Poll: For you writers here...

[SpikeyGirl]

3rd person, past tense.

2nd is weird to write in and 1st always annoys me.
Past tense is easiest to remember I'm writing in and future tense would make almost no sense.

 

[Outright Villainy]

What is second person perspective? It's been a while since I've had an English class but I don't remember anything about that.

I'd imagine the only genre of books that use this are the goosebumps style "make your own adventure" ones.

Since they'd be saying "you open the door, turn to page blah for whatever."

Second person would involve the narrator telling you what you're doing.

 

[Slash Dementia]

I've only written in first and third person perspective, and I have to say that I find it easier to write in the first person, just just by a really little bit. That's mostly because I write poems and I write them in first person, so when going to story, it makes it easier.

I'm actually writing a first-person story right now.

 

[Astoria]

I pretty much always use first person. I try to get a lot of emotion in my stories and that's harder to do in other perspectives.

 

[Wondermint13]

I started off strong with 3rd Person but after I finished school I found it easier to write in 1st person. Creating things through the eyes of another come more naturally to me now than trying to fill a page full of descriptions and everything in between.
2nd I dont know much about. Tried it once but couldnt master it as well as the other two points.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Third person for teh win.

 

[Flatfrog]

What is second person perspective? It's been a while since I've had an English class but I don't remember anything about that.

2nd person is when it is directed at YOU, but not by you. "You walk down the hall and hear something in the room ahead..." and often next would be a choice, a "What would you do?" In books it would give you choices and a page to turn to. In DnD, which started this question, the player decided and the DM complies.

First Person: I
Second Person: You
Third Person: They/He/She

I can think of two books that used second person effectively. Iain Banks' 'Complicity' (I think) used it for the scenes where the serial killer is attacking people: 'You step up to the bed, stuff a rag in their mouth', that kind of thing). It makes for a very disturbing, uncomfortable perspective.

The other one is Italo Calvino's 'If On a Winter's Night a Traveller' which is one of the weirdest books ever written, consisting of about twenty first chapters of other books, linked by a second-person story of a reader who is constantly trying to find the rest of them.

The biggest problem with second person is that if you specify something about the character (eg their gender or sexual preference) it breaks the experience for readers for which it doesn't apply (eg 'you kiss him tenderly')

 

[Carnagath]

If you ever get a chance to talk to a successful, published writer and you ask them that question, they will almost surely answer that first person is an indication of a baaaaaad writer (along with a few other things, like overuse of passive voice and adverbs). I do not agree myself. I have enjoyed several books written in first person.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Really depends on what you want to say and the way you want to say it. All three (And the occasional mutation of PoV) work well in certain cases. It's just finding the one that works.

 

[Trogdor1138]

Well I mostly write screenplays these days, so third person of course.

In general though it gives you more flexibility for your story, which is always the important thing.

 

[LorChan]

For the sake of keeping a healthy distance from my characters I pretty much have to write third person. It's a weakness of mine.

 

[Valksy]

I'm currently writing in first person protagonist. It's quite a challenge and requires some discipline to keep her voice and personality unique without accidentally slipping in to my own. I made this choice specifically for the story I am working on at the moment - I like that she experiences and witnesses and defines her world a certain way and doesn't have all the answers.

I used to write in third person and did tend towards omniscient narrator which I personally think only really works if you have specifically oriented sections or chapters. Hopping between characters every couple of paragraphs always struck me as a little sloppy and lazy.

 

[Queen Michael]

I always write first person. I feel more comfortable that way.

 

[Mr Somewhere]

A story should make its own demands.
On another note...
"Ressave Sin" Inglip commands, it shall be so sire....

 

[Nietz]

Well, can't really say that I favour one over the other. But statistically speaking, I'm more for the first person. Most of the stuff I have written has been in first person. But then again, the longer stories that I have written has nearly all been in third person.

For me, if I want to do something a more personal piece, I choose first person, but If I want to do something larger, like a 400+ page story with back-stroy and lore, I choose third.

 

[New Troll]

Usually first person because...

1. most stories I write are usually about me.
2. I like being the protagonist (or antagonist depending on the story.)
3. I find it usually easier to write.

 

[HasimirFenring]

3d person because I love to have loads of options. I have as many angles as I want and since there's not really a main character in my stories it's a lot easier this way. In the real world there isn't one key person, there are multiple. If I want to represent this in my books, I'd be a fool if I employed first person.

 

[William MacKay]

I'm doing a script now, so I guess that's first person too?

Actually, scripts are different. they have directions etc so its neither.

 

[Shadesong]

I tend to switch between the two (Not in the story, mind you, that's almost as bad as switching tense) but I feel that I can focus more on the character if I use first person, whereas I can focus on a broader range in third.

I personally write in a combination of third person past and present tense, because i really should write in past (makes everything much more clearer), but some of my points i like to make would have more of an impact in present. it's a flaw and no writer should ever switch between tenses (ie. past: he did; present: he's doing; and future: he will do) because it just confuses the reader. and the writer.

Heathen! Depends on how it's done really, it could work well or it could, as you said, just be confusing.

 

[Valksy]

If you ever get a chance to talk to a successful, published writer and you ask them that question, they will almost surely answer that first person is an indication of a baaaaaad writer (along with a few other things, like overuse of passive voice and adverbs). I do not agree myself. I have enjoyed several books written in first person.

I agree. It will be bad if the writer is bad, but then the same is true of writing in any tense. I would merely smirk at said writer, mention Dickens (David Copperfield for example), and then discount their opinion as bullshit.