Pride Cometh Before A Fall

I thought I had the first chapter down. I really did. And then I started presenting myself with all these possible outcomes (If Ivolet is the main character, how come Daniel's thoughts/actions is how the first two chapters start out?). Knowing that I change point-of-views frequently enough to be noted, I had been taking my cue from that authoress I mention way too often - Megan Whalen Turner - especially from The Queen of Attolia. And then I wondered, why not write it like A Conspiracy of Kings.

I thought it would solve all my problems. ACoK has a third-person Preface, a first-person Part 1, a third-person Interlude, a first-person Part 2, and a third-person Epilogue. I was considering something very similar (except my Preface is first-person present-tense), and I thought it was brilliant. I knew just where the Interlude and Epilogue were. I thought it would help me with keeping secrets and revealing thoughts.

It messed me up. In the past three days the first chapter has been the following, respectively: third-person Daniel POV, first-person Ivolet POV, third-person Ivolet POV, first-person Ivolet POV, and now it's back to third-person Daniel/Ivolet POV. I've written more words, and deleted more words, than I ever had as a goal. It's rather pathetic.

And I've been switching, inserting "Ivolet" instead of "I", and "her" instead of "my" and "me". I know I haven't discovered my voice, exactly, but I do know quite well that Ivolet's voice is not my voice. Which means that inserting third-person words in a first-person story is not a good idea if you want to keep even a part of the proper voice for the story.

So, at this point, I'm sticking with third-person. It's what my first two drafts have been, and I'm sticking with what I know and what I know well. The first chapter of Ivolet will begin with Daniel's POV and switch somewhere in the middle to Ivolet's. Hopefully, I can do this fluidly and flawlessly and, most of all, unnoticeably. PLEASE! (Does anyone have any hints about this? Any stuff you've tried with success? Any articles/blog posts that would be of use?)

I used to see all these woes and helps about point-of-view and go, "Oh, well, glad that's not my problem!"

Pride cometh before a fall. Remember that.

(I've got another decision coming up, this time related to the blogosphere and not writing, but I think I'll put it in a separate blog post. Simpler that way.)

iTunes DJ

"This Old Man," by the Gotham Wind Symphony
"Lord of Eternity," by Fernando Ortega
"You Breathe," by Nouveaux
"American Kid (Karaoke)," by Go Fish
"Jolene," by Dolly Parton [!!!!! I downloaded this from AmazonFREEMp3 before I knew the song. I discovered the song a few weeks ago and am sitting her in ELATION because I have it on my iTunes! And I've been playing it on iTunes...okay, there's an allegory there. Anybody else see it?)