First Person Perspective

[joannekwan]

I just realized that the Great Gatsby was written in first person. But I don't think I minded as much there since Nick Carraway wasn't the main focus of the story, it was Gatsby, all his drama, and the socialite culture. Nick was simply observing all this madness, never really instigating anything except helping Gatsby at his request.

And that I think is what I ultimately relate to. I as a reader prefer to observe events that unfold rather than be stuck in the middle of it.

Let me be a voyeur, let me judge these characters. >:3

[Kyazi]

I can't write first person feels too awkward but I did draw a first person view comic called New Password: Love

[Agent1Alaska]

I naturally write in 1st person. I can write in 3rd and am perfectly fine with reading it, but there's just something more immersive about getting into a character's mind and seeing the world through their eyes. You could easily get to know a character's psyche in 3rd person (just look at Harry Potter), but I find doing that easier through 1st person.

Because of the whole "I this, I that" thing, I try starting every sentence/paragraph with a different word (unless doing something for dramatic effect). There are advantages and disadvantages to both kinds of perspectives, especially when you get into past/present/future tense on top of who's narrating the story. The thing that makes the writing good or bad is whether the writer can overcome the challenges of writing that particular perspective.

[joannekwan]

Oh yeah, diaries and travel journals are pretty fun!
I think I like this as the best use of first person. It's like having a friend tell you about their life and they know they're speaking to someone else/the pages of their diary. That's something that I don't get with other first person narratives where it seems you're wearing a character suit and are experiencing a story happening to that character.
EDIT: Which can be said for video games set in the first person but in those you feel like you have some agency by doing actions.

[Kura]

I hate reading it, a lot, it really bugs me when I read the back of the book and it sounds interesting, only for me to open it and see it's first person. I just end up putting it down and moving on, because I just hate reading in that format.

I got recommended an author/series of series, and it's honestly really difficult to read because of the first person perspective. I've read 1 and a half out of something like 25 books over i think it's been 2 years.Even though I WANT to read this I just... can't stand the first person and can't read it for long, and then have no will to get back to enduring that format to try and read these books.

[Rochrok]

I've never been much of a fan. I think Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles work because the main character is telling a story to someone, or writing a memiore but in general it annoys me. Mainly because the writer tries to convey information the main character couldn't possibly know because they want the reader to know it, or when the main character is in danger but they're too busy describing the room they are in. When I come across those parts of the story I feel like the writer should have gone ahead and wrote it in third person limited.

These days I mostly avoid first-person stories, which is why I don't read anything on wattpad.

[ratique]

Not a fan. Actually, I actively avoid novels using the first person narrative. There is nothing great about seeing the world through one person's eyes only. You get a limited point of view, which is the point of it, of course. But unless this limitation is really important for the overall narrative, I see little reason to use it.

[turtleme]

I actually wasn't that big of a fan in 1st until I read the novel "The Name of the Wind".

Writing in the third-person definitely has advantages that I oftentimes wish I could utilize while I'm writing my novel. Things like reactions, setting the scene, etc. tend to all be limited while in the first-person perspective, but at the same time, I'm finding a very human-like quality to writing in 1st. The narrator is the actual character, not an omnipresent being, so when you incorporate mistakes that your main character makes as a narrator and have him grow, it feels more personal IMO.

[joe_galindez]

Old first-person shooters make me dizzy. It's why I play Skyrim almost exclusively in third-person.

[phen]

I do agree, often it can really limit the perspective taken but there can also be extremely stylish narratives crafted by way of first person that don't work in other modes. For example, literature like The Pillow Book (a collection of observations, essays, journal entries, etc.) and Notes from the Underground (a fictional journal) in which the narrator works as the author. For Notes from the Underground, the writing is structured in a way that transforms first person perspective into a distinctive character in active observation.

Mo Yan also does an incredible job in writing first person by injecting them with enough life that it doesn't limit point of view by way of speech and instead creates an experience. Short stories Iron Child and Autumn Waters are captivating right off because of how surreal yet familiar the narrative is constructed.

Life and Death are Wearing Me Out is another fictional novel that obscures narration across multiple characters while maintaining almost exclusive first person perspective. With proper stylisation to the writing, first person perspective can be a multi-dimensional exploration.

However, I can totally understand an aversion to first person due to repeated bad experiences with it. So many of those can put a bad taste in your mouth after a while.

[Zaboem]

First person has its place. I personally find nothing wrong with it. Lovecraft's cosmic horror stories are often in first person as a way of limiting the information given to the audience and thus keeping the darkness dark. Take my current project for example. I switch between different styles in different chapters. A large section of the second chapter was in first person, and I will probably write a full chapter in first person at some point, maybe when the focus moves to the character Isis. I might even try a chapter in second person as a challenge.

[joannekwan]

Ooh! Second person is tricky.
I've only done about 4 pieces in second person? All were very short. The first was a rejected submission to the Neopian Times. The other 3 were character|reader smut fictions. xD

[Rhombik]

I think most of the time people use whatever perspective suits the text and there are varying degrees. For example, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime and Elisabeth is Missing are told from the point of view of a severely autistic teen and a dementia patient respectively. I'd argue that the books wouldn't work at all without first person as their idea of what is going on shapes the narrative. Also, I won't mention names (for what will be obvious reasons) but sometimes you need first person so that a twist will work at the end of the story.

[joe_galindez]

https://m.tapasio.io/series/The-Curious-Incident-of-the-Dog-in-the-Night-Time

Your typical Tapas comic URL.

[Rhombik]

Which reminds me that Tapas has been advertising a comic called Help Wanted and I keep thinking, that's a weird advert.

I'm not a big fan of unnecessarily long names like that on a novel.

[joe_galindez]

No joke, my dad used to draw a comic strip called "Help Wanted".

[arushiangelica]

I read lots of postmodernist novel, which most of the times have very ambiguous approach to identity and perspective. My slice of life novel Beautiful Rebellious Brainiacs that I am writing on Tapas is in first person, since it is about her inner struggle.

[spicy_sweets]

Help Wanted isn't that long of a name though?

[Rhombik]

https://m.tapasio.io/series/The-Curious-Incident-of-the-Dog-in-the-Night-Time

We were talking about this book.

[spicy_sweets]

Ohhhhhhh. I got confused for a sec but I gotcha.