What POV (point of view) do you prefer to write in? I like first person because you can really get into the character’s head, but third person is nice because it allows you to switch POV to another character and to be more objective in the story. Do you like to switch POV? Do you think that it’s hard to write something fromt the point of view of the opposite sex? What POV do you prefer to read?

Maybe if I try to write like a guy, I should talk to one of my guy friends to try to get a guy’s perspective on things. I sometimes like first person where they’re just observing and not really the main character (One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest).

I find it difficult to write from a first-person perspective, especially girls. Thinking of personalities and such isn’t too hard, but I keep wondering how believable they are and whether a real person would actually be like that.

@ Snow White Queen: Marcus Zusac is the king of first-person writing. See: Fighting Ruben Wolfe, The Underdog, When Dogs Cry, etc. etc.

I prefer third-person intimate, that strange halfway point where you’re seeing the character from the outside, but hearing them from the inside.

I don’t write in first person because I don’t like reading books written in first person, with very few exceptions. First person is much more difficult for me because I don’t feel comfortable with writing someone based on myself (which would be easiest because I’m inside my own head), and I have difficulty empathising with other people enough to feel comfortable trying to write about someone else living in their own head. Not that that made any sense. Anyway, whenever I used to try writing in first person, I would find myself unable to write anything that wasn’t choppy, clumsily worded, and unrealistic – my character wasn’t like a real person.

Anyway. So my POV of choice is third person. Generally I switch between three points of view throughout my stories (at least, I have done this in two novels, the only ones I have come even remotely close to finishing. That’s enough example material, right?), so I can get different takes on situations within a story that I would not be satisfied with if they were only portrayed from one side.

My next project needs to be figuring out how to do a villain’s point of view…

I like books written in the third person omniscient narrative mode, but tend to write in limited third person. I generally dislike first person except in a very few books.

I write first-person mostly. It seems to come more naturally.

I like writing both first and third person. There are definitely times when one is more appropriate than the other.

Anyone here try writing in the second person?

Anyone here try writing in the second person?

Choose Your Own Adventure!

Hahah. I enjoy those, but, I think you would have to an incredibly talented author to write a good second person pov novel.

Third-person limited.

I’m still experimenting with the different persons bit, but juggling multiple PoV characters is fun and a great way to add depth, intricacy, and contrast to the story.

In my experience so far, setting it up that way can be a useful tool to withhold key information from the reader when you aren’t ready for them to have it yet. Would some event spark a character’s inner monologue into a premature reveal? No worries, just make sure it’s during another character’s PoV. Of course, that sorta falls apart if your PoV characters aren’t together at the time, but it’s pretty handy if they are.

Artimaeus’s spelling fail for the win.

I don’t like a lot of genre fiction in first person. Because while some of my favorite quality books are in first person (_Invisible Man_, at least) and I love the idea of genre fiction, too much of it is not anywhere near it’s potential. And when it is, they tend to stick it in “general fiction/literature”. Wait, that’s a rant for a different time :)

And I don’t think I’ve written in first person for awhile, I tried writing my first attempt at a novel (in college, strictly so I could join a writing group because I liked the members—or actually, I think I maybe wrote the prologue before that because that was right after I read Invisible Man and intended to cross it with Asimov’s “Robots” series) I actually wrote it with a first person narrator. Before I stopped writing it turned into a dystopian speculative fiction comedy. And to get back on topic, was first person in the POV of a nearly middle-aged bureaucrat. Who was also a man.

He was actually kind of fun. I miss him a little.

Second person is interesting, but extremely difficult to do well.

Text adventures/interactive fiction are always in second person, and it works pretty well for that because the game is sort of describing everything to the player anyway. I’m pretty sure that’s the most common form of second person writing, and when done well, it is very effective.

I find it easiest to write in first person, and for that reason, I’ve been forcing myself to write in the third person more. I love first person because I can imagine that I’m in the characters head, relating the story as it’s happening Some stories, though, just need an external narrator

I’ve always wanted to attempt a second person narrative. I’ve tried to think of some concepts that would work well in the second person, but easier said than done XD

This. The thing I did before my WIP was in third person. One thing I like, and wasn’t to try, in third person is multiple POVs. My WIP is first person though. I also would like to do something in second person, but I have no idea what.

I’ve been quite experimental with voice and perspective, especially during university. One short story that I’m quite proud of was a non-interactive second-person-intimate about a boy running late for a train.It worked surprisingly well, despite a few objection to the perspective (along the lines of “I don’t like being told how I feel”, which to me hardly seems like a valid criticism for a university-level writing class).

Another one I wrote recently was more traditionally first-person-intimate, but switching between the two contrasting characters. One character thought/spoke entirely in triolet poetic form.