Several writers deal with this by using letters and news clippings or other documents to convey the needed information. Mysteries are usually told 1st person because of the emotional immediacy... but how does the detective find out about things happening out of sight? The newsboy can scream a headline underneath his window, her mother can write from college that the Dean's wife was discussing the sorry affair of blank, a realtor's ad can mention that the house is uninhabited, a deed/will/whatever found in a book can yield the missing married name which connects x and y. Detectives traditionally ferret out information and snoop through coat pockets and read other people's love letters (all in the name of serving justice, of course). But even if you aren't writing a mystery, you can still use written documents to pull in this sort of information. Suppose you have a love story: a torn theatre ticket found in someone's coat pocket is probably an indication that the person was at a particular place and time, a doctor bill in the stack of mail under the door could indicate a specific ailment, menus, phone messages, computers and cell phones... we leave a track like a jet's contrail long after the plane has passed. Some stories are better told 3rd person. If you are going to have a lot of narrative (epics and travelogues), and you are doing it 1st person, either your protagonist is going to be incredibly chatty or terribly tiresome. Perhaps most important, for a 1st person story to be successful, you need to write convincing dialogue. This means speaking it aloud in front of the cat and listening to yourself. It has to be convincing and also each character needs his or her own voice and speech patterns. If everyone talks the same way, without good reason, the reader will get confused. I strongly recommend "Language of the Night" by Ursula K LeGuin. The essays will help you think about diction and dialogue, among other things. :) Carolly