Writing fiction in the first person, I have to live inside my narrator's flaws like a method actor, even though they aren't my own flaws, exactly. More like flaws I could imagine having if I leaned into certain tendencies, flaws-once-removed. It is a humbling exercise, because you find they are so easily to rationalize, slip into, even as you know they're flaws.
I suspect readers assume that the narrator is just like me (morally suspect & deeply flawed). An interesting exercise all around.
Writing fiction in the first person, I have to live inside my narrator's flaws like a method actor, even though they aren't my own flaws, exactly. More like flaws I could imagine having if I leaned into certain tendencies, flaws-once-removed. It is a humbling exercise, because you find they are so easily to rationalize, slip into, even as you know they're flaws.
I suspect readers assume that the narrator is just like me (morally suspect & deeply flawed). An interesting exercise all around.