Do you write novels in first person, third person, or something else?

[milejdyvan]

Third person omniscient is actually the hardest though, mainly because you have so much free will. It is by far the least used perspective for modern published works and people don't suggest using it.... Which is why I use it too I just don't know how you would call it easiest since so much free will basically means you need to be super careful what you add. If you add too much unnecessary info, it gets boring, and if you add none, then there's no point in it being omniscient.

Saying that, omniscient is great for myself I think. It fits the theme and certain meta aspects I plan to involve too which wouldn't make sense with subjective or first person.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

I don't read many modern published book, but almost all book I have read in the past is third person. I am actually surprised hearing this, I thought third-person omniscient is the basic form .

IMO the first-person needs more personality to pull off (I don't have one) and we have to constantly walk in the skin of our character. It also relies on your character likeability and how relatable they are.

Using third-person-omniscient doesn't mean I am good at it, though. Haha. I need to tell you that I often can't immediately point out which is the subject of a sentence.

[milejdyvan]

Well it depends.. I would say that third person omniscient is out-dated if you will but not completely dead either. It's just that modern writers opt for first person or third person subjective. Why this is, well I read about it and it's pretty much what I said. It's just hard to do. If you think about big franchises like Harry Potter or Game Of Thrones, both are written in third person subjective. The one example of an omniscient writing I can think off rn is Lord Of The Rings, which again, is an older book.

You could also say that it's easier to follow for a reader. Personally as a reader myself, I prefer third person, and don't care whether it is subjective or omniscient. But if omniscient is written badly, it can be jarring. You can't really make a mistake with point of view if you are writing subjective after all, since you are only describing one person and what they are witness to. But if you focus omniscient too much on a single character and then only occasionally switch heads, or switch heads in places where it's unnecessary, it can get annoying to read. That's why omniscient is all about balancing and saying what matters most. Don't put in info if it doesn't matter.

[AnimeKitty]

I'm honestly fine with either. I enjoy reading both first person and third person. I've wrote in first person, third person limited, and now attempting third person subjective, which has been the most difficult for me so far. It's easy to want to show emotions and thoughts from both my characters in a single chapter, but I can't do that. I've never given third person omni a shot, just because I don't really have a story that fits it and I haven't found many novels that attempt writing it.

Personally, third person limited was the easiest for me. I'd recommend that POV to anyone just starting out writing. I find first person somewhat difficult too, as it's hard to make interesting enough by having a character with an engaging enough personality. But I do have a story up currently in first person and enjoyed writing it a lot. I just don't plan to write in first person again any time soon.

A lot of readers I've noticed do prefer first person, but just write what you feel most comfortable with.

[Freemints30]

Overall. I generally have no preference. I write what feels most natural be it first person or third person.

Currently Im doing one in third person deep. (We are a demon living inside a character as thier thoughts and opinions meshes with the actual narration). Because my novel would eventually shift perspectives very often thus making it first person would be a bit too confusing and jarring and 3rd person limited doesn't give you the full phycological horror with thoughts.

Ominicent is too hard to pull of in plot all about not knowing enough info.

1st person is good to begin an act with for us to really get to know the character, which is fun

[rajillustration]

I tend to like third person, I tend to write third person, but I won't knock first person too much, youknow. Even though it's not usually my taste, I'll still read it. It's mostly just a stylistic choice.

I find that a lot of online fiction is first person--which is interesting because most published books I've read were in third (depending on the genre).

[joannekwan]

Third person for sure.

In general I approach many things in life from an observer standpoint so it just comes naturally for me.
I usually do third person close unless I have a lot of moving parts and a larger cast. Secunda is basically third close whereas for the sequel it's developing as omniscient.

As for reading preference, third as well. Though I welcome first person if the story is told through journal entries or if the narrator is recollecting something and is coming from an autobiographical space.

As for others' preferences, I believe a lot of the young folk these days enjoy first person since it more effectively puts them in the protagonist's shoes. But I don't like being forced like that.

[darkone4587]

It depends.
Depending on the type of novel and what I'm going for it could be 1st or 3rd.

[Cyena]

For me, writing in first person is the easiest/most natural. But it really depends on the story and your characters.
Right now, I'm actually writing a story in third person, since I want to focus on more than one character.

[Iris-Grimoire]

Third person kinda omniscient but not quite. I like following the thoughts of the main cast as opposed to just one person, but it's usually the protagonist, and anyone outside of that wouldn't get such a focus. First person isn't my style since I much prefer having control over the whole scene rather than just their POV.

[MissEljebel]

It depends for me. I don't know what it depends on, but sometimes a story just seems to work better for me in either first or third.

For example, a novel I'm working on (that I hope to put on here) will work better in third person. However, another novel (one I hope to publish officially) is in first person. I could be because it takes the form of a sort of fictional memoir?

[RyBread]

I will always, and I mean always write in first person POV. For me, it feels like you’re closer to the story (whatever that means) because the character who is experiencing the events is the one who is narrating. I find it awkward(?) in a way when a story is written in third person POV, like it feels a bit forced in some circumstances.

Like if something was written like: “Tom was feeling the pain in his heart, as the sea of past memories with Ava had crashed down upon him. Maria saw Tom’s sadness, compelling her to comfort him.”

Like I don’t know it just feels forced in some way, because people aren’t able to know the emotions and thoughts of anyone else except themselves. It seems more natural if someone in the story is narrating and only knows their own feelings, like how people are in the real world.

(Don’t come after me this is only my opinion)

[surenlicious]

Third person, y'all I have shit to tell and this is the way I do it. XD

[Pony_wearing_a_hat]

Third person most of the time, though I have been known to write in first person if there is a narrator character that I can play around with.

[kitkatxk]

You can still have internal monologues in third person >.< lol

[ApplesOverIndia]

I have a strong preference for first person, especially when writing. Whenever I write in third person, I'm inclined to skip over everything very quickly. One third person omniscient short story I wrote covered about six years in 10 pages or so, while my 40,000 word first person novel only covers a couple months. I don't have the patience to slow down and focus on things in third person, and almost everything I write is very character driven. I have written a couple successful things in third person, but it's like pulling teeth for me.

I prefer reading in first person as well, though I won't ignore a book because it's in third person; if the story intrigues me I'll give it a shot regardless. I'm definitely most interested in character driven things as well, though, where there's no big-bad-guy or fantasy setting to wade through. For the genre I'm interested in, first person tends to work best because it focuses on the emotional journey of the character, which is what I'm there for.

@Dr_RyBread I agree that emotions feel more natural in first person. It puts the reader inside the story instead of watching it on a screen.

[jcmraz]

Pretty much always third person limited. Other POVs are les utilitarian. Omniscient perspective gives no mystery and is hard to balance and connect the reader with the character. First person usually needs to play with the idea of unreliable narrators to be interesting but most people use it just for self-insert fantasies. Second person just doesn't function outside of choose your own adventure stories.

[skeletastic]

Third person limited, all day every day. I can't read or write anything that's in first person POV. I'm not experiencing these things, the character is. I think it tells the best story possible and you get a more natural way to describe things about characters and scenes in third person than you can in first person. In third person you lay the scene then start the play; in first person you start the play and collect the scene.

I think my main gripe is with first person in the present tense. If its being done as a re-telling, someone telling their own story that's "already happened", I could see it working. But first person present just doesn't vibe with me.

[cherrystark]

True. I have just read quite a few stories where the main "action" in the series is covered up by internal monologue that I have to stop and question what jut happened in the scene. Like everything, it's just a matter of presentation.

[Hazumirein]

Honestly, it depends. I default to third person, especially with a large cast where I want multiple viewpoints, but if the MC has a strong enough personality for it I really enjoy writing first person as well. Somewhat recently I started a story in third person and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working for me, so I rewrote the first chapter in first person and it turned out to be a massive improvement.