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Tuesday, May 7, 2013

What person do you prefer by Delia

I love reading and writing in first person point of view.  In case you get POV's mixed up, first person uses a narrators point of view and the words "I" and "me" are used, making a story sound autobiographical. It tends to look something like this:

"Wait, just a gol durned minute," I hollered.  I ran after Cletus, catching him in a flying tackle and getting a mouthful of dirt in the process.  I blinked the red Georgia dirt out of my eyes and got a grip on his forearm, twisting it behind his back.  A warm glow built in my heart when I heard his grunt of pain.

I like to pretend I'm the character I'm reading about and when something's written in first person, it's much easier to do this, even more so when I'm writing.  My book, Not Looking For Trouble is written in first person, and when I was writing it, I WAS Susan Kent.  It was much easier for me to feel what she was feeling when I referred to her as "I" and "me".  Susan and I are Siamese twins.

Second person point of view isn't very commonly used. In second person POV, you hear words like "you", "your" and "yours".  I've never written anything in it and I'm willing to bet most other writers haven't either.  Offhand, the only thing I can think of that uses second person POV are choose your own adventure books.  Second person sounds like this:

The doorknob is hot in your hand, telling you instantly that the fire has indeed spread to the second floor.  Your heart is pounding in your chest, you have to make a quick decision.  Do you open the door and risk burning to death?  Or, do you follow the advice of Sparky the fire dog and look for an alternate route?  The problem was, Sparky never told you what to do when you were stuck in a closet.

Last, but the complete opposite of least, is third person.  Most fiction books you read are in third person point of view.  You hear the words "he", "she" and "it" a lot in third person.  An uninvolved, unspecified narator is telling a story to the reader, either subjectively or omnisciently.  A subjective narrative means that the narrator only can see and describe things from one characters point of view, they can only tell you of one persons experiences, pain and happiness.  Omniscient means that the narrator can jump into many different characters heads, they can tell you how multiple characters are feeling and reacting at different points in the story.

Both of my books, It Takes Moxie and Eye of the Beholder are told in subjective third person.  Once again, I find it easier to stay in one characters head, preferring the mystery of other people's feelings to knowing everything.  Third person sounds like this:

"Wouldn't  you know it," Iggie complained, "as soon as I find a decent-looking outfit for the wedding, I get attacked by a werewolf and it gets all bloody."

How about you?  What point of view do you prefer to read?

3 comments:

  1. I prefer 3rd person, but will occasionally read in 1st person if the story really hooks me in. I've written 1 story in 1st, and all my others in 3rd.

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  2. Delia,

    I loved both your books.

    I've written my books in third person, and often go into very deep third person POV.

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  3. I prefer 3rd person - I like to know what everyone is thinking, usually. I have read some 1st person books that I've really loved, but the author was great about conveying the hero's POV even though he wasn't telling the story. I've also read a couple of books that were in 2nd POV and it didn't take much for me to get used to reading them and I really enjoyed those stories as well. Guess I'm pretty flexible with POV.

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