# Writing in Second Person



## Altamont (Jun 15, 2011)

So I just completed a story (non-furry) that's written in the second-person, and I'm actually pretty darn proud of it. Are there any writers who also/have attempted to write any stories in the second-person?

And just for the sake of reference, here's that story:

http://www.fictionpress.com/s/2923956/1/


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## Ariosto (Jun 15, 2011)

Well, Julio CortÃ¡zar's _Graffiti_ (I don't know when he wrote it) is mostly written in second person as well. Sadly, I don't know of any good english translation of the text.

EDIT: http://www.literaberinto.com/cortazar/graffiti.htm 
The original text, in case you can read spanish.

EDIT #2: If I recall correctly, Carlos Fuentes's _La muerte de Artemio Cruz_ (1962) is written in second person too.

EDIT #3: The former is a short story, the latter is a novel.


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## Reiter (Jun 15, 2011)

I haven't run across any novels written in second person, but interactive fiction is almost always written from that PoV. Some IF writers are actually skilled enough to become novelists if they wanted to.

A more pedestrian example would be creepypasta (which I don't think is as polished as IF, though there are a few exceptions).


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## â™¥Mirandaâ™¥ (Jun 15, 2011)

A story from my book was written in second person.

I wrote it specifically because an English teacher said that second person wasn't possible.


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## iconmaster (Jun 15, 2011)

Andrew Hussie's _Problem Sleuth_ is primarily written in second person, and is completely awesome. Despite being more of a comic than literature.


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## â™¥Mirandaâ™¥ (Jun 15, 2011)

iconmaster said:


> Andrew Hussie's _Problem Sleuth_ is primarily written in second person, and is completely awesome. Despite being more of a comic than literature.


 
Homestuck lapses into this as well, and is much more plot heavy.


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## M. LeRenard (Jun 16, 2011)

Tybalt Maxwell said:


> I wrote it specifically because an English teacher said that second person wasn't possible.


Not possible?  Has this teacher ever heard of Choose Your Own Adventure novels?


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## TakeWalker (Jun 16, 2011)

MLP fandom likes writing short fics, mostly *shudder* erotic, in second person. In fact, I think I've read general erotic fiction in second person (don't ask me why, it wasn't my idea). I have to assume they think it will be more 'engaging' (that is meant as a euphemism). All I know is, I run the moment I see "You" as the main character. It takes a certain setup to be able to pull off second person.


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## Browder (Jun 16, 2011)

I'm currently writing a novel wherein one of the three main characters is written in second person. I thought it would be a good commentary on how the character see's himself as well as a decent writing challenge. I was wrong about the latter. Second person is only hard until you get used to it, and then oddly (for me at least) it becomes as intuitive as first (for me). 

_Third_ person though, I have issues with. :/


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## â™¥Mirandaâ™¥ (Jun 16, 2011)

M. Le Renard said:


> Not possible?  Has this teacher ever heard of Choose Your Own Adventure novels?



I think she was just overall not very versed in books

which is kind of weird for an English teacher

She had a hard time reading :<


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## Enwon (Jun 16, 2011)

I don't do 2nd person, personally.  I don't like reading it, either.  In fact, a story in 2nd person is so unappealing to me that I put it down immediately.  I feel like writing should be kept to 1st or 3rd person.

Also, there's a reason there aren't many published books in 2nd person.  Publishers tend to find it amateurish and awkward, and reject 2nd person fiction outside of the "choose your own adventure" idea.

So no, I haven't written in 2nd person, and I don't plan to.


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## DarrylWolf (Jun 16, 2011)

Writing in second person is hard but DarrylWolf thinks writing in third person is really hard, especially for those not named DarrylWolf


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## Ariosto (Jun 16, 2011)

Out of curiosity... you all are talking about the second person being the reader, right? Because in the texts that I listed, the second person was another character (that being very clear from the beggining). Anybody knows other texts like those?


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## Altamont (Jun 17, 2011)

Most of the time second person fiction is being told by one character to the presumed reader, and the other mos common occurrence is where one character communicates to another (via letters, tapes, and whatnot). There are a few examples of the focus of the narration being direct narrator-->reader, namely the novel _Bright Lights, Big City_ by Jay McInerney.


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## ScottyDM (Jun 18, 2011)

Altamont said:


> Most of the time second person fiction is being told by one character to the presumed reader...


I've got a 900 word story like that, but I wouldn't call it second person. It's first person breaking the fourth wall. It's written as if the reader asked the character a question, and then the character takes 900 words to answer. Those other examples you mentioned don't sound like second person either.

Interactive fiction, particularly the example of the _Choose Your Own Adventure_ series, is the perfect example of second person. Second person is the direct involvement of the reader as a character.



Tybalt Maxwell said:


> ... an English teacher said that second person wasn't possible.


It seems to me that the problem with second person isn't that it's impossible to write, but that most readers reject the idea.

I believe a skillful author can make it work for a conventional short story. However, eventually most readers get tired of being told what they like, what they say, how they feel, and how they react to a particular situation. A few thousand words is probably the upper limit before the reader gets fed up and abandons the story.

But that's precisely why it works for interactive fiction. First, something like the _Choose Your Own Adventure_ series doesn't do any characterization, beyond fixing the gender of the main character (which is bad enough). On the plus side any dialog is minimal, so under the same circumstances most readers would say something functionally equivalent. Also, interactive fiction seldom deals with the character's feelings. The biggest draw is that the reader can't say, "I'd _never_ do that!" because you give them a choice as to what they do next. And delightfully, as author you get to kill the reader if you don't like their choice.  


What's in vogue is constantly shifting. Opening with a long scene-setting passage, or jumping right into the action. Third person, or first. And past-tense narrative, or present. Who knows, someday second-person novels may be all the rage and no self-respecting publisher will touch anything else. Maybe I'll be dead by then.

S~


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## ScottyDM (Jun 18, 2011)

Browder said:


> _Third_ person though, I have issues with. :/


Interesting. Third person is one of the original storytelling styles and should feel natural to almost everyone. Nearly every movie is done in third person as well.

First person is when the storyteller squats by the campfire and opens with: "You won't believe what happened last week when Ooog and I were out hunting the mastodon...."

Third person is when the story teller squats by the campfire and opens with: "The craziest thing happened at clan gathering last month. These three boys from another tribe tried to ride a mastodon...."

Both examples are in past tense because past tense was the preferred method since time began. I suspect it's movies, which use a present-tense style, that are causing the recent shift to a present-tense narrative in literature.

S~


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## â™¥Mirandaâ™¥ (Jun 19, 2011)

Let's all write something in the future tense


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## Browder (Jun 19, 2011)

ScottyDM said:


> Interesting. Third person is one of the original storytelling styles and should feel natural to almost everyone. Nearly every movie is done in third person as well.
> 
> First person is when the storyteller squats by the campfire and opens with: "You won't believe what happened last week when Ooog and I were out hunting the mastodon...."
> 
> ...



It's easier for me to tell an interesting, well-crafted story if I can empathize with the characters. First person makes me feel like the plot matters more and allows me to write appropriately.


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## mizu-oka (Jun 28, 2011)

2nd person writing is hard for me to write, mostly because it's incredibly awkward and unneeded. Personally, 3rd person is my viewpoint of choice, unless the narrator is especially interesting or plot demands it be written from 1st person.


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