Authorly Question - Favorite POV

[Guest]

 

[Boota]

My favorite point of view for writing is turning out to be first person. At least for my comedy. I enjoy making the story as if the main character is sitting next to you and telling you what happened. That said, it isn't the most effective POV for every story, so I'll use third person. I have no prejudices about it.

I have grown to enjoy reading first person, but it has to be done well. A lot of times when someone writes in first person they occasionally forget that and write things that their narrator can't know. I enjoyed Nelson DeMille's Plum Island and The Lion's Game. He used first person very effectively in The Lion's Game. The story has the protagonist and the antagonist several miles apart for most of the book, so when he's writing the antagonist it's in third person and the protagonist is in first person.

 

[elsol]

What's your favorite point of view for writing? Why?

First person male POV...

And I quote from another writer... female:

But then I read ElSol's "Six Pills" and was really impressed by the first sex scene with Maria. It was so powerful and alive to me. I WAS David there for a moment and I don't even have a penis in real life.

This POV works to my strengths, because it's the easiest for me to put a part of myself in the piece in this POV. It makes it easier to carry the reader along in my wake.

Do you change the POV depending on the story you're writing?

90% First Person Male POV
10% Third Person

Eventually, I hope to move to writing exclusively Third Person.

If you write exclusively first (or third) person is there a reason you avoid the other?

The First Person POV's limitations are easier to manage than the Third Person's for me. Case in point... Boota's example of things a character isn't suppossed to know... I don't have to think about it, it's my natural mode of thinking.

When I've mastered the elements that make me a bad TP writer... then I'll move in that direction.

What's your favorite to read?

Hmm.... commercially Third Person.
For erotica... first person male.

Elsol

 

[neonlyte]

First person tends to cause raised eyebrows from the mrs neonlyte, I try to avoid it unless writing FPOV - then I just get sniggers.

I prefer to write first person but I'm only too aware of the difficulty, it can become too much of me and less of the character. Recently re-wrote a story from 1st to 3rd. Difficult and not overly successful, might reinstate and re-submit.

Prefer to read 1st, if done well, like the raw edge potential though few writers manage.

Three books I consider superb examples:
Jeanette Winterson - 'Written on the Body'
A.S. Byatt - 'Possession'
Paulo Coelho - 'Eleven Minutes'
each deals with the intimacy of sexual relationship, sexual desire and love.

 

[English Lady]

I love ot write first person. I really enjoy writing like that but I can do third person and do so more frequently as myworks seem to call for it.
I always seem to slip into first person when I'm writing sex scenes though *L*

 

[oggbashan]

I used to write exclusively in 3rd person omniscient.

Then I found that if I changed a 3rd person POV story to 1st person and all dialogue to direct speech instead of indirect it made the pace much faster and did away with pages of scene-setting.

I have one story that ends with three different 1st person POVs. It wasn't a successful experiment.

I don't feel comfortable with 2nd person POV. It can be done successfully but my attempts seem stilted and unreal.

Og

 

[Guest]

Typically I write First person-Male. Though there was Cowgirl's story. (oddly one of my most successful).

I have been telling myself for a while that I need to write one in third person. Just haven't found the inspiration for it.


EDIT:

I don't feel comfortable with 2nd person POV. It can be done successfully but my attempts seem stilted and unreal.

Og

Just for clarification, as it seems there is some cofusion about what second person POV is, you are talking about writing about the protagonist from a supporting characters POV? Like Sherlock Holmes, written from Dr. Watsons POV? I would think for erotica that would be very strange.

 

[Lord DragonsWing]

I tend to enjoy writing in the first person. I've been told it is more difficult and to focus on third person instead. Yet I find first person more personal and able to tell the story easier.
Even the one I have pending now is a how to article and I went with first person on that one.

 

[elsol]

Originally posted by Dranoel
Just for clarification, as it seems there is some cofusion about what second person POV is, you are talking about writing about the protagonist from a supporting characters POV? Like Sherlock Holmes, written from Dr. Watsons POV? I would think for erotica that would be very strange.

Second Person is - You (and lord, I fucking hate it).

The Watson POV might actually be the most erotic of the POVs for erotica.

Take a male narrator say a Dom... and he's telling a story about the transition of a woman from 'normal' to 'sub'. Technically the story is about HER, she is the protagonist.

The Watson POV would allow you to carry both type of male readers of the first person POV.

Those 'excited' by the male actor and being able to put themselves in HIS shoes.

and

Those 'excited' by the sundry and nasty things being done to a woman and HER reactions to it.

It would at least be an interesting writing exercise.
ElSol

 

[EarthquakeMan]

Writing in first person constrains me in positive ways. If I write in third person, I lapse into pontification and purple prose. If I did that while writing in first person, I’d be creating a pretentious pontificating purple-prosed protagonist (but at least he’d be highly alliterative).

 

[Green_Gem]

Point of View

I wrote exclusively in third person until recently when I tried out writing from the first person point of view and found that it worked quite well. I have two stories now written from the first person p.o.v.

I do think though that it depends on the type of story I'm writing and what tone and message I want to get across. Somehow there is great creative satisfaction in getting into everybody's heads and bodies which I enjoy when writing third person. Kind of like playing God

My first ever story was written from second person p.o.v. ( yeech!but it was a start) and I don't like that at all from either the reading or writing perspective. Strangely enough though, male readers don't seem to mind it ( from the feedback I've received)

Green_Gem

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Back in the days when you used to buy hard-copy porn, I would immediately reject anything in first person, because I actually resented having to follow this guy around and hear about all the ass he was getting while I was just sitting there reading his book and trying to fist it. I know the theory is that I'll put myself in his shoes, but it didn't work that well for me.

First person is much easier and more natural for me to write, but I generally prefer the distance and objectivity of third-person. I like that feeling of having a kind of screen between me as author and what the reader gets to see, and I like the sense of power and control. You can achieve great effects playing with emotional distance as the story goes on, and you can throw in all these tricks stolen from movie-making. I still like the porn I read to be in third-person too, though I'm not as picky as I used to be. Stories just seem more graphic and visual in third person.

I don't trust first-person because it's so tempting to throw in subjective judgments: "She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen," or "It was the best thing I'd ever felt in my life!" which tells you nothing of what she looked like or what it really felt like. I see that stuff in first-person porn all the time.

At the same time, I find it much easier to do comedy in first person, probably because I can wisecrack and fool around with the narration.

I don't know. It really depends on the story and the kind of effect you're trying to achieve.

---dr.M.

 

[rgraham666]

It depends on what I'm writing.

For my 'quick pieces of smut' I, so far, write 1st person. This is because they are usually based on a personal experience and the thoughts that came from them. There's not much plot since they're always about a single 'incident'. And there's not much character, so I don't need to fill any of them in much.

For my longer, more 'literary' pieces I, so far, used 3rd person. There's so much more to do and 3rd person allows me to fill in all the the sundry pieces of the story.

That may change in the future.

 

[yui]

I typically write in first person (female). It's a very natural way for me to write. Periodically I'll write something in third person, and while I obtain omnipotence, I can't maintain intimacy. In the third person my words become ponderous and ugly and boring because I try to tell too much. My style is much more "spare" in first person.

I don't have a definite preference for reading in regards to first or third person POV. As long as it is reasonably well written and I can put my self in the story, I don't really care who is telling the story.

 

[Liar]

As of late, third person female is what works for me. I like complex and interresting woman characters, and that is a comfortable way of exploring that. Not so close that I have to make a personal perspective shift, but close enopugh so that I can write it.

 

[impressive]

Quickies -- 1st person. Longer, more plot-involved stories -- 3rd.

 

[bloodsimple]

Generally I prefer third person.

First person works well in a short story where the sense of space needs to be enclosed, and where all the protagonists are in view/thought of the first person. It's especially useful when the first person's emotions are key to the story, as this can be expressed more fully and in a way that evokes more empathy from the reader (hopefully).

When a wider perspective is needed, first person feels too claustrophobic and lacks reach across all the characters.

Personally, I dislike first person when that person is merely a narrator or a vehicle for the story, as it often smacks of being a device. But maybe that's just me.

 

[doormouse]

We've discussed point of view in the past, but since there are many new folks around and it's been some time since then, I was curious to know:

What's your favorite point of view for writing? Why?
I love reading from a first point of view... it puts me there in the action

Do you change the POV depending on the story you're writing?
Hell yes!!!!! I've changed entire stories so it was in first point of view and it changes the entire feel of the story

If you write exclusively first (or third) person is there a reason you avoid the other?
It depends on the story. Sometimes you get a better feel for the story if you put yourself right there on the scene.

What's your favorite to read?

I hate reading my own first point of view stories, but then again, I haven't written in such a long time, and most of my stories on here are my first ever written, so hopefully I've improved.

I can't stand reading second point of view stories, where they say 'you'. I'm a female and don't have a cock, so I can't thrust my 'dick' into any known crevice that I know of.

 

[Kassiana]

I write both first and third person stories. I like them both in their places.

I've mostly used first person for giving one character's reaction to what's happened to him. It has been effective, far as I can tell. My Identity Crisis stories both have first-person accounts by the male main character. Chapter 2 goes to third person for my female character, but that's partly because she is supposed to be a person with a "living computer" for a brain. I'm intelligent, sure, but not confident that I could write intelligently enough to give the perspective of a hyper-intelligent person like that.

 

[Guest]

I don't trust first-person because it's so tempting to throw in subjective judgments: "She was the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen," or "It was the best thing I'd ever felt in my life!" which tells you nothing of what she looked like or what it really felt like. I see that stuff in first-person porn all the time.

It's true about crap porn writing, but also for third-person pov, "He thought she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen."

I don't/can't have a fave pov, but I use both first and third person, depending on how I want to write. I think I do both very well. In poetry I also do second well, easier in a poem.

Perdita

 

[Belegon]

I think the reason I tend to write in first person because I am a storyteller first and that is what I do, tell stories. I get more involved emotionally if I go the first-person route.

During my long "dry spell" from about 1985 to 2002 when I wrote very little, I still was telling stories verbally on occassion. I had a girlfriend circa 1986-87 that loved it when I would just sit and invent a tale for her, mostly sword and sorcery stuff.

So I think my writing POV tendancy is a direct result of my verbal storytelling.

 

[doormouse]

In poetry I also do second well, easier in a poem.

Perdita

OMG that's so true.

I've never thought about it, but I do too.

 

[BlackSnake]

I try to always write in the Third Person, which can be subdivided again according to the degree of knowledge, or omniscience, I assume. The omniscient author, sometimes referred to as the editorial omniscient author because the author tells us what we are supposed to think, has total knowledge, as the omniscience author, you are God.

Actually, I try to be more of an objective author, not ominiscient but impersonal. I try to focus on the external factors instead internal emotions, I try to make only inference into the characters through action and dialog, and leave the rest up to the reader.

 

[Guest]

What's your favorite point of view for writing? Why?

Do you change the POV depending on the story you're writing?

If you write exclusively first (or third) person is there a reason you avoid the other?

What's your favorite to read?

I find single person first narrative easier to write. (gender unspecific, but I know I can't do uni-sex or female POV well) Also, I think single person first narrative is more America in style. (I've read it somewhere.)

Yes.

I guess I'm too lazy to do third. Plus, I'm not megalomaniac.

 

[elsol]

I think the reason I tend to write in first person because I am a storyteller first and that is what I do, tell stories. I get more involved emotionally if I go the first-person route.

Ditto...

There's also a deeper level to this though, which freaked me out the first time I saw it in black/white on the page.

I'm most comfortable in the First Person POV because I'm telling stories to myself... about MYSELF.

ElSol