# 1st Person or 3rd?



## VÃ¶lf (Apr 13, 2009)

Just wondering how many people favor writing in third person or first. I prefer third myself, even though I usually constrain to following one character.

I know, I know, you're probably thinking: "What person I write in depends on the story." Well fine then. What do you "like" to write in the most? Which do you find easier? Do any of the above reasons apply? If not, close your eyes and pick :-D


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## Shouden (Apr 13, 2009)

I like writing in the first person, although, you can't explain everything you might like to in the first person, only what the narrating character knows.

But, Third person is a nice break from First Person and allows more freedom. So, I prefer first person, but I like writing both.


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## lobosabio (Apr 13, 2009)

I'm perfectly comfortable writing in all three.  I really don't have a favorite, I just go with the one that fits the story best.


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## Yorokonde2 (Apr 14, 2009)

I usually stick to first person. I find it's much easier in general. I only have to concentrate on explaining one person's line of reasoning at a time. I know that sounds lazy. It probably is. I also find that it helps the reader really feel like they're part of the story, not knowing just why the other characters act like they do right off the bat. I mean, you can't do that in real life, so a little mystery about other people's inner workings helps maintain a bit of realism, no matter how fantastic the story gets. 

Of course... I haven't really written any larger works yet. I have tried, but not managed yet. I do best at one-shots and scene writing. XP So maybe I find first person works best for me because that's what suits the kind of writing I do. *nods*


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## Shouden (Apr 14, 2009)

I've written (and still working on) a larger piece of work that I wrote in the first person. I found it easier to write it this way. And usually when I write Third Person, I write Limited Third Person and mainly focus on one character.


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## Xipoid (Apr 14, 2009)

I do not really prefer one over the other. First person and third person each have their merits, and I'll write in either depending on how I want the reader to interface with the character or situation.


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## foozzzball (Apr 14, 2009)

There are a lot of divisions in first person and third person perspectives. Some of them are harder to explain and only fuzzily defined, but you have first person narration where the narrating character is your protagonst, where the narrating character is not your protagonist, where your narrating character is involved in the story, where your narrating character is not involved in the story. Third person, you've got third person limited, third person omniscient, third person subjective, third person objective. 

There are probably tons more. I can't stand half of third person, I can't stand half of first person. I tend towards third person limited/subjective, and occasionally towards first person styles where the protagonist acts as narrator in a very close fashion with some rational reason for them to be telling their story - like the conceit that Watson was writing the Holmes stories.

I tend to write in a very 'conversational' way, drawing on the viewpoint character's personality traits and getting as close to them as I can.

The mode of narration is a complex choice and you should try as many as possible. Some are more suited to particular stories or emotional payoffs than others.


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## Penelope Dairas (Apr 14, 2009)

I didn't ever use a first person narrative and I doubt I'm going to use it in any of my stories. I just feel comfortable with sitting far away with a pipe in my mouth, telling an old story of someone who did something somewhere.


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## Nakhi (Apr 14, 2009)

I prefer first because I can get more in depth with character.


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## VÃ¶lf (Apr 15, 2009)

I actually have used both 1 & 3 myself, but I find if I go to write a story I naturally start writing in third person most of the time.


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## Shino (Apr 17, 2009)

I tend to use both in the same story. The majority of it is written in 1st when I'm following the main character, and 3rd when I'm following another character. Since I tend to use an alternating storyline, it helps sharpen the line when I switch.

I only tried to use 2nd once, and it failed miserably.


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## Tryp (Apr 17, 2009)

That's a tough one.  1st person allows you to delve deeper into a character without forcing them to blurt it all out in dialogue.  However, 3rd person gives a broader view of all characters.

I have to go with 3rd person though.


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## touge-union (Apr 17, 2009)

i prefer 1st person when i write, purely because everything i write sounds like an Earl J. Hickey soliloquay...

'i thought...Hey randy' ect...


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## FurForCameron (Apr 20, 2009)

I'm more used to first person, but I do enjoy third aswell. One of my favorite book series, Redwall, is written in this fashion. It just gives a better view of everything as a whole, as compared to just what your character knows.


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## pkingsora (Apr 20, 2009)

I prefer to mix and variate between them all depending on the situation..


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## El Furicuazo (Apr 25, 2009)

I REALLY prefer to write in third person, omniscient.  I like the complex plot developments viewed in a more neutral point of view that's easy to follow (you may read my post on the development of a new literary genre, search my latest threads).  I like to know & let others know how the plot develops for each involved side, as well as making it easy for readers to understand how do the different points of view interact.  And, if you ask why I prefer this perspective, I'm just traumatized with the stories having blurry/unclear plot developments.

Although sometimes I use the first person perspective, but it's rather on shorter stories dealing with hte development of a single character on some situation or aspect.


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## ScottyDM (Apr 27, 2009)

El Furicua said:


> I REALLY prefer to write in third person, omniscient.  I like the complex plot developments viewed in a more neutral point of view that's easy to follow...


I've seen several definitions of omniscient. If you mean a third person narrative where you switch POV back and forth between characters within each scene--then that is seldom easy to follow.

Browne and King define several third person styles. They say that *omniscient* is not focused on a character, but on the narrator who knows and sees things no character could possibly know. In their book the use the example (from a published work of fiction) of a sump pump pulling water out from under an old church, and weakening the foundation in the process. In fact, Browne and King see omniscient as separate from third person. I don't agree. As long as the narrator is not one of the characters or the reader, then it's third person.

They do say that within third person is a continuum of *narrative distance*, or how intimate the reader becomes with a character. There's also the choice of how many characters, in any given scene, the reader is allowed to become intimate with. A quick scan through the third chapter of their book and I don't see the terminology they used. I would use: *limited*, for when the reader is only allowed into one character's thoughts and feelings per scene; *unlimited*, for when the reader hops from character to character in the scene; and *objective*, for when the reader is inside nobody's head. Long narrative distance is like objective. To me, Browne and King's *omniscient* is also on that continuum of *narrative distance*. You should be pulled away from your characters when your narrator becomes omniscient and starts telling or showing the reader stuff the characters cannot know.

It's *third person unlimited* that I don't care for. Primarily because it's often done badly. It sucks and a sure sign of sloppy writing. But novels get published with this sort of pap. Take McEwan's _Atonement_. Not only are we inside every characters' intimate thoughts all the time, but in one paragraph we see how the mother used to feel about something when she was her daughter's age, how she feels about it now, and how she will feel about it when she's old and at death's door. Guess what, it's the freakin' mother! And the freakin' mother is _not_ an important character. Quite frankly, I don't give a flip about unimportant charcters. It's this constant hopping around, plus the spoon feeding wads of unnecessary detail, that slows reading to a crawl. When I eventually finished McEwan's novel I recognized he had a brilliant story hidden in there. My wife simply pronounced the book, "Boring." McEwan got an award for that book, probably based on his pretty sentences. He has _very_ pretty sentences.

An example of the right way to "head hop" was shown by Duroc in his story _Fleeting Glimpse_ (second place in the fall 2008 anthrofiction contest). He'd written the story as a single scene with no jumps in location, time, or POV. He starts in the father's POV (third person limited), the narrator follows the son away from the father and downstairs (third person objective), and when the son joins his mother the narrative picks up her POV (third person limited). Because there was about a page of objective in the middle, it didn't _feel_ like a head hop and was very smooth.


*First person* is a completely different thing. But to make it work you have to maintain close intimacy with your POV character.


Which I use depends on the goals of the story and the scene. I started writing in third person sloppy. But I evolved into third person limited, objective, or omniscient (B & K's def. of omni), and I've been writing in first person too. I feel the ability to slide around with narrative distance makes third person more versatile than first, so that's my primary choice. I'm sure my mix will change as my writing evolves.

Scotty


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## wendyw (Apr 29, 2009)

I think writing in first person does require a level skill to do well that I just don't have, so although I enjoy first person I always write in third.


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## SaishokuKenbi (Apr 29, 2009)

When I just started writing at the age of about 11, I believed 1st person to be perfect. I thought, "Hey, I just need to write what he/she/it thinks, how hard might that be?"
Now I know the answer: it's VERY hard. I guess 1st person is about the toughest POV there is. It's not just about "Just write what comes to the character's mind" - there are so many things you must pay attention to: e.g. when I was younger I used to describe things from the character's POV that they were not able to know (like, "Dinner was delicious - I simply loved sushi. Meanwhile at Carol's, she was busy doing her homework"), but back then I didn't realize how stupid and illogical that was; you always have to justify everything the character says and does since they exactly know why they say or do certain things - it's rather impossible to keep a distance from the character. You might find that keeping distance is just the wrong way if you want to identify with your characters (which you should do), but in my opinion it makes it easier to have the character act in the story. You don't need to overexplain things to make them seem right and there's more room for the readers' interpretation and imagination which is good since it makes the readers follow the story actively instead of passively.

That's a short sum-up of why I now prefer 3rd person to 1st person


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## ScottyDM (Apr 30, 2009)

wendyw said:


> I think writing in first person does require a level skill to do well that I just don't have, so although I enjoy first person I always write in third.


Then it's probably worth giving it a shot. Imagine you're the main character, or at least the character who is doing the narration, and tell the story in that character's words.

In some respects third person is the easier style. You get this narrator who potentially knows all. Who has stood back from the story and the action and absorbed it all. And now this narrator is telling others (the readers) the story of what happened and who said and did what. Usually the narrator is the author, but not always. And the reader expects the narrator to have perfect recall of events, so that the past tense of the story could be days old, millennia old, or somewhere in between.

If there's any difficulty with third person it's too many choices: Should the narrator reveal one character's innermost thoughts, all characters, or no characters? Where does the narrator "sit" when describing the action, back 50 feet, on the POV character's shoulder, or inside the POV character's head (like first person but without the "I")?

Once you "get it" first person is easier. The rule is simple. If your POV character cannot see it, hear it, smell it, feel it, or taste it, then it does not exist. The only real choice is who's gonna be your POV character? It's probably easier to construct a short story in first person than it is a novel.



SaishokuKenbi said:


> ... when I was younger I used to describe things from the character's POV that they were not able to know (like, "Dinner was delicious - I simply loved sushi. Meanwhile at Carol's, she was busy doing her homework"), but back then I didn't realize how stupid and illogical that was.


Heeh! You should see my first efforts at writing fiction. And you'd think I would have known better because I was in my late 40s at the time. But you're right, if the first person POV character cannot know something you cannot put it in your first person story. Trying to construct a story around a lack of information can get to be a challenge. 	:wink: 



SaishokuKenbi said:


> You always have to justify everything the character says and does since they exactly know why they say or do certain things - it's rather impossible to keep a distance from the character. ... You don't need to overexplain things to make them seem right and there's more room for the readers' interpretation and imagination which is good since it makes the readers follow the story actively instead of passively.


That's not really a problem with first person versus third. That's a problem of sophistication in writing and being a good storyteller. It all comes with experience.

When in first person, or in third person with a mid to tight narrative distance, you cannot have your POV character keep a secret from the readers without seeming false, or insulting them. In her book _Mother Miller's How to Write Good Book_ Sasha Miller (no relation) says that keeping information from the reader in this way is a bit like treating them like a small dog, who dances about its master's feet begging for treats: "Please may I have a tidbit of information... pleeeease!" She suggests that readers don't care for this.

Sometimes being in the POV character's head means you don't have to keep a secret. Example: In a past contest an author tried to construct about two pages of story so the narrator avoided personal pronouns when referring to the MC. The MC had slipped sexes from male to female and the author was saving it as a surprise; when the character discovered the slippage the reader would discover the slippage. Except the subterfuge was unnecessary. The MC was the POV character and he believed he was still a he although he was really a she, so no problem if the narrator refers to her as a he.  :-D 

Scotty


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## MattyK (Apr 30, 2009)

Often a combination of First and Third, it's all about the subject.
Take a leaf from this; Genuinely made by myself over the course of a week, it was the main canon to an upcoming Medieval Roleplay on Garry's Mod.
Please do excuse the HTMLcode, it was quickly extracted as I was leaving the former community it came from.
There is also a second chunk of a story running up, left it on the forum, gimme a chance to grab it and submit it.


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## ShÃ nwÃ ng (May 4, 2009)

First person, I can't seem to write in third person without making the story seem too passive.


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## pheonix (May 4, 2009)

First person.


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## StormKitty (May 5, 2009)

I've done both 1st and 3rd person.  Either may work well depending on the story.

I can't imagine writing in 2nd person being practical for a story of any length.  That's essentially writing from the reader's point of view and I don't see where it would be useful except for brief bits and very limited contexts.  If you are telling one of your children something they did as a small child, you are storytelling in 2nd person.


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## Cryoforion (May 5, 2009)

First-person-present-tense-stream-of-consciousness is definitely my favorite POV style _of all time_. Many thanks to William Faulkner 

2nd person is...definitely wonky. You have to be somebody like Tom Robbins to pull it off


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## Iburnaga (May 10, 2009)

I prefer 3rd person limited and subjective. First person is far too limiting for a lot of what I do though it is fun for horror or mind breakers.


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## Seprakarius (May 11, 2009)

I'm not sure I can vote, as I tend to go with what works for the story. Though normally this means I write in third person, I've had enough switches and experiments to the contrary to keep me from being too concrete.

For instance, I'm working on one story which exists predominantly in third person, but with a narrator who occasionally breaks the story and speaks to the reader to make annotations. I enjoy my fits of whimsy like that, successful or not.


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## ElizabethAlexandraMary (May 13, 2009)

Why would we have to make a choice? As Seprakarius said, it really depends on the kind of story. First person can be interesting for novels, and often allow interesting twists, but unless there's a frequent change of POV, it won't go very well with larger stories, which house a broader range of characters.

And an alternance of first/third person does sound nice if it is pulled off properly.


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