POV... do you find one more effective than another?

[LadyMireille]

Wondering whether those experienced writers or readers find one point of view more effective... For instance... do you feel more involved in a story from first-person point of view? OR do you prefer third-person because you can easily switch from character to character, telling what each one is thinking and feeling?

I personally tend to use first- or third-person. (I don't like writing or reading in second-person).

My current story pains me. lol I have it currently written in first-person, but I find myself sometimes thinking I should go to the painstaking effort to switch to third-person. First, I sometimes want to use descriptions like 'her face was ashen'... but my character can't explain that about herself (I know I can get my point across with similar words, but sometimes I feel like it may be losing a little of the impact. I am also limited to only her views during the scene, and sometimes I really want to say something that he is thinking. Honestly, I have not been this tormented by POV in any of my other stories, so I am struggling with what to do. Why so troubled? Well, I am already 15 MS Word pages into the story, so changing it would be tedious.

Anyone have any advice, suggestions, or words of wisdom?

 

[AwkwardMD]

First person shines in the present tense, when the story is unfolding around the character who will be the most shocked by the circumstances. The plot should be punchy and visceral. First person should read like a juicy episode of Cops.

However, if your story is more of a slow build, with a complex, intricate narrative, go third person.

 

[AwkwardMD]

If you're going to write a story first person, plan it that way. POV characters should be the ones who makes the discoveries, and are on the scene to describe the events as much for the reader as themselves. The "What am I even looking at?" moment. Craft your story like an amusement park ride on rails, where everything is focused on the protagonist for all the right reasons.

 

[AwkwardMD]

I experimented once with a storu that alternated first and third person POV by chapter. The protagonist was schizophrenic, and so in some chapters you rode along with her colorful, manic world, and in other chapters you viewed her with some distance, and it painted a very different picture of her.

I'm proud of it, but it almost drove me insane to write. The end result is very much a love it or hate it situation, depending on how mich you sympathize with her.

 

[ElectricBlue]

First person can dig really deep into the intimacy of a scene, but don't get caught out by tense shifts as I did in one story. It was mostly past tense first person narrative, but I found (but did not realise until someone pointed it out) that I kept shifting to present tense as I wrote the really intimate sex scenes. I scrub my tenses now!

Another alternative is to write omniscient narrator, but put the narrator very very close to the protagonists. If you do it right, it can also have a similar effect to 1st pov, but has the advantage you can shift emphasis from one character to the other. Don't "head hop" though - have a very clear delineation when the emphasis shifts, e.g *** as a section break.

I do it in this story:

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-floating-world-1

I've tried it with 3 characters - but I wouldn't try more than three (because the narrator is really another character, and the room can get too crowded with four!) - in this story:

https://www.literotica.com/s/the-floating-world-pt-03

 

[Nezhul]

for me, this is greatly depends on a story. Complex stories with lots of plot lines sometimes can be written feasibly only from 3rd person perspective. If you have 2 or more "main" characters that are not always together - then you may find yourself wanting 3rd person.

I prefer writing from the first person POV, but that's a preference. I find it more involving, intimate - both in erotic and non-erotic way. You get to look into the head of your character, discover his motivations and inner thoughts, his emotions - even when they are not showing them for everyone to see. I find it harder to do that through 3rd person.
In erotic specifically, I find that I almost need 1st person POV to be fully content with the writing.

 

[CyranoJ]

Anyone have any advice, suggestions, or words of wisdom?

Third person POV with limited "omniscience" is the most common fiction format for good reason. It's easier to preserve suspense owing to the "limited" part, you're not confined to the viewpoint character's speaking or writing style and plausible fund of knowledge in describing any given scene, it's a lot easier to switch between characters as a result if you need to, it provides opportunities to play around with format and style in a way harder to do otherwise... there are so many reasons to prefer it, especially for plot-driven fiction, "action"-oriented stories. And I usually do.

First person POV is great if you want serious immersion in one character's head. It's useful for character studies or stories where you really want to accentuate the limits of knowledge first-person forces on you (like detective stories, sometimes), or for playing with an unreliable narrator and the ways they can keep the reader guessing (though this can be done in different ways with third person, too).

But you have to have every relevant aspect of the character and their voice really down for it to work, and you have to make sure the character is someone the reader will want to spend the story with (they don't have to be "likeable," just interesting). Because switching between first person POVs in the same story is pretty hard to pull off.

I don't think I've ever written a story with a truly omniscient narrator, because keeping suspense while doing that is really hard. (Jose Saramago was great at it.)

 

[SamScribble]

In my experience ... horses for courses. If the story has a pivotal character, first person works well. And the involved narrator doesn't even have to tell the truth. Which can be fun. But if the story requires the reader to see what is really going on in the heads of several characters, third party is the way to go. Of course, if you are writing a longer work - a novel, for example - you have the opportunity for a succession of first person POVs.

 

[Zeb_Carter]

Let's see...

First Person - great when there are limited characters and you what the reader involved in the story. Although, I have used first person with a shifting POV in a novel length story. I did however break the story up into true scenes, like a TV show or Movie.

Third Person (limited omniscience or omniscience) - Great for novellas or novels with a lot of characters or a lot of location switching. I use third person for longer works.

 

[LadyMireille]

@electricblue66... I have a story that is omniscient third-person. It tells what both characters think during the same moments. I constructed it that way because it's one of those stories where the readers are fully aware that they both like each other, and the suspense is that it's painstaking getting to where the two characters finally both get it. lol Lots of sexual tension.

Ok, all... so I am going to stick it out with first person for this story. The reason being that the main male character is mysterious, so I will probably be more successful at that if I stay out of his head. Also, my opening scene is a scene where she is being chased by someone the reader has yet to be introduced to, and I think it's pretty effective in first-person. \

Thank you all for the insight.

 

[Handley_Page]

Some 1st Person is OK, but only in past tense (I hate the "I go up to you and say. . ")
But I find 3rd person easier to read and a better aspect of story-telling.

 

[sr71plt]

First and third are fine. Yes, I find first more intimate and often when I'm trying to write in third I slip into first and have to go back and "fix" that. I enjoy writing the story from the protagonist's viewpoint and living in his skin and describing the sensations he's feeling, so, for me, at least, first has precedence.

 

[Nezhul]

often when I'm trying to write in third I slip into first and have to go back and "fix" that.

I have the same problem with past and present tense. I like writing in present, and I've recently finished writing a novel in past. It was a disaster editing.

 

[LeandraNyx]

Deleted

 

[SimonDoom]

Agree 100% with Leandranyx. Third person is the most flexible and in most cases the best point of view for an author to use. I think when you write a story 3d person should be your default, and you should ask yourself if you have a good reason to write the story in first person instead. In many cases, 3d person limited omniscient can accomplish what first person can. But in some cases in erotica the point of the story is to convey one person's experience, and in that case first person is a good choice. I've tried both. In most of my stories I like to let the reader know what more than one character is thinking, and the only way to do that is through third person point of view. At the same time, I'm working on a series right now that is in the first person, and the limited point of view serves a dramatic purpose, precisely because the narrator (the son) doesn't know what the other principal character (the mother) is thinking. That lack of knowledge will serve a dramatic purpose as the story unfolds and concludes.

 

[Hypoxia]

Read stories in various tenses and POVs and see what grabs your attention.
Write stories in various tenses and POVs and see what works for you.
Sometimes a player should tell their tale; sometimes a disembodied voice is best.

Re: 1st-person present-tense -- this often implies that the narrator won't survive the tale. "I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle / I feel the bullet go deep in my chest." I'm still cooking a 1P-PT story of passenger sex whilst an airliner is about to crash. Yow.

General guidelines were well-stated above. 1st- or 3rd-person, depending on how you want readers to react to the narration. Past tense unless the narrator is doomed. 2nd-person or present tense might work for short passages but are usually poison in larger doses -- they work in songs, not entire stories.

BUT... this is a free-gratis-for-nothing site. Readers don't pay; writers aren't paid. Write whatever the fuck you want. If Laurel accepts it, be assured that some readers will hate or love or not give a shit about your submission. We write for our own gratification.

 

[NotWise]

My most recent story (currently linked in my signature) didn't really stick to a single POV. It was told by a storyteller, so there is a 1st-person introduction of the storyteller at the beginning of the story. The storyteller then tells the story in 3rd person, but he/she addresses the audience at intervals using 1st or 2nd person.

There probably are other ways you could combine POVs that will overcome a problem in one POV but won't make the readers' road too rocky. Careful creativity may be needed.

 

[BuckyDuckman]

I've started a couple stories, and have gotten several thousand words into them, before I realized, "Crap, I need to switch the POV." That sucks.

In general, I'm experimenting with something in nearly every story I post. Most importantly has been trying to learn how to write from 3rd person POV, omnipresent. Mostly, I wind up writing from a 3rd person, limited.

Long before Lit (and the 'net) existed, I wrote all my erotica in the 1st person for publication in magazines like Penthouse Forum.

I still struggle trying to write from an omnipresent POV. That's what I most want to figure out.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I still struggle trying to write from an omnipresent POV. That's what I most want to figure out.

Step back and observe, then get in real close and describe. Know what's in your character's heads like you want your readers to know what's in yours, I reckon.

 

[SimonDoom]

I still struggle trying to write from an omnipresent POV. That's what I most want to figure out.

Try writing in the limited omniscient as a start: pick two characters and let the reader know what's going in their minds but keep them in the dark about the others. Many stories do this; it's dramatically effective because by shutting off a character's mind the author can surprise the reader with the character's actions. I like it in erotica because I can contrast the thoughts and feelings of two characters involved in an erotic escapade.

 

[NotWise]

I still struggle trying to write from an omnipresent POV. That's what I most want to figure out.

My 3rd person stories are limited, but not quite as limited as 1st person. I will let the narrator get into the head of a second character, but only at strategic times.

For me, omniscient 3rd person tends to be too much information and it runs the risk of confusing the reader with head-hopping.

 

[KenNicottii]

Having been brought up on a steady diet of Penthouse Forum letters in my youth, their model of the terse 3,000 word “let me tell you what happened” tales became the template for how to tell a dirty story. And sure, I also appreciated the longer stories in other smut magazines that allowed for a little more character development and more sex scenes. As many posters above have noted, there’s an immediacy in the storytelling when the author works directly through the narration by the main character.

All but one of my 5 stories on Lit are first person since that’s the perspective I’m most comfortable using. It seems less “fictiony” when stories are told through a first person narrative. And as a male author it frees me from having to worry about whether I’m accurately describing the inner thoughts of female characters.

So what about that lone story (“Term Paper Blues”) where I used third person omniscient? Like others have mentioned, a more complicated plot often requires the use of third person. The story has two main characters, one male and one female. Their narratives develop separately as the story begins but join up later. First person was an unworkable choice, but I knew third person would challenge me to write the inner thoughts of the FMC. I was happy the way it turned out; and it was edited by a female, so I passed that test, too.

Oddly enough, I write all my pre-first drafts in third person. That’s my initial slapdash efforts to quickly get those story components down “on paper” that have been percolating in my head for weeks or months. No grammar concerns, lots of abbreviations, no formal dialog, rudimentary punctuation—just the minimum to describe the action. I work in this format for a number of passes until all the sex scenes have been choreographed and the plot elements have been refined. Only then do I transform it into a real first draft, with complete sentences and proper punctuation on the dialog—and usually first person.

 

[silverwhisper]

perhaps i'm strange but i've always enjoyed the challenge of second.

as the others stated, i like 1st for the immediacy and emotional grounding it provides. i typically find that for the kind of writing that i like to do most, 1st is most natural for me. 3rd always feels a bit creepy or weird for erotica.

ed

 

[sr71plt]

perhaps i'm strange but i've always enjoyed the challenge of second.

as the others stated, i like 1st for the immediacy and emotional grounding it provides. i typically find that for the kind of writing that i like to do most, 1st is most natural for me. 3rd always feels a bit creepy or weird for erotica.

ed

I'd like to see your idea of what second is. Most get it wrong. Most who think they are writing second are actually writing affected (and belabored) first.

 

[SimonDoom]

perhaps i'm strange but i've always enjoyed the challenge of second.

as the others stated, i like 1st for the immediacy and emotional grounding it provides. i typically find that for the kind of writing that i like to do most, 1st is most natural for me. 3rd always feels a bit creepy or weird for erotica.

ed

I wonder the same thing as Pilot; 2d person is a very unusual point of view to use so I wonder if you are using the label correctly. Your description of 3d person seems odd, because it's the most common POV in stories, generally.

This would be an example of 2d person POV:

One day you walked to the grocery store, and a beautiful woman stared at you in the frozen foods section.

1st person: One day I walked to the grocery store, and a beautiful woman stared at me in the frozen foods section.

3d person: One day Jim walked to the grocery store, and a beautiful woman stared at him in the frozen food section.