Which is harder to write *effectively*: First person or third person?

[Bramblethorn]

Still speaking for myself, I also think scenario 2 makes for better stories, on the whole, as a broad generalization. Setting the reader up to recognize the different experiences and motivations of the different characters creates the opportunity for dramatic tension which can't easily be achieved with excessively limited point of view narration.

I dunno about that. My entire life has been lived in strict first-person perspective without access to anybody else's experiences and motivations, and yet it's still managed to provide opportunities for dramatic tension here and there.

If anything, a lot of that tension has been created by not having access to others' perspectives.

 

[BobbyBrandt]

Just my amateur opinion, but it's always seemed to me a massive majority of stories are written in first person. I find third person content underwhelming. I do quite a bit of perusing, not as much reading as when I first came to Literotica, but it's been largely the same. I don't have any specific numbers so don't quote me on it, but my daily sweeping down the 'New Stories' lists in my categories of preference, it seems there are ten first person narratives to every one third person narrative.

I would tend to agree that on the erotic sites I have visited, 1st person perspective dominates. I attribute this to writers first being readers who were initially exposed to erotica through sources such as the "Penthouse Forum" or similar, and limited characters/character development. It's all about the sex.

I write in both perspectives and always defer to which works better for the story and the characters within it. Where my stories containing erotic content are concerned, with the exception of just one story, they are all 1st person. I don't find one perspective easier or harder than the other, and with comparable ratings and feedback, readers seem to enjoy the stories either way.

Now, for my longer novels and narrative works, the opposite is true. All but one of them is written in 3rd person perspective. These typically have far more characters within the story, in multiple locations, with more conflicts and character motivations. Characters are what drive the stories I write, and presenting the story through the POV of a single character simply won't work for the tale I am trying to tell.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Just my amateur opinion, but it's always seemed to me a massive majority of stories are written in first person. I find third person content underwhelming. I do quite a bit of perusing, not as much reading as when I first came to Literotica, but it's been largely the same. I don't have any specific numbers so don't quote me on it, but my daily sweeping down the 'New Stories' lists in my categories of preference, it seems there are ten first person narratives to every one third person narrative.

That's a reflection of Lit being an amateur writers' site, I think, where the majority of stories are written by folk who've not written much/anything before. They're writing their personal fantasies, so it's a logical default to write in first person.

I also think it's safe to say that those who keep writing, who do develop their skills over time, don't agonize over first versus third - they go for what "works" for a story.

Just because first person might be a majority of stories here doesn't automatically render it "better" for erotica, as some people seem to think. It just means most writers haven't moved on to develop their skills. If you look at most writers' story lists, they might have a dozen or so stories, which isn't many. They've stopped writing at the point they've just finished an apprenticeship.

The more you write, the more you realise that point of view is merely a tool - and you become good with a hammer as well as a saw. If someone vehemently thinks one is "superior" to the other, they've not written enough yet.

 

[ElectricBlue]

That was surprisingly clever. Where did you undergo the lobe-fusion surgery?

The Tilan Institute of Superior Thinking - surely you remember your evening classes?

 

[MelissaBaby]

The hardest part to writing a story in third person for me though, is deciding when to use pronouns vs. the characters' names in scenes with two members of the same sex. Sometimes I find that I'm using the character names more than the pronouns because it's unclear who I'm talking about if I just say she/her or he/him.

If it is unclear to you, assume it's even less clear to the reader. Use the names when in doubt. Or use physical or status descriptors.

She looked up at the older woman...

...the blonde said.

 

[MelissaBaby]

That's a reflection of Lit being an amateur writers' site, I think, where the majority of stories are written by folk who've not written much/anything before. They're writing their personal fantasies, so it's a logical default to write in first person.

I also think it's safe to say that those who keep writing, who do develop their skills over time, don't agonize over first versus third - they go for what "works" for a story.

Just because first person might be a majority of stories here doesn't automatically render it "better" for erotica, as some people seem to think. It just means most writers haven't moved on to develop their skills. If you look at most writers' story lists, they might have a dozen or so stories, which isn't many. They've stopped writing at the point they've just finished an apprenticeship.

The more you write, the more you realise that point of view is merely a tool - and you become good with a hammer as well as a saw. If someone vehemently thinks one is "superior" to the other, they've not written enough yet.

I have written in both first and third person, and the only criterion for choosing one over the other is which I believe is more appropriate for that particular story. I've used third more, because I tend to write stories that employ multiple POV characters.

One thing I think that has been overlooked in this discussion is the importance of maintaining a consistent voice. With first person in particular, the writer must always remember that they are writing in the voice of the character, in the narration as much as in the dialogue. I have read stories in which the first person narrator speaks formally, but their dialogue voice is very informal, filled with substandard grammar and colloquialisms.

 

[SimonDoom]

I don't think one is inherently more difficult than the other. Each POV has its own challenges. I use both. For me, personally, I'd say 3d person POV is a bit more challenging because there are more things to think about to get it right.

 

[djrip]

I feel kind of like in 1st person I have to pretend to be some character, and think about how they would say things, and what they would bother to notice or comment upon, and why are they even telling this story, and can we trust them? While in 3rd I can just talk about the characters in my own voice and comment upon what I feel like commenting upon. So I find 3rd easier. But 1st can be interesting for those reasons. In 1st often we are unsure who is talking for awhile. In 3rd we have some idea who everyone is as soon as they're mentioned, usually.

 

[ColinPiper]

That was surprisingly clever. Where did you undergo the lobe-fusion surgery?

Oh, the irony.

 

[Emilymcplugger]

I don’t think writing first person is easier to write because it’s “I”, it’s because you’re then the voice telling the story. The person is seeing a story through somebody’s I’s…I mean eyes.

Third person is more challenging because the narrator is in the room watching and commenting like a cheap private dick on a case, sat at the bar, just watching the tall blonde in the red dress, wondering how she fit inside it, how it held onto her hips like a Salsa dancer grinding against her…etc etc etc.

Sorry, what was the question?

 

[theWollstonecraftWoman]

I don't think it is harder or easier to write one way or the other. Not for me. Neither was easy, if we do it right. When I work out the "right" part of the equation, I'll keep it to myself. I'm selfish, you know.

 

[tenyari]

Necro-posting to this one by a few months. Hopefully not so much to freak people out.

I've been away from writing for a bit now but yesterday I sat out to write out a CMNF dream I'd had, expanding beyond the 5 minute scene that had played out as I was waking up a few days ago.

The protagonist is a young woman in a fantasy world of mine that my thoughts and dreams often return to.

I started out and have done 7,629 words thus far in third-person. But just sat down to rewrite all of that to first. I think all of my published work is in first, near as I can recall. Third might pop out of my head when I'm writing stream of conscious, but often feels unnatural to me on reflection.

I see first-person POV as a way to explore how my protagonist thinks and feels about their circumstances. I see third person as a way to tell a plot.

I feel a first person story, but I journey through a third person one.

My own dreams can shift between first person and third person observer, and unlike in my stories when my dreams are first person I can frequently switch protagonists and even move into an antagonist.

But my stories always being first person? That's very much because I really thrive when I am exploring the emotional experience of a character. It's not often easy to tell the plot in this situation. There is often much going on outside the view of my protagonist. My protagonists are often very poorly informed and or biased - and as such I have had stories where I took my readers on a journey of a character making obviously stupid mistakes, getting things wrong, and then some shocks when the facts where not in fact as they suspected.

And that's my big challenge. Long ago I got it into my head that switching POV is an absolute deal breaker for me. So I try to tell epic stories all through the mind of a single unreliable narrator's emotional grasp. Which is quite a challenge - but leads to a result I personally love.

Where I to write in third person I could throw in a pile of "meanwhile, over in the other room, stuff happened" moments. This is great for moving plot, but rips you out of the character.

I think this is why erotica writers tend to go for first person, and less experienced writers go for second person rather than third.

First puts you in the mind of someone experiencing erotic tension. Second seems like it would be like "POV porn" - directing someone you are manipulating. But as most of us have experienced; second person stories rarely work (and yeah, when I am browsing porn, I always skip when one of those POV things come on because they feel exploitative).

Third person erotica is like being the director on a porn set. You're watching the action, not getting to enjoy it yourself. And so I find third shows up more in all of those 'survival action' stories that keep popping up in the genre parts of erotica sites.

Go suffer through reading in the fantasy / sci-fi sections and half of it is "man in wild with harem on lost planet" - and these are often third person because the writer is just spamming through action scenes and writing descriptions of survival gear with the same dedication other erotica writers describe boobs. I end up this stuff a LOT because these writers 'bait me' with their tags being similar to some of my kinks: nude characters and such.

They've left me very under-impressed with third person erotica. It reminds of Asimov: fascinating world, intricate plot, cardboard characters.


So... I ended up in this thread because I searched while second guessing switching my story to first person. But I think I will have to do it because my story has hit the point where things are about to get very personal for my protagonist as the 'erotic trigger' has just 'gone off' in my plot, and now I need to deep dive into her emotions. And doing that in third person feels weird to me. Both when I write it, and when I read it elsewhere.