Help me! My eyes ... my eyes are overwhelming me.

[Pepperbelly]

A new project ... has to be written in 1st person ... but the "I"s are killing me. What techniques are best for avoiding the "I"s that maintain the immediacy of action?

[Nimrod]

1. Tricky

One tactic is to move to semi-third person.

"I searched the room for my car keys."

Becomes:

"The search for my car keys was fruitless."


"I kicked him in the head."

Becomes:

"The sound of my foot connecting with his forehead made a noise not completely unlike an empty steel drum under seige from a Rasta player on crack."

[BigMcLargehuge]

4. you don't generally use first person pronouns when you are

actually talking or thinking as you go through a day. Use that as your guide.

Rather than say "I looked for the car keys." say "Where are the damn car keys?"

1st person is a whole lot of inside the head thinking.

Instead of "I knew he was lying." say "Everyhing that came out of his mouth was bullshit."

get around it by writing like you think.

[Onlooker]

2. You probably need more description

Not everything should be about you. Describe the surroundings, include objects and occurrences, and then go back to "I" for a sentence or two.

[corporatemedia]

3. You probably need more prescriptions.

[hyphenate]

5. You could go

for the royal "we" in first person.