Remembering the Storyteller

One of the things that I've been struggling with is voice; how do I speak in my writing. In my last book I really struggled with point-of-view and ended up writing in first-person/present-tense which I think stifled my voice. All my sentences ended up being directions: "she did this" and "she did that." Horrible stuff.

When I relaxed and returned to third-person/past-tense I think my voice began to emerge. I began to write more like how I speak. I know that this is the traditional, a.k.a. boring, point-of-view but I like it. I had read somewhere that to use first-person/present-tense made for a more modern and immediate feeling to writing. I think now I disagree. I think that it' more important to write in a form that allows the writer to feel comfortable.

Third-person/past-tense is the point-of-view of fairytales, the point of view of a storyteller and I think that ultimately that is what I'm trying to become -- a storyteller. I think that's what I've been all my life. I just didn't know it.

BTW, I'm in chapter 8 of the first draft of my book. Yay!