Thread: The BIG decision: First-Person or Third-Person?

I am struggling in regards to which POV I should write my story from. My story is about a young woman who has served in the military and she more-or-less rejoins it to save the world from evil. I know this protagonist of mine very well. She is an antihero to an extent. Kind of rebellious. I am inside her head a lot and know what she would say in nearly any kind of situation. The thing that's slowing me down is, should I write her in first-person POV or third-person? I think that if I write via first-person, I will be able to put words to paper a lot quicker. There's something about third-person that is slowing me down I think. I think I'm crossing the line too much between limited and omniscient third-person. Anyone have any advice? I would like to switch characters occasionally too (jump from one person's POV to another); would writing in first-person POV be bad for that?

Unfortunately only you can make this call.

Personally I do not like first person narratives as a general rule but there have been some exceptions over time. They can be done, but are rarely done well if you ask me.

Not to say that yours won't be done well. This is just my own personal taste.

If you are really torn and don't know which to choose, write the first couple chapters both ways and see which one works out better. Nothing wrong with trial and error.

Try reading "I am Legend" by Richard Matheson.

It's written in Third-Person, but it reads like First-Person, as the reader is constantly dipping into Robert Neville's mind.

Example:

Originally Posted by I Am Legend by Robert Matheson

The book shut with a thud. Why didn’t they leave him alone? Did they think they could all have him? Were they so stupid they thought that? Why did they keep coming every night? After five months, you’d think they’d give up and try elsewhere.
He went over to the bar and made himself another drink. As he turned back to his chair he heard stones rattling down across the roof and landing with thuds in the shrubbery beside the house. Above the noises, he heard Ben Cortman shout as he always shouted. “Come out, Neville!”
Someday I’ll get that bastard, he thought as he took a big swallow of the bitter drink. Someday I’ll knock a stake right through his goddamn chest. I’ll make one a foot long for him, a special one with ribbons on it, the bastard.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow he’d soundproof the house. His fingers drew into white-knuckled fists. Hecouldn’t stand thinking about those women. If he didn’t hear them, maybe he wouldn’t think about them. Tomorrow. Tomorrow.

As you can see here, the author uses third-person, but the reader lives quite alot inside the character's head.

I spent two years going back and forth on this question. Wrote half my first draft in first person and then switched to third, and back again, then back again after that. Now I've settled permanently on third, for various reasons.

Agree that you're the only one who can decide. My advice is to experiment with both and see which serves your needs best.

Also remember that not all "third person" POVs are created equal.

There is a big difference between third person limited and third person omniscient. My novel, an the short story that I am writing from it are both TPL as is my project named "Sacrifice". In those stories the narrator sees things through the eyes of the main character only. However my short story "The Yoke" is written in TPO where the reader sees the thoughts and is inside the minds of all four main characters.

I write in first person because I find it to be a more personal story that way. If you know your protagonist that well, I would go with first person. Are those other POVs crucial to the telling of the story?

Why don't you try reading some first person and third person narratives too, see what clicks with you? Last spring I read three third-person books, all with very different styles of third-person, that helped me envision the kind of third person I wanted (where previously I'd thought things would be in the first person). Those books being Karl Marlantes' recent Matterhorn, Hemingway's For Whom The Bells Toll, and Tolstoy's War and Peace.

Tolstoy obviously being THE go to for omniscient third person narration. Hemingway's craftsmanship in Bells is also just wonderful. He delves so far into Robert Jordan's head it makes you forget you're reading in the third person.

If you're having trouble writing in third person, I'd go ahead and do it in first person. If you feel there's a reason to go to third person you can always go back and revise later. Do whatever it takes to get the draft out and then worry about the rest later.

I write in first person. I just cant seem to get third person down. Its easier for me to write in first.