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| Tips & Advice Share your tips, tricks and advice. |
10-15-2006, 06:00 AM
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#1
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Scribe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: England
Gender: Male
Posts: 84
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Viewpoint
Which viewpoint to do you prefer, first person or third person?
I currently write in the first person viewpoint, I find it has a much more dramatic and intense impact than the more common third person viewpoint.
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10-15-2006, 10:24 AM
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#2
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Best Seller
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Somewhere witty.
Gender: Male
Posts: 700
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I prefer third person. It allows me to swith from character to character without confusion.
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10-15-2006, 11:26 AM
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#3
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Wordsmith
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Back 'home' on Tinian!
Gender: Female
Posts: 11,445
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ditto here... for both reading and writing...
i dislike first person intensely, find it pretentiously/poorly done by most beginning writers and unengaging for the reader, no matter who wields it...
to me, it has much less dramatic impact, as it's so limiting in re what can be described... we're limited to only the one person's experience and that makes the story/plot boringly one-dimensional while, with third, all that goes on anywhere that's relevant to the story can be explored and the reader can look on as it all unfolds, instead of being penned up behind the eyes of the single narrator...
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10-15-2006, 12:22 PM
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#4
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Scribe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: England
Gender: Male
Posts: 84
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Absolutely disagree with everything you've just said! The first person viewpoint has many advantages because the reader can only know what the protagonist knows, therefore having a greater feel of empathy and making it easier to build suspense and tension and spring more suprises.
Some of the greatest novels ever written have been in the first person viewpoint and it's naive to say anything written in the first person is pretensious or poorly written.
J D Salinger, Raymond Chandler, Vladimir Nabokov, Agatha Christie, Harper Lee and so on and so on to name but a few...poor writers? I don't think so.
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10-15-2006, 12:25 PM
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#5
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Best Seller
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Surely not MN
Gender: Male
Posts: 640
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I like reading 1st person plenty but I prefer to write 3rd person because I find it easier not to get bored when I get to move around my perspective.
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10-15-2006, 12:42 PM
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#6
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Scribe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: England
Gender: Male
Posts: 84
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I mean, I don't dislike third person, but I much prefer first person.
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10-15-2006, 10:22 PM
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#7
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Melbourne Australia
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,065
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Neither. Second.
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10-15-2006, 10:38 PM
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#8
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Apr 2006
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,358
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Depends on the writer.
Robin Hobb, I think, did first person amazingly well. Others I've read (and their names don't spring to mind because the books/stories were so easily forgetable) didn't.
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10-16-2006, 05:24 AM
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#9
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: New England
Gender: Female
Posts: 288
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Although I'm a fan of both and tend to switch between the two writing viewpoints, I find that an omnicient third person viewpoint can be more fun to write with because you can switch between two or more characters and add more depth to all of your characters by allowing the reader to see into more than one character's mind.
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10-16-2006, 06:50 AM
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#10
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 296
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Whichever seems best at the time, really.
Although first person gives me an excuse to narrate in the 'voice' of the character, something that would seem out of place in third person.
Quote:
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Originally Posted by lisajane
Neither. Second.
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why?
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10-16-2006, 10:54 AM
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#11
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Wordsmith
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Back 'home' on Tinian!
Gender: Female
Posts: 11,445
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Quote:
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it's naive to say anything written in the first person is pretensious or poorly written
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of course it would be... but no one here said that, least of all, me!
no need to get your knickers in a twist, sl... i was merely expressing my own personal opinion, which is what the op asked us to do... and you clearly didn't read my post carefully enough to find out what i really did say, or you wouldn't have made such erroneous assumptions...
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J D Salinger, Raymond Chandler, Vladimir Nabokov, Agatha Christie, Harper Lee and so on and so on to name but a few...poor writers? I don't think so.
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no one [including me] said they were...
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For 100% free writing help/mentoring:
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"You must BE the change you wish to see in the world." Gandhi
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10-16-2006, 11:13 AM
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#12
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 2,139
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First person would definately be my favourite. It allows me to do things that can't be done in third. But I write in third a lot, too. I wouldn't say one was better than the other.
And m, first you said you don't like it written by beginning writers, find it pretentious by beginning writers, and then unengaging for the read, no matter who 'wields it'. Maybe it's not what you meant, but I can see where the confusion came in  |
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10-16-2006, 12:01 PM
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#13
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Moderator
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Southwestern Pennsylvania
Gender: Female
Posts: 4,284
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I like the suspenseful feel of first person and I agree that it's easy to hash it up. I aspire to write it well (which I don't think I'm doing yet).
It does seem easier to write from a third person limited perspective and I do that quite a bit though I stay away from third person omniscient. That just seems like too much info going to the reader at once.
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Last edited by Foxee : 10-16-2006 at 12:31 PM.
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10-16-2006, 12:21 PM
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#14
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Addict
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Shropshire, UK
Gender: Female
Posts: 142
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It depends on the story. Sometimes the story sounds better when written in 1st, sometimes in 3rd. I just follow my own heart.
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10-16-2006, 12:21 PM
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#15
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Scribe
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: England
Gender: Male
Posts: 84
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by mammamaia
i dislike first person intensely, find it pretentiously/poorly done by most beginning writers and unengaging for the reader, no matter who wields it...
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Are you sure you didn't say that?
The key words here are 'beginning writers' and 'no matter who weilds it'. Naming a few novelists was purely highlighting this fact.
Thankyou, Fantasy for also pointing that one out. |
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