my attention.
Just this termite eater's opinion. :)
Aardvark
"Ninety-two percent of the stuff told you in confidence you couldn't get anyone else to listen to."
"Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony."
Mahatma Gandhi
A Poe Excuse for a Literary Device
It seems to me that several fine pieces of literature start out with the narrater sane, and by the end of the tale that same narrater is mad.
One has to wonder how the narrater told such a tale, if one tends to wonder about such thing or wander about in such things Or one 'er and brang the boat around and load dos tings.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Parallelity
I think it helps if the decline in the narrator's sanity, is shadowed by that in the reader's
Fleurie
I suppose
If the great masters can do it so can I. Although some of those Poe and Lovecraft (and at least one Twilight Zone) stories seem to be like the narrator was having a moment of lucidity to warn the reader before slipping back into his madness.
I guess it all boils down to whether the narration is a like diary that was written in segments or a memoir written all at once.
One of my pet hates ...
... is when a story starts with a sentence something like:
I used to be John Smith, a 300 lb line backer (whatever that is :)- if anything) but now I'm a 100lb pole dancer called Candi Sweet.
The whole story runs better if it doesn't start with flashbacks right from the beginning. Particularly when the first paragraph continues by describing the main characteristics of each protagonist - eg height, age, appearance, job etc. It's usually enough for me to click the back button.
It's fine if a story written in the past tense and in the first person gradually changes as the main protagonist changes, as they usually do profoundly in these stories. It gets difficult for both writer and reader to do any other.
Geoff
There's Sometimes Real-Life Validity...
...in a situation somewhat analogous, at least, to the one under discussion. Our family noticed some time back that when my mom (born in Boston, moved here to the San Francisco Bay Area with her family as a teenager during WWII) reminisced about her childhood, she'd occasionally use a Boston accent on words like "car" and "park", which of course she hasn't done in normal conversation during my lifetime, probably longer. (I don't believe any of the classic regional differences, such as "pocketbook" (East) vs. "purse" (West), or "pop" (East) vs. "soda" (West), have come up in those conversations; we've always used "soft drink" in the latter case, anyway.)
Eric
A Less-Than-Omniscient POV
I don't believe that a shifting POV is necessarily cheating. I have employed the technique when using a first-person POV, writing from the premise that what the narrator is currently relating reflects her (or his) point-of-view at the moment the action occurs. This technique has been used successfully by several authors including Robert Heinlein and Spider Robinson. Read Spider's latest, "Variable Star," for an example of the technique.