Young Writers Society

As we all know, there are mostly three major types of writing perspective used in writing.

First person

Second person

and

Third person.

Personally, I favour the first two but I'm curious as to what most writers out there use for fiction such as fantasy or sci-fi. I know that it depends on what you write and how you want to present it. But I'm curious as to, which perspective is the easiest to write and which perspective most people favour and why. I mean, is always interesting knowing these things when writing.

So, let 'em thoughts flow. It ain't good for your head if you try holding 'em in. Trust me, I know.

-Rx

I find that I do well with either first person, present tense or third person, past tense.

With first, it's far easier to get attached to the character. You possess the opportunity to explore their thoughts and emotions, and developing them requires little effort. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as "omniscient first person view," so if wanting new perspective, you're forced to rotate regularly between protagonists. But then you face the challenge of giving each narrator a distinct voice.

Scrap that. My drafts are in first person, and my final works, thanks to Ctrl+F, are usually in third.

Second person isn't commonly seen in novels that aren't "Choose your way" novels, so I'd have to say no, I've yet to use second person.

I usually use third when posting in storybooks and writing stories, but lately, I've been using first person when writing stories. I can't really explain why, but I'm growing equally fond of both first and third. It just depends on the writer and the story/plot and how it feels when writing. For instance, I was writing a short story earlier and I was originally using first person, then about halfway, I switched to third because the way I was writing made it feel necessary to say "he saw" and not "I saw".

Anyways, long story short, I like first and third!

I'm a big fan of third person. Like, reading and writing. As for tense, past. Even for experimental pieces where I'm trying my hand at first person. But lately I've been writing and reading third person things. And I really like it. Especially where there are multiple POVs. I like being in several characters' heads.

First person is okay. I feel like you can feel a more personal connection to the main characters, but that's about it. You only feel a personal connection to the main character. What about everyone else? Yeah, you can do multiple POVs like third person, but I feel like, at one point, the voices will mix and blend, and ultimately it all sounds like one person. It can happen in third person too, but I find it more in first person stories.

I don't read or write in second person. I don't feel like I do it well and it's kind of awkward for me to read. So I don't attempt to read/write anything in second person. Though I may be missing out on some really good pieces. I would be focusing too much on the different (well, for me) format than the actual story, constantly figuring out who "you" is.

I may just be favoring third person too much, haha.

Tonight's become a night for a little forum necromancy, it seems.

Personally, I tend to write in first person most of the time. I just seems to happen naturally, and maybe it's just because it's easier to get into the character's head as I'm writing, but it's usually my first instinct. And I do enjoy writing in first person and creating a voice that's a good representation of how they talk, and the fact that it does allow for unreliable narrators - something I'm yet to try myself, but possibly in the future?

I think I wrote a short story in second person once, and I think it's an interesting one. Definitely rarer than the others, but if it's used well it can be really effective. One of the best examples that I've seen it used was for the short story Dark Roots by Cate Kennedy, which is told entirely in the second person. It's a bit tricky to explain without giving a total synopsis of the story, but essentially the narrator's in this really bad, self-loathing, destructive headspace, and the second person narration has that uncomfortable, confronting, too-close sense to it that really helped to get into the character's head. In this case, the 'you' was being used instead of 'I' - so not addressing anyone - which does put you into the narrator's shoes in a way that is even more uncomfortable, if done right, than first person.

Third's pretty cool. I've written in it a little, and enjoy reading in it. But I do think that where you can get away with present tense in first person, present tense third is pretty icky most of the time.

I find 3rd person past limited by far the easiest form to write in. I prefer my narrators to be coldly detached from the struggles of the characters, and that's easiest to achieve in 3rd. And, obviously, this is the most effective form for switching POVs. Omniscient may be slightly easier, but I personally have never cared for the way it reads.

All that being said, 1st person does have a place, of course. If I feel that my story calls for 1st person narration, I will not hesitate to comply; it'll just take a bit more effort on my part.

As for 2nd person? I tend to think of it as reserved for the "Give Yourself Goosebumps" books.

One thing I have never budged on is tense. I write strictly in the past. While there are some books written in present tense that I've enjoyed, I have always found it to be strange. Naturally, any story you read has occurred in the past, so I believe it should be written accordingly.