Help! Help!

I was chatting to Kerryn and Travis earlier so I think I have an answer, but thought I'd throw this out to see what other people do.

Most of my novel has been following the MC and has been in the 1st person. Then I'll cut to another scene, say with his Dad, and I'm doing it in 3rd person.

But finally, after all this time, one scene following the Dad then catches up with his son, the MC, and I got confused as to which perspective I was going from.

In the end, I carried on with 3rd person until there was a change of scene. When I went back, it was 1st person from then on. In fact, the return scene was straight after it the one where they met up - no other scenes in between.

So what would you do? Or suggest.

Andrew Chilton - http://kapiti.geek.nz/

If it was a short scene, I'd have it reported to the main character, rather than jumping away from the narrative style.

If it was a long scene, I'd balance it with other scenes also told 3rd person throughout the story.

That's just me, though.
I'll be very interested to hear what other suggestions were made.

Edited to add: On re-reading, I think you're already doing the second option. Which, as long as it's a consistent stylistic theme, shouldn't be a problem.

maggenpye -
"He's not my dad, he's just my father - big difference."

I consider this a learning experience, as you get to know what you like.

If you REALLY need 1st person somewhere, try a diary entry that someone else reads... maybe.

Otherwise, it sounds like you need 3rd person, and alternating 2 different 1st persons wouldn't really work.

Yeah, 3rd person in the editing process I say.

Travis.
--
http://cottreau.blogspot.com
http://cottreaureviews.blogspot.com/

Yea, I think this is a good time to experiment with how different things work. You get an immediate sense of what works and what doesn't because you're trying to write so fast!

No Excuses. Just Write.