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I must have a strong preference for the first person, because sometimes when I'm writing in the third I find I've got so involved as the central character that I've slipped into first person.
I prefer first person. When I'm reading, I want to strongly associate with the main character. However, there are times when a story is best told from third person, particularly when multiple characters have important scenes by themselves. I'm re-writing my Heather and Michael series. It was originally written as third person and I've changed chapters 1 & 2 to first person. But Chapter 3 fell flat when I tried to change it to first person because that chapter only works if I regularly change which character is the point of view for the story.I'm working on a story based on some real life events and I'm curious how to tell it. Does anyone have strong opinions one way or the other?
It depends how YOU the writer want to tell it.
First person can be more intimate, as you can get right into the head of your narrator, but the pov is limited to that narrator. Whereas with third person you can choose the level of omniscience of your narrator. Both work, both have strengths and weaknesses as a writing style.
Just because it's to be based on reality is irrelevant - both narrative persons can work. It's an individual thing, and depends more on your command of your writing than anything else. You'll see people here vehemently saying that first is "better" for this, third is "better" for that - if they argue too much in favour of one over the other, they're usually wrong
Just start writing, find the voice that suits your subject matter best. There are no rules; first person is not better than third, third person is not better than first.