Lending A Helping Hand: Writing Tips

First person

Submerge the "I"

The theory is, you can write in the first person, but nobody wants to hear a story told that way. When we see that "I" on the page- it bumps us out of the fictional dream. First person story has more authority, it seems more authentic than 3rd person.
•Use first person voice, but hide the "I"
•Change them to "Mine" or "Me" or "My"

3 Ways to submerge the "I"

#1. Switch to 2nd /3rd person

The hunger games by Suzanne Collins

As soon as I'm in the trees, I retrieve a bow and sheath of arrows from a hollow log. Electrified or not, the fence has been successful at keeping the flesh -eaters out of district 12. Inside the woods they roam freely . But there's also food if you know how to find. My father knew and taught me some before he was blown to bits in a mine explosion. I was eleven then, five years later, I still wake up screaming for him to run.

Guts by Chuck palahnuick

Inhale, take in as much air as you can. So listen as fast as you can. A friend of mine, when he was thirteen years old he heard about...

Changing to 2nd/3rd person makes the voice of the character sound more realistic, as if they're directly talking to you, or telling a story of their own about someone.

#2. Make non living things the subjects of sentences.

Gone girl by Gillian Flynn

My eyes flipped Open at exactly six a.m. This was no avian fluttering of the lashes, no gentle blink toward consciousness. The awakening was mechanical. A spooky ventriloquist-dummy click of the lids: The world is black and then, showtime! 6:00 the clock said - in my face, first thing I saw 6:00. It felt different. I was a man of jagged risings: 8:43 , 11:51, 9:26. My life was alarmless. At the exact moment, 6:00, the sun climbed over the skyline of oaks revealing its full summer angry -God self. Its reflection flared across the river ...

Making no living living things the subject of sentences makes the writing more vivid. It gets rid of a layer between the reader and narrator, making the reader experience the things more directly (instead of " I saw the sun rising").   It's the " the sun climbed)

#3 Change the" I" to me/my /mine or we/us / our

The Name of the wind by Patrick Rothfuss

Perhaps the greatest faculty our minds possess is the ability to cope with pain. Classic thin king teaches us of the four doors of the mind, which everyone moves through according to their need. First is the door of sleep. Sleep offers us a retreat from the world and it's pain. Sleep marks passing time, giving us distance from the things that have hurt us.
Second is the door of forgetting. Some wounds are too deep to heal. Or too deep to heal quickly. In addition, many memories are simply painful, and there is no healing to be done.
Third is the door of madness. There are times when the mind is dealt such a blow it hides itself in insanity. Last is the door of death . The final resort. Nothing can hurt us after we are dead, or so we have been told. After my family was killed, I wondered deep into the forest and slept. My body demanded it, and my mind used the first door to full the pain. The wound was covered until proper time for healing to come. In self - defense, a good portion of my mind simply stopped working -went to sleep if you will. And slowly the wound began to numb.

Using "/we/us/our" includes the reader, combining the storytelling feel or using "you" from #1 with the intimateness from #2. Using "me /my /mine " always requires something else besides just the narrator, making it feel less egotistical ( ex: she gave it to me, he is my friend, the carrot is mine.)