Perspective: What works?

[SugarHigh]

Just wondering what the general view on what perspective works best for erotica? Seems like the stories I prefer reading are narrated from the 3rd person.

 

[jon_jones]

I like third person, but I prefer it to be "I did this, fucked that, sucked his thingy" (is that 1st person?) What I cannot stand is "You did this, fucked that, sucked his thingy" (is that 2nd person?) because it just makes me think "Oh, did I? And how do you know doing that would make me feel like horny?". It's a very personal way of writing and I don't think it works for a large audience.

I have written 2 or 3 stories (never to be posted on Lit) in this style for people I know, and I think they work, cos they are based on them and I like to think I know how they'd react in certain situations, when you're writing for strangers you just don't know how they feel about certain things so you cannot write what they would feel in any given scenario.

I like 1st person because, I don't know, it just seems more "Real" to me.

Hope this makes sense.

j-j

 

[sincerely_helene]

A few different thoughts on the subject (including mine, which is actually the most important).

https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=267343

Hope this helps!

 

[X Writer]

Definately 3rd person, with lots of 1st person thoughts.

Makes it personal, without attempting to transform the reader into something they may not identify with.

Strange, I seemed to have echoed my own thoughts from another thread here...

 

[vargas111]

Obviously, it depends on the plot. If everything that happens, happens within the consciousness of one person, you have achoice first or third person narration. First person can be very intense. If the story CAN be told from one perspective, first person is probably better/

More often we want the reader to see things from different points of view so we either go to third person or (harder) indicate the shifts between different first persons.

Then there is the degree of knowlegdge of the third person narrator. Do you want omnescence? ("Meanwhile, back at the ranch ..." "Little did he know his world was about to change?") Personally, except for humorous effect, I think third person omnescence is usually a bad idea. I think it's better even in third person to run all the action through the eyes and mind of one and then another of the characters. This does not mean the narrator cannot say the sky was blue so long as there is a character around who can notice this.

My views. I hoe this helps.

 

[MaxSebastian]

Keep away from 2nd person! It has the plague!


(I heard)

 

[elrod]

random bedside books

Quick random bedside research - Keenan, Frayn, Doyle , susan hill - all first person, captivating my sympathy - I related and was there.
Pat Barker - 3rd person, stood back and was mesmerised, horrifed and involved.
All masters of their craft - weavers of words, images and senses - I salute you all - just please keep writing for us lesser mortals. Who avidly devour your labours E.

 

[wishfulthinking]

I always write in 3rd, because I can jump between characters [but never is the same paragraph, I swear ]. I don't mind reading 1st person at all. 2nd -> I'd rather shoot my own foot than read a story telling me where I put my willy when I don't have one. Instant back click.

But choose what you are comfortable with using! If you feel akward using a certain perspective, more often than not the reader will feel just as akward reading it.

Have fun, and write what and how you like!

 

[Rainbow Skin]

Third person can provide all the intimacy of first person, and is free of one big failing of first person.

There is 'free indirect discourse', third person that partly enters into first-person perspective. So the author can show the emotional impact on someone. Example: She wondered where on earth she would take poor old Tom tomorrow. Affective words 'on earth' and 'poor old' and the time 'tomorrow' are from the character's thoughts, not the author's.

This can be overused, but at least with third person you know where you are. First person narratives often don't. Where is this story coming from? 'I did this, then I did that' or even 'Now I do this': has the narrator got a tape recorder, a bug, a film crew in there with them? Are they reminiscing? Did they write it down? Is it voiceover to a filmed reconstruction? Because in reality it isn't any of these, and author/narrators all too often mix up fictitious standpoints. 'As I was later to find out' can only happen in reminiscence or reconstruction, while 'But no! What's this?' tries to imply that you're reading it exactly as it happens, like a spectator. Authors also mix the sober written style of reminiscence with the breathy colloquialism of live action.

 

[crbrianb]

What I look for in erotica stories is a sense of realism. As if it was an event that really happened.

Myself, I prefer the first person stories. They have a feel of someone telling me their own personal story. It adds a sense of realism to it, which to me makes the story more erotic.

I have a problem getting into the characters of third person erotica. To me it feels more like I am reading a story and the sense of realism disappears. I guess to me, third person stories feel like there is no sense of personal involvment.

I almost always skip right over the second person stories as they feel more like someone telling their lover a fantasy, and I get almost no sense of realism. Some of the second person stories I have read almost leave me feeling like I have violated someone's personal space.

Of coarse this is my own opinion.

 

[GingerV]

Authors also mix the sober written style of reminiscence with the breathy colloquialism of live action. [/B]

Sigh, my new story isn't even UP yet...and I want to edit it. I'm sure this is a sin I've comitted through and throughout the thing. Ah well, I'll wait before editing.

I have, ONCE, seen a second person story that bowled me over. But it was exactly right for me, gender- and taste-wise. It felt like someone had been watching my fantasies and was writing them back just for me. But it's next thing to impossible to do.

I realized a bit ago that I have a tendency to write in first. It's not by accident, I feel it's the best voice for the story I want to tell. But that it's ALWAYS the best makes me question why I'm doing it. I tend to like a very strong point of view, and I am just as curious about what's going on in someone's head as with their body. But largely, I think I'm writing from my fantasies, and I want to inject myself into them.

Third person can just get so muddled sometimes. Who thought this, who felt that. Hell, keeping track of all the knees and elbows in a sex scene is hard enough . But it's more of an issue for me when I'm writing than when I'm reading. Provided, of course, that the story doesn't get tangled up in all the different personalities, or degenerate into a journalistic list of events.

Just my 2 random cents this morning.

G

 

[impressive]

I struggle with this. To me, there is nothing hotter than a story written in the first person with which I can identify. I become the *I* in the story. That being said, there are so few such stories (other than my own) with which I can identify.

I'd like to have better 3rd person writing skills -- but I think I'm too impatient to really make it work for anything other than a short short story (1 Lit page).

Practice writing in each voice. Find what flows for you. When you finish a story, as an exercise, try a rewrite of the same story in a different voice.

HTH,

 

[vargas111]

First person sometimes works better for dramatic changes in the character.

He looked at me once more and I melted.

He looked at her once more and she melted.

The first seems more believable. With the second one might think would she really melt just from a look?

Of course a good 3rd person story could make the melting believable, too, but 1st does have the edge.

BTW. 1st person need not be the "author's" point of view. A woman might write a very convincing 1st person narrative of a man seducing a woman from the man's POV using her fantasies of how SHE would like to be seduced.

 

[Sabledrake]

I find that it varies depending on the story. Some call out to be written in first person, some in third. Both have their own challenges and rewards.

Sabledrake