Maybe I am just biased, but when I was writing my short story which is in first person, things seem to flow so much better than in first person.
I don’t know why writing in first person goes smoothly than in third person. I’m not saying that when I write in third person that it is bad, but writing in first person feels better. I do have issues and yes it is not as great.
Though it comes off with better flow to me. Which is so weird because I struggle with writing in first person, always stick to third person. I do better writing short stories in first person for the oddest reason. However, I don’t know if I can will myself to write an entire novel in first person. I am not quite there just yet.
Still, I would ponder if writing in first person whether short stories or novels would be better for me.
Project Red won’t do well in first person. I can see that now, it just cannot work that way in my own personal opinion.
I do have to wonder if Project Succession would work in first person or another novel project.
I am guessing what to do next.
Though writing in first person is so much smoother for me, I won’t stop writing in third person entirely.
I enjoy writing the short story in first person very much. It still needs work, but man I never felt this proud and excited to write in first person.
Yeah, my current book is first person, and it’s like roleplaying that you’re an 18th century adventurer, and you simply write whatever comes into your head. Much easier! (>‿◠)
I do have alternating chapters that are third person, and they’re harder to write since they’re more omniscient and objective.
I’m the opposite. I almost exclusively write in third person 99% of the time, unless the story/plot/character specifically calls for it. I think partially because one of my pet peeves is people overusing ‘I’ in first person present every sentence, or every other sentence and I like ‘zoning out’ and exploring more than just the main character. To be honest, I get bored of first person, unless there is a real reason for it and the plot benefits from it. There’s nothing wrong with using first person, but it really depends on what you’re writing.
Also @Akje AFAIK most of, if not all of the Alex Cross books do that. I remember reading one a long time ago. It started in Alex Cross’s POV, then went to third for action scenes or when it needed it. It worked for those kinds of books cause Cross was a long series. You might want to check that out for some ideas on how to do it in a published book.
Again, depends on the story type. I do like third person omniscient and following a large group of characters more than one, especially in the types of books I am currently reading (true crime) for story research. They tend to be omniscient and tell you everything and a lot of history on the subjects. You need to know a lot of things.
Oscillating is better for stories, I think. Where you can be more intimate and less general. I prefer third person for that still because if you have more than one character to focus on (dual protagonists) like a romance novel say, it makes it less confusing and takes me out of it less with the “I” thing.
mhm. i forgot to clarify that i meant in general and for third person specifically; wasn’t ignoring that it depends on the story.
do you have a general preference when it comes to tense as well?
how do you feel about deferred narrator?
First person is very tricky imo. I’d need a really good (unique) character to get into their psyche & present the story.
I use first person plural in one of my novels. The narrator is a greek chorus spectating, commenting & reflecting on the events of the story. I think it’s fun and clever and it brings up the question of whether the reader is a member of the chorus and a character themself. These are the things I think about lol.
How can we describe this youth? What lightness, what charm! Now we see him, we should not be surprised that of all the beauties famed in Heaven, the two most beloved are young men: one a godling, the other a mortal. He is the godling Arom, born from the union of Venus and Vulcan.
In my other novel I use first, second and third-person.
