Young Writers Society

I've begun writing a story and have figured out I have absolutely no idea which "person" to use. I'm referring to a 1st person, 2nd person, 3rd person type of thing.

My story divides into two parts. The first is a romance part, and most romantic books I've read have been set in 1st person. However, my second part is about war. Most war novels I've read have been set in 3rd person. Also, I want my tone to be formal, and I find that it's generally easier to achieve that in 3rd person.

I also have a few more general questions.
Can you be just as emotional in 3rd person?
Is 3rd person really more formal?
Should you use 3rd person if you're just going to focus on one character and never leave that character's POV?
Aside from the obvious, what is the difference between 1st and 3rd person?
Is there a difference?

Questions first:

Can you be just as emotional in 3rd person?

Yes and no. You can still go into the length of emotion and have readers hurt right along with a third person narrator. It might even be easier to be emotional in third person, because the extra distance (from the character's thoughts) allows for readers to not feel swamped in melodrama. But on the "no" side, that extra distance can rob the story of some emotion because you're not in the person's head. But I've had my heart pound for first and third person stories. (I have, however, winced at a lot more first person stories because of the melodrama)

Is 3rd person really more formal?

No. You can use contractions, slang, fragmented sentence structure, and all the things that make first person "informal" in third person. (In fact, I find my first person stories are more formal because of my character's voice. Writing in third person makes it feel less formal. I've also seen this happen with a lot of first person books I've read; they're more formal than third person books. But it's all because of the narrator.)

In short: formality just depends on the person narrating, and what their voice is.

Should you use 3rd person if you're just going to focus on one character and never leave that character's POV?

Doesn't make a difference. You can use first person for multiple PoVs (but you'd better be darn good at differentiating those voices. The difficulty of this, and confusion it can cause, is why there's only one narrator in first person books) and third person for one PoV. Just staying to one head is known as "third person limited."

Aside from the obvious, what is the difference between 1st and 3rd person?
Is there a difference?

Lumping these two together, as they relate (and there is a difference).

The main difference between first and third person is how close you are to the character. In first person, everything is tainted by the character's voice. You can't just give an "author aside" for something the character doesn't know yet, and you have to let readers into pretty much everything the character sees and feels. First person will also alter your descriptions, as people tend not to give lengthly descriptions of themselves or others in their own head.

Your narration also won't be 100% reliable. You can have three first-person narrators say the same event, and each event will be different. So even if you know what happens in the novel, you can't just let the narrator say everything objectively. You must take into account their voice, perspective, background, ect, to see how they'll "frame" (or interpret) an idea.

Now for advice:

I came across a saying about first person awhile ago, and have used it as a guide for which person to use since: "Is the character's voice indistinguishable?"

If the character is demanding to be written in first person, they have been so finely worked on you can say how they would interpret everything, and has a voice you could never mistake for another character or replicate in third person, then write the story in first.

If the character doesn't match all of the above criteria, write the story in third.