Thread: Are you against or for first person POV?

How many of you like? Why? How many dont?

Pros: If it's well written, I think it takes the reader to a personal level with the character in the book, and if it's well written, it conveys the emotions. Stirs you, if you will.

Cons: It seems like every tom, dick and harry are doing it now a days, and it's hard to find a first person written prospective book that actually moves you. So far, I've only found one that has stirred my emotions..

The others, I'm just like.. what is this? The first time I read one, was twilight, and I never even knew people wrote in that fashion. I didn't like the way she'd done it, myself.

I think there are ways to do it, that make it sound amazing, and there are ways that just make you want to claw your eyes out. But that's just my opinion.

it just depends on your story. When i write, it goes either way. I tend to lean towards 3rd person, which lets me narrate the story morel like a movie in my head.

first person, i believe,is also a free pass to a lower vocabulary level, depending on the person.

I usually only use first person in my writing when I am developing characters, or if my scene doesn't feel emotional enough. I'll write in in first person first and then translate it into limited 3rd. I have only found one writer who can do first person well, i find that in most books first person degrades the level of the book making it seem for a younger audience. Twilight being one example, many other vampire novels being another. The only books i've ever read that have been in first person are those for teens with one writer as an exception to that. Even then he switches between the 1st and 3rd throughout his book.

Are you against or for first person POV?

No.

wait, what Olly?
I can't tell if you're for or against it!

I found writing First Person to be an excellent way to learn how to develop characters. So much of the characters personality has to come through in his dialogue, his inner thoughts, and mannerisms.

Only when writing true stories of which I am the character. I find first-person fiction novels to be irritating because the author becomes the character. It's just a pet peeve of mine. I far rather writing and reading third-person.

I love first person, but it does have its limits. There's only so much you can tell when writing from one person's perspective, because your only writing what that person is thinking, feeling or seeing. Third person allows you to expand and write in everything that's going on around the character that they don't or can't see.

It's funny, I used to be totally against third person. I thought that made the characters really two-dimensional and not as in depth as they could be with first person. I think I was just reading some really badly written third-person stories because now I like writing in third person as much as (albeit not as often as) I like to write in first person.

Going back to the limits of first person, it can also leave a lot of gaps in a story, unless you do first person pov switches, like I used to do. But that can get a little disorienting, especially if you're jumping around between a lot of characters.

I'm for the argument. In a character driven story I write in a first person POV. It's just my style. If I'm ever to get a sweeping epic on paper though I'd go for third person.

Hehe. Very interesting answers. I'm attempting to write in first person, though, she's more like narrorating the story. Kinda.

If you end up narrating, it usually means the story requires a third person. Third person can be taken in as a bland character description, but it isn't. If you know how to write, you can make very intelligent, and dramatic story. It also adds, in my opinion, you ability to use vocabulary without making the character seem a bit odd.

I've written and had works published in both first person POV and third person limited POV. Readers read and enjoyed both POVs. It really depends on the story you want to tell and how you want to relay the story to the reader.

I cant seem to get a proper foot off the ground for it. I know how I want to start it, but I keep ending up.. deleting it.

I love first person. I've read plenty of great novels where I felt first person was totally integral to the book, that the book would just not have been the same in third. Like if you've ever read Jonathan Lethem's Motherless Brooklyn (which is narrated in the first person by a guy with Tourette's), I think that book would've been a pale shadow of itself in third person. It just would not have worked.

Or, say, try to imagine Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe novels in third person. Impossible. They would essentially be different books.

As far as more "classic" examples go, without first person narration we'd be missing out on The Sound and the Fury, Heart of Darkness, Dracula, In Search of Lost Time, Wuthering Heights, Lolita, and so on...

In no way is first person for younger readers, or vampire fiction, etc. Anyone who thinks that's true needs to read more.

lovetowrite, as far as getting off the ground, well. I think it's important when writing first person to have a good handle on your character's voice. Is that your problem, though? It might be you're just deleting perfectly good stuff as a form of procrastination. I do it when starting novels all the time...