Do you prefer to write in third person or first? Why?

[Xitra_Blud]

When writing, I've always had a preference for writing in 1st person. I like to see things through my character's eyes and be the character. It's like playing a character. There's nothing like portraying a person that I am not (which is probably why I also love theater so much).

When you write, which do you prefer writing in? 3rd or 1st person? Explain your reasoning. I'm curious.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I write very deep POV, so you might think I would naturally write 1st person, right? Nope. We write ensemble, which means we have several POV characters per book, and I have a tendency to head hop when the scene calls for it. I like the freedom writing third person gives me, but I still get to play with the limitations and unreliable narrators of a 1st person perspective. For us, it's win-win.

By the way, the bat in your sig is SO cute, oh henchman.

 

[sarasvati]

I've done both first and third, depending on the needs of the story, but I think I end up using third more often. Even when getting pretty deep into POV, like A. E. Lowan, I enjoy some of the freedoms of third person. It's also easier when doing stories with multiple POV characters.

Right now I'm writing a character very close to me, in first person, and then I decided that I wanted a counterpoint and added her mother as another first person POV. And it's getting very difficult for me to distinguish between the two first person voices. I'm going to continue as I'm going for now, but I may have to evaluate this story's effectiveness later on and either work to develop the mom's voice better or make some changes. It's definitely a challenge.

 

[Chilari]

I've been writing first person a lot recently, but I've written third person plenty enough in the past too. It depends on the character and the story. And my mood when I start writing.

 

[CupofJoe]

I think its a genre thing for me.
My detective fiction is first person, everything else [with a few exceptions] is third person.

 

[Steerpike]

I like either one. I don't agree that third person offers more freedom if you're already in a tight POV to begin with. Maybe in a more omniscient POV, but even then you can do some things with first person.

 

[BWFoster78]

I love first person because it feels so much easier to get inside the character's head. I chose to write my WIP in 3rd person, however, because 3rd person seems to be more commonly used for epic fantasy while 1st person seems more commonly used for YA romance. There's a lot of YA romance elements in my novel, but I want the focus to be epic fantasy. I felt, perhaps wrongly, that the POV choice would help with that.

The choice also, imo, makes it easier to switch POV characters between chapters. I could have pulled Jodi Picoult and simply named each chapter with a number and character name, but I just didn't want to do that.

 

[Steerpike]

I don't think it affects POV changes so much. I just read a book where the author switches between first-person POV characters at a chapter break. She didn't have to do anything weird, she just made the shift. Worked fine. 3rd person may help if you're going an omniscient route, because you'd have to do some tricky things to pull that off in 1st person, but if you're in a tight POV to begin with I think you could rewrite any first person scene in third and vice versa without losing anything. I've written the beginning of my story in both, leaving everything intact verbatim except for the POV, and both versions seem to me to achieve the same effect. If you're tight in the viewpoint character's head, I think it's largely a matter of personal preference.

 

[BWFoster78]

I don't think it affects POV changes so much. I just read a book where the author switches between first-person POV characters at a chapter break. She didn't have to do anything weird, she just made the shift. Worked fine.

What method did she use to let the reader know which head they're in? In 3rd person, the POV character is understood to be the first name mentioned. In 1st person, you seem to be confronted with two choices:

1. Artificially telling the reader the identity of the POV character through chapter title or whatever
2. Working the name of the character in through dialogue.

 

[Steerpike]

I'd have to go back and look to see how she did it. I don't think she did much of anything. How do you give the identity of any first person character at the beginning of a novel? Any method in which an author normally does that in a 1st person story can be employed at the POV shift with the new character.

Another book I read that did it had one or two sentence descriptions at the head of each chapter that told where the characters are. Like "Chapter 2 - somewhere in the tunnels beneath Manhattan." And in that case, the POV shift was mentioned there. But you don't have to do something like that - just do a normal first person narrative. The readers are smart; they'll catch it.

Nick Sagan switched between first, third, and second person viewpoint characters in his book Idlewild. That was done effectively as well.

Interestingly, I was talking to an author who has published books under her belt who just assumed she couldn't switch viewpoint in a 1st person narrative, because that's what she'd always heard. I thought it was bizarre, but it gets to the points in the other thread (which we don't have to rehash here) about how misconceptions people get when they are starting out can hold them back later.

But, yeah, to get back to this topic - any time you start a book with the first person narrator you have the question of how to get their identity across. There are many ways to do it, and any of them work equally well when the first person narration shifts to a different character.

 

[Steerpike]

Note: Nick Sagan did that in his book Edenborn, the sequel to Idlewild. Both books were apparently bestsellers, so you can do this stuff even for very mainstream audiences.

 

[wordwalker]

You could use anything from dialog to "when I woke up on (the battlefield only one character was defeated on)", you just have to be certain it's clear -- or use chapter title. GRRM does that, because with his cast size nothing else is safe. (Edit: did I actually use "safe" about Game of Thrones? Hmm.)

I mostly write Tight 3rd, and I think on many levels it can be as close as 1st if you want it to be. But the "I"s still make 3rd seem more intimate still (for instance, VP shifts seem less natural). And that does affect genre; we don't usually think of an epic as something We Could Be Right Inside.

The biggest difference might be if you want the MC to have a visible narrative style. Imagine Dresden (let alone Dexter !!!) without always being half a line away from summarizing how he sees things, and all that attitude; they need 1st. I have a friend who's trying to branch out into military characters that are more hard-boiled than she's used to, and I keep telling her the tough-guy flourishes she's adding work better in 1st person.

 

[BWFoster78]

How do you give the identity of any first person character at the beginning of a novel? Any method in which an author normally does that in a 1st person story can be employed at the POV shift with the new character.

That's the thing. I've always found revealing that identity in 1st person challenging. If I'm going to keep the same narrator throughout, I only have to deal with it once, and I work it into the dialogue like this:

I performed some really interesting action designed to hook the reader.

"Wow, Brian," Bob said, "That sure was an interesting action."

Now, the reader knows that the "I" is named Brian. It's not a big deal to do this since it only impacts a single scene. If I had to do this for the start of every chapter, however, I imagine it would stifle my choices quite a bit. For example, I'd have to have someone to have the dialogue with at the start of every chapter.

That's not to say that there is anything wrong with using an "artificial" method, like referring to the POV character's name in the chapter title or some other description associated with the start of the chapter that takes place outside the story.

 

[Philip Overby]

I prefer working in 1st person simply because I get more done that way. I just find it's easier for me to get inside the character's head and offer more insight with that method. However, I want to write 3rd person. Why? Because ultimately I want to write novels with multiple POVs and I don't want to do that with 1st person. I'm sure it can be done and has been done successfully, but I don't care to try it.

I do see 3rd person used more often in epic fantasy, but I don't feel like I write epic fantasy. I do see a lot more writers I enjoy using 1st person, so I don't think you have to really chose one or the other. Like others have mentioned, just see what works best for your specific story.

 

[Steerpike]

@BWFoster - I don't think you have to do it every time. In one example I am thinking of, the main 1st person viewpoint character is very witty and sarcastic, the secondary viewpoint character very serious. After the initial switch where the new POV character is introduced, subsequent shifts became apparently within the first sentence or two because the characters sound so different. I knew whose head I was in without the author saying so.

@Phil - Maybe the thing to do is write in 1st person, so you get the flow you're looking for during the writing process, and then during the edit process simply convert it to 3d person. You can do that without really losing anything.

 

[BWFoster78]

@BWFoster - I don't think you have to do it every time. In one example I am thinking of, the main 1st person viewpoint character is very witty and sarcastic, the secondary viewpoint character very serious. After the initial switch where the new POV character is introduced, subsequent shifts became apparently within the first sentence or two because the characters sound so different. I knew whose head I was in without the author saying so.

That would work well for a book with a small number of POV characters. Epic fantasy tends to have a lot more than two. I've got eight in my book.

 

[Chessie]

I prefer to write and read stories in 3rd person. The first person perpesctive really turns me off for some reason. Interestingly enough, I was surprised 'Hunger Games' hooked me the way it did. I like third person for the broader perspective.

 

[Steerpike]

There is a popular YA series with a lot of POV characters. If I remember correctly, the author uses 1st person for the main character of the books, and uses third person for all of the other viewpoints.

 

[GeekDavid]

I've written in both 1st and 3rd. My current WIP is a fantasy/mystery blend, and it's in 1st.

As for how to get the MC's identity across, it's extremely easy. In the WIP, I just had a young child run up the stairs calling my MC's name. Simple, effective, and just what a kid would do to get an adult's attention.

I can think of lots of other ways as well. For example:

• Have the MC visit an inn or alehouse where the barkeep or barmaid greets them by name.
• Have a friend stop them on the street by calling their name.
• Have some official document delivered by a guard who doesn't know the MC, so he asks if the MC is "John Doe." (insert your MC's name there, of course)
• Have the MC receive a letter and read it to the reader, including the salutation which should contain the name.
• Have a friend introduce the MC to a stranger. "Mac, this is John Doe. John, this is Mac."
• Have them attend the local ruler's court and be recognized by the ruler by name. "John Doe, please approach the throne..."
• Have the MC attend a party where the guests are announced at the door by a crier. "Announcing, the Baron John von Doe!"

See, lots of options.

 

[BWFoster78]

There are lots of options, but all of them involve having another character available for dialogue and force the author to start the chapter with dialogue.

I'm not saying that it isn't possible to do such, just that it limits options. The author would find it much more difficult to start a chapter in which the character is alone (though obviously you could have the character address himself internally) or to start a chapter with anything other than dialogue or thought.