How Do I make Talking in the third person...charming?

[Naruzeldamaster]

This trope is very much either a you like it instantly or you pull out the revolver (and proceed to aim at the character speaking in third person)
You could write the most charming character in the world, but for whatever reason, third person speaking knocks their charm down quite a bit.

I think my biggest gripe with this trope is the character who does it is naturally annoying anyway, so the third person-ness makes it even more so. They also tend to be used for comedic relief which...also doesn't help their cause if said comedy is bad.

 

[Queshire]

Well my first question would be why do you want to write them talking in third person then?

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Well my first question would be why do you want to write them talking in third person then?

Eh, some characters it just works, there are a few instances where third person does actually work.
It depends on the character's personality a lot, which is why most people tend to hate it, cause the third person character is almost always an annoyance to be around.

 

[Penpilot]

When you want people to like a character, you have them doing likeable things. When you want people to dislike a character, you have them doing unlikable things. Talking in the third person tends to fall into the latter category, at least in my eyes. The simple trick is to simply tip the scales.

People are compose of positive and negative qualities. The more the positive outweighs the negative then the likelihood of them being liked as a character tends to go up. As with everything in writing, execution is the key.

It's like the really good friend with a couple of annoying qualities. OR the really bad friend with a couple of redeeming qualities. If you ask the former to house-sit, you might come back home to a clogged toilet. If you ask the latter to do the same, you may come home to a smouldering crater, with an envelope pinned to the rubble containing a letter that says, "Sorry. My bad," and a $20 bill.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

I've never seen this trope in the wild, but I think it would annoy me mightily. Are you trying to attempt an anti-hero? If you want your character to be liked but still obnoxious you're going to need to give them a few "Save the Cat" moments, or in other words, the reader has to believe the character is redeemable. And you go that by having them do positive things as well as negative. They don't need to be an even trade, they don't need to even be close, they just need to be clear.

 

[pmmg]

LIke...

The dragon leapt back from the knight, tripping over his own gold and belching flame that almost singed the Princess. "Good job, Pmmg, you really impressed them with that move."

What said the knight. "Who are you taking to?"

"Himself," said the Princess. "He's an idiot for a dragon."

"Hey," says the dragon. "I'm standing right here...Or laying... Pmmg does not like they way you are talking about him..."

"Just kill him already, so I can go home," says the Princess.

"Oh C'mon," says the dragon. "Surely, Pmmg has given you a better time than any pesky knight would have."

"I'm not pesky," says the knight.

"Worst--date--ever," says the princess.

"Fine," said the dragon. "Pmmg will roast the pesky knight, and then you can go."

"Good enough for me," says the Princess.

"What?" says the knight.


A character in my latest book talked this way, but he was not meant to be charming. I think it would fly if it was just understood to be his character. While I do know people who talk to themselves, I dont know anyone who talks in this way. I think this would be easier to pull off if the character was not thought of to have a high intellect.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Is that what this is? lol We have faerie cats in the Books of Binding called greymalkin, and they have cat forms and human forms. We also have pixies, which look like how you'd expect a pixie to look. Both of them refer to themselves in the third person, which is actually a challenge until you get into the patter. I just didn't think much about the grammar of it all.

 

[Queshire]

WoOoOo~ I will now use my spooky, mysterious powers to make a prediction. The characters Naru is thinking about mostly come from anime/manga or from media that can directly trace its roots back to them.

There's a cultural element at play. In Japan it's something normally associated with little kids. So characters that use it are either meant to be childish (and often annoying as is the case with many childish characters) or are meant to be cute like how in the West we view stuffed animals as mostly being for little kids but a teenage girl that loves stuffed animals could be seen as cute for that aspect. It's a reference to the innocence and optimism of youth.

Also Japan doesn't just have "I." You typically use one word if you're a girl for I, a different word if you're a boy and, in fiction at least, a different word if you're a particularly tomboyish or masculine girl. As a result I imagine it must be a lot less grating in the original language since they don't expect everybody to only use "I" no matter what or when.

 

[Penpilot]

I just came across this interesting tidbit. Talking to and about yourself in the third person can be a positive thing. It's distancing mechanism that can help one work through certain things.

Quick little video explaining it.

 

[pmmg]

Well, actually, I was asking if that is what they meant.

 

[Penpilot]

Oh found this, too. Likeable character from tv show Brooklyn 99 who refers to themselves in the 3rd person.

 

[The Dark One]

There's a funny episode of Seinfeld where JImmy speaks about himself in the third person which sets up an amusing misunderstanding for Elaine.

Smeagol, of course, always uses third person.

These examples both work well.

 

[Mad Swede]

Another humorous example is from the Asterix comic books, where Julius Caesar refers to himself in the third person. Note that this is spoof on the way Caesar wrote his real life Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries on the Gallic War), where he always refers to himself and his actions in the third person.

 

[Ban]

Like Mad Swede my mind immediately thought of Julius Caesar as presented in the Asterix and Obelix comics. Based on that, my advice would be to poke fun at the affectation through the pov of another character or through the narration itself if you're writing in omniscient.

 

[Archon of Cringe]

I am writing a character who talks in 3rd person. Referring to yourself in 3rd person can be seen as childish and immature which fits her character as, despite being 18, she is an assassin who doesn't understand the consequences of what she is doing. She was raised without a stern hand so she would be bred to kill willingly and without remorse--even enjoying it, thinking it's not morally wrong.
This is a good forum to get ideas for the execution.

 

[skip.knox]

>Referring to yourself in 3rd person can be seen as childish
It can be, but don't count on it. You've seen examples presented here of adults referring to themselves in the third person without seeming childish. I agree that this association may well be culture-specific.

 

[Archon of Cringe]

>Referring to yourself in 3rd person can be seen as childish
It can be, but don't count on it. You've seen examples presented here of adults referring to themselves in the third person without seeming childish. I agree that this association may well be culture-specific.

I am mostly familiar with anime i.e. Japanese stories so that's where I got the idea from. I could be wrong. I feel as if she has other traits that make the reader like her it should balance out and eventually they will just forget it.

 

[skip.knox]

I was only cautioning about assumptions. Do what feels right.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

LIke...

The dragon leapt back from the knight, tripping over his own gold and belching flame that almost singed the Princess. "Good job, Pmmg, you really impressed them with that move."

What said the knight. "Who are you taking to?"

"Himself," said the Princess. "He's an idiot for a dragon."

"Hey," says the dragon. "I'm standing right here...Or laying... Pmmg does not like they way you are talking about him..."

"Just kill him already, so I can go home," says the Princess.

"Oh C'mon," says the dragon. "Surely, Pmmg has given you a better time than any pesky knight would have."

"I'm not pesky," says the knight.

"Worst--date--ever," says the princess.

"Fine," said the dragon. "Pmmg will roast the pesky knight, and then you can go."

"Good enough for me," says the Princess.

"What?" says the knight.


A character in my latest book talked this way, but he was not meant to be charming. I think it would fly if it was just understood to be his character. While I do know people who talk to themselves, I dont know anyone who talks in this way. I think this would be easier to pull off if the character was not thought of to have a high intellect.

Talking in third person usually means using the she/him nouns to address one self (when they aren't addressing themselves by name)
It's used a lot in certain RPG's or anime, I have a couple of characters that talk this way though they aren't designed to be annoying.

Most of the time when writers use this trope they make that character annoying and (typically) a child. or a child like being, most commonly seen with a mascot type character.

The trope itself is...fine, it's just that it's always used on annoying characters, in a sad attempt to make them 'cute'


I would like to use it in a non harmful way to make a character who speaks that way like a normal character.

 

[Queshire]

Hey, I was right.