First person writing

[TadOverdon]

And then there's the epistolary novel, of which my personal favorite remains Dracula. First person with numerous points of view.

 

[Imstillfun]

I always write first person past tense. Recently I was asked to co-author a story by one of the highest rated authors on the site. He writes present tense. I found it extremely difficult.

I also enjoy reading first person past tense the best and often won’t get past the first paragraph if a story is otherwise.

 

[JamieVega]

For me, it is almost always first person as most of my erotica, I place myself there as the main character. My writing reflects my own fantasy/sexuality so I find it much easier.

https://literotica.com/s/text-in-the-night

 

[yukonnights]

Lately, I've been writing a lot of FP dual POV in stories like, That Little Spark and Just Roomies. Before I started writing on here, I only wrote in 3rd person. Writing Erotica, it seems natural to write in first. Mating Season I wrote in 3rd person, and the readers seemed to enjoy that, too.

This is a style I adopted quite awhile ago. I too believe that it's a natural and great way to write erotica. I stumbled upon this several years ago after reading a book on the "Close POV" style. IMO, it is the most intimate option for erotica. There are a few nay sayers on occasion — I just ignore them. For the most part readers have liked it — and a few have gotten lost at the POV changes. Also, I rarely use the "he said" or "she said" speech tag — IMO it pulls me away from the intimate immersion. I always run these stories through a 'beta-reader/ proof-reader" to make sure an average reader should be able to navigate the story. If the story involves more than two main characters, I'll use third omniscient which is also fun.

 

[MillieDynamite]

Many scholars of the genre consider The Virginian by Owen Wister to be the first “official” western novel. Published in 1902, it tells the story of an unnamed narrator who arrives in Wyoming from “back east.” The Virginian’s name isn’t included in the story. And the first-person narrator never reveals his own name or what part he is playing in the unfolding story. Nor how he is present when only two people are in a scene.

It has the intimacy of first-person, as in what one person saw, but none of the involvement is usually associated with first-person. Nor does it sink into the, I did this; she did that trap we can fall into of beginning sentence after sentence with name or pronouns and thereby dulling the action that follows.

 

[SimonDoom]

Many scholars of the genre consider The Virginian by Owen Wister to be the first “official” western novel. Published in 1902, it tells the story of an unnamed narrator who arrives in Wyoming from “back east.” The Virginian’s name isn’t included in the story. And the first-person narrator never reveals his own name or what part he is playing in the unfolding story. Nor how he is present when only two people are in a scene.

It has the intimacy of first-person, as in what one person saw, but none of the involvement is usually associated with first-person. Nor does it sink into the, I did this; she did that trap we can fall into of beginning sentence after sentence with name or pronouns and thereby dulling the action that follows.

It's been a while since I read that book but I recall it being very odd in terms of point of view. There's a first person narrator, who is not The Virginian, but he seems to be able to know and narrate things that only The Virginian would know. I didn't quite get it.

I have this difficulty with some of Philip Roth's books, because he injects himself as a narrator telling the story about other people but there's no way his character could possibly know what they are really thinking. American Pastoral and The Human Stain both have those issues.

 

[MillieDynamite]

The Hopalong Cassidy series of books are written as if they were told to the author by some of the characters in the story. But they are, in fact, third-person limited or third-person but somewhat short of omniscient. Maybe third-person objective. In the opening of Along Comes, Cassidy, Clarence Edward Mulford states the stories were related to him on his many visits to Bar 20 and occurred during the early years of the ranch. Giving the stories a real feeling. Along Comes, Cassidy is a collection of short stories published in magazines.

 

[TadOverdon]

I place myself there as the main character.

See, this is something I could never do. I wouldn't write fiction if I had to write myself as I am into it. I suppose the process is a little schizoid for me. The characters who are more like me than not and the characters who are loathsome are more or less equally relatable to me (or, sometimes, equally difficult to relate to).

 

[Imstillfun]

I write mostly first person past tense. Here is one of the few written third person. https://literotica.com/s/annettes-tale

it did well with a score of 4.57 187k views and over 200 likes. But that’s not unusual for one of my incest stories.

 

[TruthwithaTwist]

I write everything in first person, past tense: My Stories and I seem to get decent responses and ratings.

Because I'm telling (mostly) true events, I just find it easier and more personal to write this way.

 

[Fervid]

For this particular genre, first person seems stimulating. But, sometimes you want to show what is in different characters‘ heads, and sometimes you don’t. Sometimes you want your protagonist to be surprised by something another character turns out to think. Sometimes you even want to try the “unreliable narrator” genre. Seems like both approaches have their uses.

 

[toastywarm01]

Hi New Poster here!

I have written both from the first person and the third person. I have also written one first-person stories from the POV of a person not of my gender. That is perhaps the most difficult for me. A female getting into a male's head (or visa versa) is pretty tricky and I am not sure that I have done it well. It was a fun exercise, however. While reading this thread I wonder if any other first-person authors have managed to get into the head of a gender other than there own.

Here are a couple of my stories

3rd Person story: Voices
First Person Opposite Gender story: An Unusual Threesome Ch 02

 

[FelHarper]

I tend to favor first-person. I don’t think that it reflects poor skill or inexperience. In the hands of a good writer, using first-person can elevate the work above what could be achieved with third-person. Some stories won’t work as well in first-person. It really depends on whether or not your viewpoint character is capable of handling all of the heavy-lifting of building the narrative.

You can play to the strengths of first-person, which are also its limitations. Everything filters through your narrator, so you can’t describe what they can’t sense. On the other hand, you get full access to that narrator’s inner world. In my ongoing series, Double Helix, I jump between viewpoint characters, but I try to give each character a unique voice that reflects their background and personality. You can’t do that with third-person.

In Lamia, I played with themes of consciousness in artificial intelligence. The viewpoint character thinks that his android servant is conscious, but he admits that he has no way to know for sure. He’s going by what his senses are telling him, but that might be wrong.

 

[Rob_Royale]

I tend to favor first-person. I don’t think that it reflects poor skill or inexperience. In the hands of a good writer, using first-person can elevate the work above what could be achieved with third-person. Some stories won’t work as well in first-person. It really depends on whether or not your viewpoint character is capable of handling all of the heavy-lifting of building the narrative.

You can play to the strengths of first-person, which are also its limitations. Everything filters through your narrator, so you can’t describe what they can’t sense. On the other hand, you get full access to that narrator’s inner world. In my ongoing series, Double Helix, I jump between viewpoint characters, but I try to give each character a unique voice that reflects their background and personality. You can’t do that with third-person.

In Lamia, I played with themes of consciousness in artificial intelligence. The viewpoint character thinks that his android servant is conscious, but he admits that he has no way to know for sure. He’s going by what his senses are telling him, but that might be wrong.

Thanks for replying. Since posting this I've posted two stories in the first person and am at the editing/proofreading stage on my first story in the third person. Third-person storytelling is definitely more of a challenge for me, but this story wouldn't work in the first person. I'm looking forward to posting it and getting some critique.

 

[SimonDoom]

It's interesting to read this thread for all its strong opinions about one POV or the other being better.
They're both legitimate and have their uses. Third person POV is more flexible and appropriate in a wider variety of cases, but first person is ideal for many kinds of stories, and I agree that it has a slight edge in creating a sense of intimacy. I think that edge can be mostly, but perhaps not entirely, mitigated in writing in a third person free indirect style where the narrative and POV character perspective are mostly merged.

I think of myself as preferring third person, and of it being my "go-to" POV, but when I added it up 18 of my 53 published stories are in the first person POV. Although that counts 8 chapters of a series as separate stories. If I collapse chaptered series into single stories the number is 11 out of 42 in first person POV.

 

[HectorBidon]

The so-called author actually found the whole website discussion somewhat fussy. To his mind, the matter was really fairly simple. As far as he was concerned, the genre of the erotic story existed for one primary purpose: to convey to the world what turned one on. Long before he had even become aware of the site, he had assembled a fairly rich collection of masturbatory fantasies that had provided him many an evening's engagement. Now, it appeared, there was an audience who might be interested to hear them. So he sharpened his pencil and gave it a try. The stories had a way of sprouting and blossoming and metamorphosing during their transcription; but, at heart, they remained true to the same coy glances and well-intentioned accommodations and shy mutual acceptances that had inspired them in the first place.

And who do you think was the MC of his fantasies? And so with what POV do you think he conveyed them?

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's interesting to read this thread for all its strong opinions about one POV or the other being better.

I've not counted mine up, but these days I'm just as likely to use first person as I am to use close third. Like you, I think the latter can be just as intimate as first person (intimacy being the primary reason so many people think first person is "better"), but without the limitations.

If I think about it, I probably tend to write in first person when the male character is the lead protagonist, and close third where the female character(s) has/have captured my interest and take the lead. Which makes sense, because I'm already in a male head, but can write alongside a woman.

I think those who vehemently reject one pov over the other need to read more, and should stretch their writing legs more - at least try the pov they "don't like". I never understand the hard overs - they're just missing out on a lot of good writing.

 

[thomas1965]

I think those who vehemently reject one pov over the other need to read more, and should stretch their writing legs more - at least try the pov they "don't like". I never understand the hard overs - they're just missing out on a lot of good writing.

I think in general people should be more accepting.
We all have different likes and dislikes. Really no need to argue.

 

[MillieDynamite]

In any first-person narration, it is possible to have an unreliable narrator. In fact, part of the fun of writing and reading 1st person stories is wondering how accurate the account is. This is one reason I love epistolary fiction, multiple narrators, different points of view of the same scene, the situations, and somewhere inside those views is the truth. And we, the interested reader, get to find the truth for ourselves.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I mostly write in first person, but here's one by @Omenainen and @AwkwardMD that I like as an example of third person close: https://literotica.com/s/grumpy-old-ladies

Over the course of the afternoon, hundreds of people came through. Most of the neighborhood stopped by to pay their respects, and nearly all of Ollie's coworkers. More family members than she could count. She found herself repeating phrases like "I don't know how I'll get along without him," and "Ollie was my rock," very mechanically. Reflexively.

She was pretty sure these were things widows said. She must have heard them somewhere, on a TV show or something. Everyone seemed to accept her axioms at face value, which was good, because she had been having an increasingly hard time keeping her thoughts straight. Had anyone asked her a question that required more thought than a stock answer, she might have cracked. Twenty-six years of marriage. She'd been with him since she was twenty, more than half of her life, and any attempt to think about what came after Ollie was simply unfathomable.

This could have been told in first person from Donna's perspective (the "she" of that excerpt) but third person allows the authors to present a little more insight into Donna's state of mind than Donna herself has. She's just lost her husband, she's not coping very well, and she's just kind of muddling through. Writing in first person would require either breaking character, making her sharper than she should be, or losing some of that insight into her state of mind.

The story goes on to present the rivalry between Donna and Magda, a petty feud between neighbours. First person tends to encourage sympathy with the narrator, which is usually a strength but in this case it'd be a liability; in my experience, many readers here default to sympathising with the first-person narrator and accepting their framing of things. Third person close helps encourage readers to see both Donna and Magda as fallible and laugh at their pettiness without taking a side in it.

 

[Voboy]

Some stories demand FP, others TP. It's all about what best serves the story.

I mostly do FP, but that doesn't mean I shy away from TP. It just means I've got a character that's perfect as the narrator.

 

[SimonDoom]

I understand the complexities of writing in first and third person but am more interested in the types of stories that readers here tend to prefer. Has anyone noticed if lit readers prefer to hear a story told from the perspective of one of the characters or from a completely uninvolved narrator?

I have not published yet but am working on a series that will either fall in the group sex or loving wives category.

My impression is that at Literotica there is a bias in favor of first person POV. It's not hard to see why. People come here for a brief erotic experience, and first person POV more easily lets them settle into the perspective of the POV character and enjoy an erotic experience in their shoes, so to speak.

Be careful about assuming that third person POV necessarily involves a "completely uninvolved narrator," because that's no so. If you write in a free indirect style where the third person narrative is told in a way that holds close to the perspective of the main character, then the effect achieved is very similar to first person POV, but with a little more flexibility (as Bramblethorn explains above). I think erotic readers probably do NOT want a "completely uninvolved narrator," but it's not necessary to have that with third person POV.

 

[Lifestyle66]

I understand the complexities of writing in first and third person but am more interested in the types of stories that readers here tend to prefer. Has anyone noticed if lit readers prefer to hear a story told from the perspective of one of the characters or from a completely uninvolved narrator?

I have not published yet but am working on a series that will either fall in the group sex or loving wives category.

The best writing style depends on the story content and the category.

If you are writing for Loving Wives, first-person perspective will rate very low if it's the husband's POV and its consensual sharing or swingers. They want husbands to burn-the-bitch in that perspective. And the LW crowd mostly hates swingers. The most vocal (commenters and raters) among LW readers are monogamous, jealous types, and can't appreciate sharing stories.

The Loving Wives swinger stories with first-person POV from the stud fucking the wife will rate higher, or if it's from the wife's POV.

The main advantage of posting to Loving Wives is your story will probably be read/viewed by twice as many readers than if posted to other categories. Just be prepared for the haters and generally lower ratings.

 

[Voboy]

I understand the complexities of writing in first and third person but am more interested in the types of stories that readers here tend to prefer. Has anyone noticed if lit readers prefer to hear a story told from the perspective of one of the characters or from a completely uninvolved narrator?

I have not published yet but am working on a series that will either fall in the group sex or loving wives category.

Your premise is hard for me to wrap my mind around: there is no one monolithic "Lit reader" who can reliably be said to prefer one over the other.

The great beauty of this site is that no matter how or what you write, you WILL find an audience if you stick with it. Write what your muse tells you to write; there's no focus group here, other than the reader response to the stories you'll publish.

 

[TheRedChamber]

I understand the complexities of writing in first and third person but am more interested in the types of stories that readers here tend to prefer. Has anyone noticed if lit readers prefer to hear a story told from the perspective of one of the characters or from a completely uninvolved narrator?

I have not published yet but am working on a series that will either fall in the group sex or loving wives category.

My impression is that at Literotica there is a bias in favor of first person POV. It's not hard to see why. People come here for a brief erotic experience, and first person POV more easily lets them settle into the perspective of the POV character and enjoy an erotic experience in their shoes, so to speak.

Be careful about assuming that third person POV necessarily involves a "completely uninvolved narrator," because that's no so. If you write in a free indirect style where the third person narrative is told in a way that holds close to the perspective of the main character, then the effect achieved is very similar to first person POV, but with a little more flexibility (as Bramblethorn explains above). I think erotic readers probably do NOT want a "completely uninvolved narrator," but it's not necessary to have that with third person POV.

I did a small survey just of the BDSM category a couple of months ago. I was mostly interested in whether it favoured dom or sub, male or female main characters but in order to classify these I had to look at whether it was first or third person as well.

The relevant data I found (limited to one category, relatively small sample size yadda yadda) was that 60% were written in first person, 18% in close third (what Simon calls free indirect) and 11% in omniscient third (an uninvolved narrator). In terms of score first averages 4.19 and third averaged 4.22, so basically no real difference (interestingly omniscient third when seperated out scored 4.45 but by that time the sample size really was getting small).

Bottom line, I don't think it matters much overall, but I'd say that the voice you choose is important for setting the tone of your own story.