I’ve been experimenting with a book I wrote years ago but was never really happy with. It was loosely based on experiences I had in Europe back when I was a naive know-it-all. Or, at least, that’s the image I had of my younger self. Here’s the thing, I wrote the book from the viewpoint of a nineteen year old when in actuality I was a forty year old, recently divorced woman with two children, deeply doubting many of the choices I ‘d made when young. I think you can probably guess which of the choices I was doubting.

So, I rewrote the book from a third party point of view. I’m not sure if it improved the novel but I felt better about it. Thanks to Bruce Lee. I don’t think I’ll ever have his level of self-confidence, but writing a book from a first person perspective when you don’t particularly like that person, is not such a good idea.

This is not to say that all stories written from a first person perspective do their narrators a great disservice. I think the lesson learned for me, is to treat your narrator like all your other characters. No better; no worse. Has any random bit of wisdom ever changed your perspective. Bruce Lee – who knew!