The thing about "I" and "Them"

I like writing in a first-person POV. Writing that way gives me the advantage of looking at so many things from so many ways. Some writers might differ though, as they think that writing a novel from the point of view of "I" or "Aku" is only narrowing the scope of views to just one person.

But most of the best writers I know write in a first-person POV. Yann Martel's "Life Of Pi", Tea Obreht's "The Tiger's Wife", Vikas Swarup's "Q&A" (though famously known as "Slumdog Millionaire"), Stephen King's "The Green Mile",... even some of the chic lits such as Sophie Kinsella's and Cecelia Ahern's are written in the first-person POV. My favourite book, "Ayahanda" by Azizi Abdullah was also written from the point of view of a first-person - the son.

What I love most about writing a book using "Aku", is that it helps me describe things and people better. It's like playing FPS (first person shooter). You're not imagining someone else in the picture. You can actually make the character.

Of course, it is quite annoying sometimes. I have found some writers like to ram their way through grammar when they write in such a way, inserting English words, colloquial terms, and three dots (oh I hate three dots when it is not inserted in a correct way) like nobody's business. It's like, hey, I know you're writing as "Aku", but it does not mean you can just shit your way from start to finish. I wrote Roul's POV in his style of words, but he is not the main POV. If I write a whole book in his POV, my editor would have smacked me in the head.

Why the topic of first-person POV? Because a friend of mine says that it limits storytelling and it's a style usually adopted by amateur writers. But just like I said before, some of the greatest piece of writing I have read came in a first-person POV.

And to tell you the truth, from the five books that I have written thus far, it's "Plain Jane" that I love the most. Don't get me wrong. It's neither my best work, nor the biggest selling among all of them. But I love it because it was mine. It was then and there that I found the actual technique and freedom of writing things my own way.

I might not be writing all my books in the first person POV, but truth be told, I much enjoyed writing when I can pose as a judgmental bitch.

(*NSK is currently writing a new novel in a third-person POV... and every day is a struggle of trying to be interested in it)