Thread: 1st person VS 3rd person

Ahhhhh, the eternal debate :)

So, which would you rather write in/do you think is better? 1st person point of view, or 3rd person point of view? (or the infinitely rare 2nd person?).

Why? What makes you like a 3rd person story more than another, or a 1st person more than another?

Writing a story in the second person is just amateur, and doesn't work for fiction. There are certain cases where it can work well (adventure game books and the like), but otherwise second person should be steered away from.

Well, I personally prefer third person. A lot of new writers start off in first person, and it really shows up their inexperience - it takes more talent to write a good first person story than a good third person story. That technical point aside, I think that the third person offers more opportunities for stylistic techniques to be and for story construction. Finally, I could never write in the first person because of conditioning, and because I would find it too limiting to tell the story sticking from one character's perceptions alone. It is very hard to effectively use more than one character if you tell the story from a singular first-person perspective (true first person, not involving an omnipotent narraotor, or switching the pov often).

I've heard it mentioned often, but what IS "second-person" viewpoint?

Writing it as if the reader was the one doing the action.

First person : I/me. The story is told by the character doing the action.

IE..."Wiping some sweat from my forehead, I turned toward the source of the light. There had to be something in this cave, I know it..."

Seond person : You/Your. The story is told as if the reader was the character at the hearth of the story.

IE..."Wiping some sweat from your forehead, you turn toward the source of the light. There has to be something to this case, you know it..."

Third person : he/she/it/his/her/its. The story is told by an outside perspective, usually omniscient.

IE..."Wiping some sweat from his forehead, he turned toward the source of the light. There had to be something to this cave, he knew it..."

That only really works in essays, I guess.

First works well enough. I usually tend towards a limited third-person, though.

I think the book "A Day No Pigs Would Die" is in second person...least, that's what our teacher told us. ONLY think I remember about that book, too.

I prefer writing first-person, because it lets me get inside the character's head...

the drawback is that I have a limited perspective, and it doesn't allow me information that may clue the audience to something about to happen...

like in "Crowning Glory", the attack on Viridian comes as a surprise, because the story is in Jiri's POV, and he, as he says, only knows what Gio tells him.

Second person is amateur? Second person is hard to pull off, yes, but amateur? No. Maybe it's mostly written by amateurs, but in itself, there's nothing wrong with second person. One of the best short stories I've ever read was written in second person. It's not something that I would recommend trying to write in, but I wouldn't go as far as to say writing in second person is amateur.

In my opinion, first person is harder than third, but that's just for my writing style. I find description through first person hard, because it just seems a bit odd fitting in what you need but in a natural way. =/ I like writing third person because I can bounce between being in different character's heads, or I can lead characters on.

However, I love reading first person. It's a great experience having everything described the way a particulair character sees it. I equally love reading third person too. The POV doesn't really matter to me so long as it's well executed.

I think both styles have their good and bad points...but it depends on the plot of the story. There are certain times that using one technique doesn't build the story to the same point.

Third person limited is what I instinctively write in. It gives me a chance to play with *all* of my characters at the same time, and shape the book so that the reader leaves knowing the workings of each one. However, I find that writing in third person limited takes a little more preparation to pull off a good story, because the base is so broad. Third person extended is *extremely* fun to write in, but it takes even MORE effort, and MORE skill. I've yet to perfect that method. ^^

First person, I think, is harder for me to write in, so I tend to stay away from it. It requires not just skill, but an innate talent for being able to DESCRIBE. A first person story without details is relatively worthless. I *love* to read first person, though. It gives you the thrill of experiencing with the character does, and I *really* enjoy that. Everyone writes in third person limited, so first person throws me a curve now and then.

Currently, I'm experimenting with first person in a couple of short stories. I want to be a well-rounded writer, not one that absolutely *has* to write in a certain style to be good. ^^

Personally, I use third person, but I've always wanted to experiment with fifth person. You know, "I heard from a guy who knew a guy who..." But something tells me that that would make any story just...annoying.

But seriously, I use third person, because it allows you to get a better feel for every character in your story. In first person you focus on one character, and usually you can improve the quality of that character, but any supporting cast members tend to suffer since you're usually focused on the deeds of one character. Second person is better if you want your reader to feel like THEY are the story, but again, the supporting cast suffers, and you spend a LOT of time on ONE character, which can be boring. Third person, I favor because I'm not forced to focus on ONE character. Sure, I may have a main character, but I can really build on the supporting cast without worrying about the reader wondering what's happened to the main character. You also get to be more ingenius in your plot twists since you can better look at the big picture (at least that's from my experiences).

I can write competently in all three styles, but I prefer third person. Feels more comfortable to me, and I spend less time on it, whereas I have to think a little harder for the others.

I disagree with what Adam said. Although I think the first person story would be so much easier to write in, I also don't think it is amateur. I've seen more newbies write in third that in first person. I feel like a lowbie for sticking with third person. It is so much harder, makes so much more work. Yet it is also the one that I've been raised on -- through Star Trek paperbacks and Tolkien epics.

I didn't mean that writing in the first or second person was necessarily amatuer, just that it is quite common for new writers to try one of these and for it to really show up any flaws in their narrative. This doesn't mean that there aren't exceptions to the rule, and the first person can be used just as well as the third person (however, I have never read a good second person story, so from personal experience I don't think that it is possible to write a proper structured story like that - a short story maybe, but not a novel). The third person is the most common form of writing for a reason, and IMO that reason is that you have much more freedom when writing a third person story, whereas to write in the first (or second) person, you have to follow quite strict rules about what the lead protagonist can and can't know etc. - it certainly requires more discipline than I have

It kind of depends... I almost always write in 3rd person. I like how universal it is, and I'm free to use my own writing style and language to write a story... there are different ways of writing 3rd person, you know... usually I write personal third person (writing 3rd person but centering around the viewpoint of one character), though sometimes for certain scenes I'll switch out to an omnescient viewpoint.

First person isn't necessarily bad. I don't really care for first person narration, but some people can write it great... sometimes I don't care to read something that's constantly "I", "me", "my", but first person can also be really personal... you can get really in-depth with exactly how this character is feeling or thinking. The only thing about writing in first person is your writing style has to adapt... because you're writing as if you were the person. If, say, your character was ten years old, you'd have to tone your style down to be a bit more simple, and you probably would use big words or poetic description. If your character was rather dark, the writing might be rather cynical. If your character was always happy you could probably use italics a lot... so on and so on. You lose the author voice and replace it with the character's. I have a hard enough time writing dialogue as it is, so normally I don't go with first person just for the fact that it's /all/ dialogue... just once or twice when I've written monologues, I've used first person.

Second person is just hard to utilize in most stories, unless you're making one of those kind where the reader is involved with choosing an ending. Some readers probably wouldn't like having their actions in a story chosen for them anyway, I suppose... *shrugs* I think I've only written in it once as an intro for my Titan AE fansite... it's still there, matter of fact...

1st person for me. Yes it's harder to set the atosphere i know but i can delve into the characters feelings and emotions. Because Sandra and me are so alike, i find it easy to figure out how she feels and how pissed off she is ^^. Ok lisa gives me a real struggle as we are so different. Renamon i can adpat to pretty easily though. The only problem is because i did 1st person, i had to do a whole new fic to get around Lisa. I guess it just depends or what the character is like.

I find that writing in the first person helps me get a handle on how I want my character to act and react to the situations and other characters in my story. One of my favorite authors, Patricia Cornwell, writes her "Kay Scarpetta" novels in first person. In her case, her character Kay is really simply her alter ego.

Writing in third person is helpful when seeing the story as a whole, rather than focusing on one character in particular. Most of my stories are written in the third person with a couple of exceptions.