Young Writers Society

Just wondering if anyone has tried this POV? And what are the benifits, if any? Cons?

Thanks!

Second person is tricky. On the one hand, you get the advantage of directly addressing the reader, which makes them immediately involved with the story. On the other hand, if you use second person to dictate a character's actions and those actions do not mesh with the reader's reactions to events, then you risk losing your reader.

Personally, I find that second person is best used when blended with first. Discrepancies between the story "you" and the reader can be ascribed to a fault in the narrator's perception and can be used effectively to signal that the narrator is unreliable and/or fallible. Blending with first person also enhances the sense of being directly addressed, even if the conversation is a bit one-sided.

In general though, second person is best used sparingly, and for shorter works. The longer a work is, the more likely you are to lose a reader to something the story "you" does that the reader would never do. Overuse of second person can be quite frustrating for the reader as they feel like they're being forced to do something, or that the conversation is too one-sided.

It's easily the hardest POV in English, besides stream of consciousness. Communal First/Third Person and Multiple POV First/Third Person and then First Person and Third Person have nothing on it.

What's intensely difficult with this POV is making a very clear distinction from character, main character, and reader. Funny you ask this, it's becoming more popular in writing in the last few years. I was told about some recent novel about some dude's office narrating an entire novel from second person....not sure, but that was it.

Some people consider it taboo and don't take it seriously. Here's the benefit and incentive: it's so under-utilized you could do some amazing things that have never been done before. Just climb that massive learning curve.

Oooh, second person. My one true PoV love. It's just so fun :3 I've written a couple of pieces in 2pov, and I'm definitely not stopping there.

Pros, IMHO, is that it allows a sort of intimacy that is not usually found in third person, but it's not the closeness of first person either (first person personally being really uncomfortable for me to write due to that closeness, actually): it directly addresses the reader, encourages him/her to directly connect to the character by simply making them be him, in a way. It also allows for a certain stream-of-consciousness aspect, as though the character was addressing himself. At the same time, it can imply some sort of disconnection between thoughts and actions, in that you can comment on what's going on without sounding too weird. I also find it makes the words flow strangely easily when the same story in third person would be like pulling teeth.

Cons... as M³ said, some people instantly backspace the moment they see second person. It's also some work to make it work without it sounding too preachy, as the constant 'you' can easily feel like you're being desperate for the reader's attention.

What really pulled me into second person PoV was reading this. It's technically a poem, but really to me it's more a short story, albeit a rather strange one, and the use of second person in it--it's what makes it, and yeah.

As I said, I'm kind of in love with it >.>

Oh, I love 2nd person PoV! ("We Need to Talk About Kevin" is a really good example)

ONe of the things that is good about it is that there is the sense of intimacy between the narrator and the addressed character, but also a sense of mystery - who is the 'you'? It becomes a challenge to unpick all of the subtle references that indicate the speaker's relationship with the 'you', and to work out who they are, and why they're being addressed. It's always very interesting to read

I'd advise you to go for it, and see what happens!

I sense failure all around but I'll give it a go.

Thank you all for the help and shedding light on your experiences. Appreciate it.

Second person is.... so much fun. As Mustard said, there's so much you can do with it, because the vast majority of literature avoids it.

And a lot of literature that attempts to be second person... fails. Because the instead reader reaction to "You walked in the door and saw the love of your life" is "I wish," or "You're scared you're going to be miserable for the rest of your life" is "Uh... no I'm not, thanks."

So, you have to choose a scenario in which the majority of readers (I'm ruling out the ones who wouldn't even walk through the literary section of a bookstore on the way to the mainstream fluff) aren't going to be put off on becoming the "you" character. No matter what you do, though, someone will always resist becoming the "you" for the duration of the story.

Short stories and flash work best because second can start to wear on even the most patient reader after a while.

And, I've written a second-person short story before. It was workshopped in class and it went over well, so I guess it was a success (and, I like it.) I think what helped it work was that the "you" character was nondescript. And in the story against his/her will. So, it didn't matter if the reader said, "No, I'm not running. I'm sitting in a chair reading your dumb story" because that was the point. And because "you" was never defined beyond perhaps age, a lot of potential resistance was taken care of there.

One last thing: it can make for the most fantastic performance piece, something meant to be read aloud. Weird stuff happens when you make every member of the audience a part of the story. Weird stuff happens.

I find that a whole novel in 2nd person gets frustrating to read. It's probably even more frustrating to write. I suggest, if you're going to use that POV, that you not do an entire novel in it. It would be a much easier read if you switched back and forth between POVs- like per chapter. This might, however, clash with your storyline if you only have one really important character.

So, in conclusion, I suggest you stick to short stories in that POV or if you're doing a novel, jumping around between sections or chapters. I wish you luck!

-Tori