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First Person POV

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dpaterso

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"If it's first person," I said, sitting down in my leather chair and putting my feet up on my desk, "then it's 'I' not 'he' because I'm the narrator character."

"He said" or "He says" is a tense issue (past tense vs. present tense).

-Derek
 

Maryn

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Gia, I think you have a bit of confusion going on. First person is the narrator using I and me to tell the story. The tense can be present or past.

Present tense, first person: I hurry, but I lose sight of him in the crowd. "Excuse me, excuse me," I murmur, shouldering aside office workers. Is that him rounding the corner?

Past tense, first person: I hurried, but I lost sight of him in the crowd. "Excuse me, excuse me," I murmured, shouldering aside office workers. Was that him rounding the corner?

If your narrator uses he/she and him/her, then it's third person. Again, it can be present or past tense.

Present tense, third person: She hurries, but she loses sight of him in the crowd. "Excuse me, excuse me," she murmurs, shouldering aside office workers. Is that him rounding the corner?

Past tense, third person: He hurried, but he lost sight of him in the crowd. "Excuse me, excuse me," he murmured, shouldering aside office workers. Was that him rounding the corner?

Maryn, hoping that helped
 

Nakhlasmoke

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Also depends on your character's voice. I have one book where I use I say, and another where I use I says.

But yeah - what everyone else has said - he said is third, not first.
 

Shadow_Ferret

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As already has been said, depends on the tense.

If it's present tense, which is really hard to pull off, then it would be:

He says, "I heard you got a promotion?"

"I did," I say as I smile happily.


If it's past tense, then you'd write:

He said, "I heard you got a promotion?"

"I did," I said as I smiled happily.


eta: actually in those cases it probably would be, he asks, and he asked.
 
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