I'm working on a piece that has a fair amount told from first person from a guy who just isn't a good writer. He has a dangerous job and is writing it half as a manual, half as a letter to his young children if dies before they really get to know him. He'd make sure it was easy to understand but past that isn't too worried
My question is besides the obvious steps of 1) just ignoring that and making it as good as I can 2) making those sections as small as possible and 3) just using a different voice to just show that he is doing that what else could I do? I was thinking about making it as good as I can with maybe one deliberately bad sentence per chapter, just to show he isn't passionate about writing.
However that seems dangerous, I might have a few I don't realize are bad in there.
Just keep it barebones/dumbed-down/blue collar. Bad writing could be synonymous with boring, I'd say avoid it. An interesting character is going to show in their vocabulary, their syntax. There's plenty of books out there written by real life idiots that are still interesting, think of it that way.
Agreed.
He's a really smart guy, just very uneducated if that matters.
Is the rest of the story in third person, or are there multiple first person voices? Are you switching between his actual thoughts and the way he expresses them in writing? That could create an interesting contrast: poignant, funny, frustrating, and so on.
Multiple first person. It's a collection of journals done as events occur, after action reports, and a few documents. No third person, although a separate work that goes back and forth between 1st and 3rd could be interesting.
I am thinking about showing him as being smart through how others see him - he understand leadership, comes up with complicated plans, deals with lots of odd/complex issues, etc.
However you do it, its a very interesting premise. Best of luck.
Have a different perspective narrating.
Then have his letters italicised.
Dear Bla
bla
bla
You can do it well. As long as it's deliberate. You can do this visually, as well as in voice, by maybe using a shitty typewritter font like 'carter' for the fist person bits. As long as it isn't too subtle.
Sounds neat, good luck
If it's supposed to come off as specifically something he's written, I'd say find a word that he's using a lot and have him misspell it, always, like that is how he thinks the word is supposed to be written. But do a word that would be unique to him, not something like the Your/You're or Their/They're that a lot of people screw up.
I was thinking about having him capitalize a word incorrectly.
