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

[Rexenm]

So first person, and third person, we know. Second person, a little more obscure, using you, like a choose your own adventure. Maybe zero person, like a fat cat money bags kind of character; kind of annoying. I was trying to write some sort of non fiction about leprechauns once; that believed the devil wrote all magical entities. Also a story about the history of fleas being sentient life, against the robots; and I wondered if all life originated from salt. So fat cats money bags understands this; or maybe they don’t..

 

[Finchbearer]

I disagree (with the OP) and think that third person is a fine way to convert charm or any other qualities in the character you’re writing about - it’s just not as up close and personal as first person. Third person can include more action and less thinking, but still offers the writer loads of scope to create a complex and interesting character.

 

[skip.knox]

>I would like to use it in a non harmful way to make a character who speaks that way like a normal character.
Then by all means do so!
As with so much else in writing, it *can* work, but it's up to the author to make it work.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

>I would like to use it in a non harmful way to make a character who speaks that way like a normal character.
Then by all means do so!
As with so much else in writing, it *can* work, but it's up to the author to make it work.

I think the trick will probably be to make the character who speaks in third person...otherwise normal, and well, likable too I guess.
The character herself is pretty normal/likable, it's just she speaks in third person. (I believe her reasoning for doing so is that it gives her 'space' when talking to new people and getting used to them. so in other words, coping with anxiety) I do know a lot of people don't like the trope though, so I hope to make the character endearing.

I was thinking of having a few serious moments where she breaks the 'facade' but I'm not sure when or where/how I want to use them. Or alternatively, I could make it seem like she doesn't tend to take things 'seriously' but when she does decide to, you don't want to be on the shit list. (people seem to like that trope sometimes, if it's done well enough especially if you can make both 'sides' of that personality engaging)

 

[pmmg]

Ya know, all my writing life I've been seeing people try to avoid dreaded tropes, but tropes by themselves have never off put me. If you love the character and enjoy writing them, just go. You have a good notion of what to do. Let it live.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Ya know, all my writing life I've been seeing people try to avoid dreaded tropes, but tropes by themselves have never off put me. If you love the character and enjoy writing them, just go. You have a good notion of what to do. Let it live.

It's usually the execution of this particular trope that bugs people. I still plan to go through with it but I had to have a think about how to go about it.
Hopefully my execution is good enough that people won't mind the character. As someone who personally doesn't mind it much, it can get a little grating.

 

[pmmg]

Hopefully my execution is good enough that people won't mind the character.

Thats the boat we are all in.

A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Thats the boat we are all in.

A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships were built for.

Can I borrow that line, that's damn good lol
I have two characters who speak in third person, one is a Adult brain-kid body situation (she's a 5K year old Kitsune) and the other is an Adult with a sort of childlike (but not annoying, just more like, innocent) personality. I think they're both likable enough, though the Kitsune monarch might grate on people.

 

[pmmg]

Oh, its not mine

I think I read that on one of those motivational posters people sometimes put in their offices.

Sounds like something I would say though...if I was thinking on ships. Which I do often for my stories. Somehow, a lot of ships don't last long.

 

[Archon of Cringe]

Can I borrow that line, that's damn good lol
I have two characters who speak in third person, one is a Adult brain-kid body situation (she's a 5K year old Kitsune) and the other is an Adult with a sort of childlike (but not annoying, just more like, innocent) personality. I think they're both likable enough, though the Kitsune monarch might grate on people.

Well mine is a vampiric assassin who was groomed to think murder is okay by an evil organization. She is an adult but acts like an excited kid because she has never went through the developmental stages of maturity.

She is planned to be the main character's first-ever friend.

 

[Adela]

Good example, I think. About 2:10 an annoyed chracter asks about it.

 

[Naruzeldamaster]

Oh, its not mine

I think I read that on one of those motivational posters people sometimes put in their offices.

Sounds like something I would say though...if I was thinking on ships. Which I do often for my stories. Somehow, a lot of ships don't last long.

What do writers who write about sea dogs say when they need to think of an excuse to sink ships?
'Nothing else to do so let's get Kraken'
.... (I am NOT sorry for that one)

Good example, I think. About 2:10 an annoyed chracter asks about it.

This is about how my characters who use Third person are like.
Ayeka acknowledges it frequently in some conversations and asks if it bothers people, but even if it did, if she changed her way of speaking she wouldn't be 'her' anymore. And she would rather people get to know Ayeka and not some made up version because she mildly annoyed people.

Himiko also acknowledges it once or twice during her scenes. When one character asks she responds with a rhetoric 'why do birds use their wings to fly' but when a more empathetic character asks (out of genuine curiosity) she responds with 'Because Himiko grew bored and wanted to differentiate herself from others of her species, as she is the leader, people are more likely to remember her if she speaks differently than common folk. Weather they remember Himiko fondly or not is total pants, all she wants is to be remembered.' when a character asks how often she grows bored of something in the same scene. she responds with 'two thousand years, give or take, Himiko has actually been formulating a new form of speaking sixth person, it's...complicated, but it's twice as cool as third person at least~' (Of course she doesn't explain that she's being a smart ass, so people just nod and agree with her logic)

In a different story Kitsune are a Hive Mind, so they use 'we/us' to describe thejmselves, save for one, who has discovered 'independence' and speaks like an average person would.