Type of novel writing

MelancholicOtaku 2025-03-15 16:20:34 UTC #21

My novel The Lost Forest is in third person. I like to switch from different povs since most of my characters play an important part of the story.

One of these days I would like to write a first person novel just for practice.

jwabeasley 2025-03-15 17:02:16 UTC #22

Third person should be your default, unless you have some reason for changing it up. If you're going to do a first person inner monologue, that inner monologue should be entertaining somehow by itself. Maybe it's a noir, maybe the protagonist is unreliable or nuts, maybe they have an absurd comment to make about everything they see, or perhaps you want to really hone in on the innocence of the POV character amid terrible things or have a conversation with the reader directly.

But if you don't think your lead is quite so splashy, those other perspectives will do better I think. It does simplify those moments when you need to tell rather than show a scenario or elide a time gap.

kyupol 2025-03-15 20:37:20 UTC #23

Personally prefer 3rd person unless it's a true to life story from the experiencer's perspective

jesowo 2025-03-16 10:42:24 UTC #24

I do this most of the time

AyaraIchika 2025-03-16 22:35:28 UTC #25

Before, I was writing from First Person P.O.V. but now I more of Third Person P.O.V. because my writing style changes. And I usually tend to do simulation for my scenes before writing them down so I am like writing what I was watching inside my mind so I used Third Person P.O.V. because there are couple of description and internal monologue. But I still doesn't throw away my style in writing First Person P.O.V. because it has its own merits.

Here's my Third Person P.O.V. story. Have a read if you have time:

The Writer in Some Kind of Fantasy World

bumblebeelz 2025-04-18 17:43:44 UTC #27

I generally prefer reading and writing in third person, just because it's what I'm used to, but I do read plenty of novels written in first person too. Hell, my current project is written in first person, mostly as a challenge to myself. I wanted to try something different. I've also read that first person is popular in the romance genre, because of the more intimate / personal vibe it gives. So... that's something, I guess?

annuskabriar 2025-04-18 19:01:17 UTC #28

I personally much prefer third person but I don't think one is innately better than the other

eternityoz 2025-04-20 04:14:17 UTC #29

I initially began writing my novel in first person because of how I wanted to portray the psychological developments of my protagonist and so far, I've managed to stick with it for nearly 50 episodes (~80k words). In my opinion, if at least one of your story's main points or themes or messages or whatnot emphasizes the emotions / mental state of your protagonist, I'd suggest first person.

HOWEVER, I do agree that as your story grows (alongside your cast of characters), it becomes much more difficult to keep up with portraying the inner growths of the rest of your cast. Additionally, I personally am beginning to struggle with writing certain intense action sequences simply due to the fact that portraying entire fights from one perspective can quickly get repetitive and monotonous.

In my experience, I like to get the best of both worlds by occasionally switching the POV of the narrative to other significant characters to reflect other developments, which ESPECIALLY helps if your novel covers multiple situations occurring at once. These switches really help to make every scenario feel the characters and the readers' investment in those characters as more significant.

Despite my previous advocating for first person, I do eventually plan to make the switch to third person and simply conveying the protagonist's most significant thoughts through italics simply due to how convoluted it'd get to encompass everything later in the plot from just one perspective at a time.

mohdadeebace 2025-04-20 09:56:31 UTC #30

Third person perspective is what I use - because it gives me room to expand, on certain plot points at same time

BTW, You can check out the new episode -

A DANCE ON FIRE -

Tensions erupt as Darius, caged and furious, clashes with Mark and Hugo in a volatile interrogation. Accusations fly, old wounds reopen, and secrets are reveales. But as emotions boil over and Darius's rage reaches its peak, an explosion rocks the base, unleashing something terrifying. In a flash, the monster within awakens. The real storm has just begun.

Soren_Frost 2025-04-20 10:32:56 UTC #31

I think that writing in the first person allows me, as an author, to express deeper emotions and thoughts that can't be expressed in the third person. As such a deeper connection is created between the reader and the author. But I wonder, can we shift from the first person to the third? Maybe it is possible but it has to be done with care to avoid confusing the reader.
I used the first person in my novel, here is the latest chapter,

Phoenix_fly 2025-04-20 11:27:56 UTC #32

I write from the perspective of first person as for the disadvantage you said I just switch the character Pov to make use the it as my advantage. Making the story more vast and creating plot.
You can check it out by this novel

remiquise 2025-04-21 17:50:33 UTC #33

3rd person.
I can still dig into thoughts and emotions just fine, should I choose to, and do so with as many people as I please (as long as I'm being tactical and not just head jumping willy-nilly). Not just in the main character's POV but also the villain's without too much confusion such as 1st person POV switching. Some might want it more intimate, more personal, more immersive...

And, most importantly, I can still write overly wordy and flowery prose no matter what the character's personalities are. The narrator's voice isn't chained to a character's voice, which offers a whole lot more freedom. Grated, it is still a good idea to have a coherent voice for a narrator, but at least you have way more of a say in what voice that can be.

I feel it works best for both my novels because a part of the horror of my horror story, The Abomination Within Letcham, part of the horror is seeing what the antihero is thinking alongside the fear and thoughts of the leading lady. Switching POVs as chapters demand could work, sure, but I feel it would be distracting more than anything. Seeing too much from out of the male lead would dull the impact out of his sections, anyways. Getting multiple chapters out of him would also muddy the point. From local writing groups I know a lot of men fail to realize the abuse and how the leading lady's reactions are fawning to protect herself-- not a romance (jfc...)-- and the story being too stuck to him would exasperate such things. But cutting his thoughts out entirely would swash a lot of the horror.

My other novel, The Temptations of the Sea and its Monsters, is a swashbuckler were, yes, we mostly follow the captain and her capture's merman, but theres a B and C plot going on as well, chaining the POV to one or two characters would not work, and trying to write it from 8 different character perspectives would muddle things up so much. Not to mention they're almost all uneducated pirates and I am not willing to dumb down my writing style to suit that. And, unlike the horror story, I stay entirely out of character's heads so a lot of the mysteries and secrets the characters hold would be spoiled way too soon from their POVs.

Ordinaryaverageguy 2025-04-22 00:57:07 UTC #34

I just thought about how this thread applies to a story I'm writing (actually a story that's kicking my butt, but I digress). It's a 3rd person omniscient but I'm playing with exposing some of the characters' inner thoughts or dialogs using (for now) italicized text (may have to change the format later). I wonder if y'all think that's just insane to try, will be annoying, lead to readers questioning why it's not multiple first person all along, etc.??

Algae 2025-05-10 09:31:34 UTC #35

Ahahaha yeah I know what you're talking about, its kicking my butt as well, I'm adapting a roleplay into a novel, and trying to fit in character thoughts, but when I have so many characters in one scene, it gets tough, I eventually have to cut out a few thoughts/reaftions and keep those that matter most. I'm also using italicised text for thoughts and it works great, but what also helps is having a narrator that speaks in harmony with the current character on which the spotlight is on at the moment, I'm not sure how to explain it, but its fun. The story will soon cut me some slack as the group will get separated, dealing with two characters is better than five. I'm writing in thirs person as well btw. Personally I don't like first person that much, I read stories with third person (not omnicient) that focused on the pov of a single character, but changed characters every chapter, and it was really interesting and fun to see how each of them perceived each other and the events. Feel free to give our novel a read and see how did that (some feedback would be lovely) I'd also like to see how you went about it if you have it posted anywhere

● https://tapas.io/series/Shortcut-Through-Enthralla

Ordinaryaverageguy 2025-05-13 04:11:41 UTC #36

That's wild, because I'm also trying to build a story by starting with roleplay scripts I wrote. I think I've learned that path is harder than writing from a blank page. At least for me.

Firstly, a roleplay is just dialog/monolog so no descriptive text, backgrounds, exposition, yadda yadda. Secondly, because my roleplays (several of them) used the same characters but lax adherence to consistency. Thirdly, roleplay writing was to make listeners feel comfy &/or happy, but that doesn't necessarily add up to a good tale with crises, etc. (& I think can be overly sentimental).

Algae 2025-05-13 15:45:12 UTC #37

No way XD What a coincidence lol. I guess it is easier for me to adapt it since while role-playing we included description and narration, not just dialogue, so at times I come across a chapter that only needs minimal editing.

amantedetre 2025-05-16 12:24:24 UTC #38

which is better all depends on the type of story. slow reveal and suspense works well with first-person. while if the story has mulitple focus points beyond your main characters knowlege and reader should be aware of [world-build and cvhained events] The third-person works best. For me i love first person . being in the character's shoes and slow reveal is gold just love the flow.

doitlikeomar69 2025-08-31 18:50:25 UTC #39

Well honestly I'm more into drama and fantasy to try make despair into my characters to make side ones grow or main