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Perspective Preference

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Ezrollin

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Which perspective do you prefer when writing or when reading ? When writing in the first person I find I'm constantly battling the I, I, I syndrome. It does allow a more personal view into the story, however. The third person perspective is "easier" though allowing a less personable insight. If you respond state your preference and whether it is for reading or writing .
 
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Ezrollin said:
Which perspective do you prefer when writing or when reading ? When writing in the first person I find I'm constantly battling the I, I, I syndrome. It does allow a more personal view into the story, however. The third person perspective is "easier" though allowing a less personable insight. If you respond state your preference and whether it is for reading or writing .
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I prefer first person for writing. It feels a little easier to make it personal, and I mostly write F/F so first person cuts down on the dreaded pronoun confusion.

For reading: either's fine, if the author knows how to use them.
 
For reading, either is just fine.

For writing, it depends on the story or how I start the story when I first sit down and start to write. I have written in both and don't really prefer one or the other.
 
I usually write first person, to get right (write?) into the intimacy. Also, most of my male protagonists are loosely "me" in some sense, so I'm writing from that personal perspective.

I've found that when I do use third person narrative, my narrator gets in a lot closer to one protagonist than the other characters, which also keeps the writing close to the intimate and personal feelings. It's the old blah blah blah about the distancing effect of third person narrative - my view tends to be, if you can't handle the intimacy, close the door of the bedroom, don't watch.

Another natural tendency, when writing sex or really intimate scenes (not always the same thing) is that I will shift to present tense (again, to make it "now"). That's meant to be one of the "do not does" apparently (I've been called out on it once or twice) but it seems to work for me.

As a reader, either first or third works for me, provided the story grabs. Second person does my head in - when somebody is saying "you're doing this, you do that" I think, no I'm not doing that, I'd never do that.
 
For the first few things I wrote (not on Lit) first person was easy to write, but then stories stretched and and grew and then 1st person became a problem.
 
Writing first person is mostly how I write since a lot of my stories drive off my real world experiences. I agree it can be a bit challenging to get away from using all the I,I,I's, but eventually you will find a nitch & grove to tapper that back to an acceptable level. You just have to start the sentences with other words. Try describing the scene and surroundings a bit more in detail. You can also try changing your sentence structure to where every sentence doesn't start with an "I". :)
 
First person, all the way.

Writing from that POV forces you to flesh out your narrator's personality, because every word you type has to sound like it's coming from her mind or mouth.

It's the same reason I prefer it as a reader. It has its downfalls for the writer, though. Beginning a book written in first person is like testing out a friendship. If I don't like the person whose head I'm in, we won't be friends, and I won't finish the book.
 
I recently had the pleasure of reading How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, a followup to his previous book, How to Read Literature Like... I read both of them in release order.

Anyway, Foster offers a really interesting perspective on the first-person POV: that the narrator is "always lying," even when they are telling the truth. What he means is that in addition to only hearing the 1st person narrator's voice and thoughts, the story is being filtered through their opinions, biases and personal feelings. If the story were handed to another character with another upbringing, temperament, social class, etc. you might hear the story told very differently.

It makes sense. Talk to one person in real life about the city and they'll tell you it has nice architecture, good thrift stores and great pizza. Another person will complain about the trash, crime and noise. Gentrification is great; this city used to be terrible to walk through at night. No, gentrification sucks; my childhood home has been razed, starting with the basketball court, the bastards. We've all heard of the unreliable narrator, but from this perspective every first person narrator is unreliable. They aren't necessarily 'lying' but in a sense they are because you are only hearing their side and cannot really trust them.

Some might say this closes and limits first person POV even more than it already is. I think it makes first person even better. To me, the whole appeal of first person is getting into that one character's head, and this is especially great for erotica since it's an easy way to get down the emotional AND physical appeal. When the story is filtered through their gaze, the writer can plunge even further into the narrator's head.

Most of my submitted Lit stories are in third, but lately in my offsite writing I've been leaning toward first. There may not be an omniscient narrator hovering their camera over everyone, but there are still so many great avenues to consider with 1st person.
 
Kantarii said:
Writing first person is mostly how I write since a lot of my stories drive off my real world experiences. I agree it can be a bit challenging to get away from using all the I,I,I's, but eventually you will find a nitch & grove to tapper that back to an acceptable level. You just have to start the sentences with other words. Try describing the scene and surroundings a bit more in detail. You can also try changing your sentence structure to where every sentence doesn't start with an "I". :)
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You pretty well summarized what I'm going through with the story I'm writing now. I read through my first two stories several times making changes. They were both short and fairly easy to edit. The story I'm writing now is longer and was presenting a problem. I found that by editing each paragraph as I go makes it easier (for me) rather than waiting until I'm finished with the entire story. When I say edit I mean not only the punctuation but better phrasing etc.
 
RosaHall said:
I like to use third person to introduce characters from an outside non judging perspective. In my Rosa and Sam series I started so and then switched between first person perspective from different characters. If I do find time to write for the Summer Lovin contest it will be Sam's turn to tell the story with his eyes.
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At the risk of showing my ignorance, is going from third to first person acceptable ? I have only posted two stories on Lit. and profess to being a total neophyte. I've picked up a couple of books at the second hand book store that deal with writing, just haven't read them yet.
 
MayorReynolds said:
I recently had the pleasure of reading How to Read Novels Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster, a followup to his previous book, How to Read Literature Like... I read both of them in release order.

Anyway, Foster offers a really interesting perspective on the first-person POV: that the narrator is "always lying," even when they are telling the truth. What he means is that in addition to only hearing the 1st person narrator's voice and thoughts, the story is being filtered through their opinions, biases and personal feelings. If the story were handed to another character with another upbringing, temperament, social class, etc. you might hear the story told very differently.

It makes sense. Talk to one person in real life about the city and they'll tell you it has nice architecture, good thrift stores and great pizza. Another person will complain about the trash, crime and noise. Gentrification is great; this city used to be terrible to walk through at night. No, gentrification sucks; my childhood home has been razed, starting with the basketball court, the bastards. We've all heard of the unreliable narrator, but from this perspective every first person narrator is unreliable. They aren't necessarily 'lying' but in a sense they are because you are only hearing their side and cannot really trust them.

Some might say this closes and limits first person POV even more than it already is. I think it makes first person even better. To me, the whole appeal of first person is getting into that one character's head, and this is especially great for erotica since it's an easy way to get down the emotional AND physical appeal. When the story is filtered through their gaze, the writer can plunge even further into the narrator's head.

Most of my submitted Lit stories are in third, but lately in my offsite writing I've been leaning toward first. There may not be an omniscient narrator hovering their camera over everyone, but there are still so many great avenues to consider with 1st person.
Click to expand...

Interesting... I can't imagine writing in the first person without my own personal views and prejudices being introduced.
 
EverLux said:
First person, all the way.

Writing from that POV forces you to flesh out your narrator's personality, because every word you type has to sound like it's coming from her mind or mouth.

It's the same reason I prefer it as a reader. It has its downfalls for the writer, though. Beginning a book written in first person is like testing out a friendship. If I don't like the person whose head I'm in, we won't be friends, and I won't finish the book.
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Don't you think that when writing in the first person we tend to introduce our own views and prejudices ?
 
Ezrollin said:
Don't you think that when writing in the first person we tend to introduce our own views and prejudices ?
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I'd imagine there's as much of a risk of that in first person as there is with writing in general.
 
This applies to readers, too!

If I don't like the narrator, can't relate, find him/her uninteresting, I won't finish the story. I won't even read much of the story.

It's very rare that I will get into a first person story on Lit. I feel trapped.


EverLux said:
It has its downfalls for the writer, though. Beginning a book written in first person is like testing out a friendship. If I don't like the person whose head I'm in, we won't be friends, and I won't finish the book.
Click to expand...
 
Carnal_Flower said:
This applies to readers, too!

If I don't like the narrator, can't relate, find him/her uninteresting, I won't finish the story. I won't even read much of the story.

It's very rare that I will get into a first person story on Lit. I feel trapped.
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Oh, that's actually how I meant it (just poorly-worded) :)
It's bad for the writer, because it's unlikely a reader will buy future books or give other stories a chance if the first experience doesn't go well.

Though, there was one book where I really didn't click with the narrator at first--I thought she was vapid and flighty--and I was tempted to ditch it. I'm glad I stuck with it, though, because the writer subtly wove depth into the character, making me love her. The eight book series is now one of my favorites.
 
The story dictates the perspective. Some require a narrator, honest or otherwise. Some require 3rd-person-omniscient, or 3rd-limited, maybe shifting the focus as needed. IMHO 2nd-person only works in songs / poems, and 0th-person only in impersonal tech writing.

For an interesting exercise, write a tale from 1st person, mostly your own self, and then rewrite it as some 3rd-person form. See what happens when you take it beyond your own experience.
 
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