1st person? 3rd person?

[kimnsoph]

Hello,

I have re-submitted an article because I made the mistake of using the first person in my article. I have revised it and so hopefully it will now be acceptable. However, when I was searching through other articles that had been submitted, I saw one that was written in just the first person. It was a true life account of how a woman got out of a bad marriage. I thought this was not allowed in CC. I want to know why this woman was allowed to submit a personal account of her life story, but I had to revise mine when it had one single "I" in it? Does this rule only apply in certain situations? I'd be interested to find out.

Thanks,
Sophie

P.S. It looks like I have introduced myself twice! I thought I had not done so. Sorry about the repetition.

[Celeste Stewart]

Hi Sophie,

Welcome aboard. I don't think they prohibit first person articles, many exist here. In fact, many requesters request true life stories, reviews, opinions, blog entries, etc.

What I suspect may be the reason is perhaps you slipped and let yourself sneak into a piece that clearly had a third person slant. For example, let's say you were writing about the lure of oak trees stating fascinating facts, listing popular tourist locations featuring oak trees, discussing scientific research etc... then suddenly instead of saying something like, "oak tree lovers have long gathered under the canopy...." you might have said something like, "I've noticed that oak tree lovers have long gathered under the canopy...."

It's easy to do, I see it all the time with articles and stories I critique for fellow writers. Call it author intrusion if you will. Of course, I haven't seen your article so I'm just throwing out a theory.

I have written and sold a few first person articles here with no problem. Good luck with the revision!

[Ed]

Celeste is right in this case. Voice should be consistent throughout all pieces.

In addition, when the article is informative, the "author intrusion" becomes an irrelevant piece of information. If the piece is about oak trees, and the author says, "I love oak trees," it's both distracting and veers away from the point of the piece. If the article is about the authors experience growing oak trees, that's another story.

Ed