Writing 1st person POV

[birdsofshore]

I love to write in 1st person. I think I am a little bit hooked on it, tbh. I have been writing 1st person Draco for ages, but last year I wrote a lot of alternating 1st person, and really enjoyed that, too, and then this year I felt compelled to write 1st person Harry. With debatable results, BUT, I still very much enjoyed writing it, and wouldn't rule out doing it again.

My dracotops_harry fic was quite a long 1st person Draco POV, and I noticed a real trend in the comments to talk about the fact that people had liked it despite it being 1st person. This came up again and again, as if it was a complete rarity to enjoy a 1st person fic. Someone also left a bookmark which really made me laugh:

Usually first-persons are stinkers, but this wasn't.

WOW THANKS :D

Anyway, I mentioned to Mr Birds that apparently people felt mistrustful of 1st person, and he was surprised as well. We googled for a list of novels that were written in 1st person, and what do you know, a ton of my favourite books are 1st person. Catcher in the Rye, Jane Eyre, Lolita, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, To Kill a Mockingbird, Breakfast at Tiffany's, A Clockwork Orange, The Perks of Being a Wallflower are all 1st person narratives. As a reader I find it a stunningly immersive experience, and if the narrator is unreliable or twisted or damaged then I enjoy it even more.

As a fanfic writer, obviously I'm not aiming for anything approaching those novels, but I find writing 1st person an easy way to make a connection, first with the character I'm writing, and then with the reader. I find writing other POVs distances me and the reader from the story that I'm telling. Maybe it's become a lazy habit and I should attempt to get that immediacy by other means, using 3rd person? I don't know. But I feel conflicted - I want to go on writing 1st person whenever it seems appropriate, but readers are telling me that they actively avoid 1st person fics.

Do people mistrust / dislike 1st person in original fic, or just in fanfic? Do you agree that 1st person fics are usually "stinkers"? If so, why? Do you enjoy reading 1st person? In fic? In original novels? Do you write it? Do you avoid it? I have all of the questions and none of the answers!

Comments

[http://users.livejournal.com/_melodic_/]

For anything over 1k I always write in 3rd person and I wasn't sure why until I read all these comments. I guess 1st person can be scary and difficult to achieve properly (eep my noob writer self is showing) and perhaps that is why I haven't ventured into it. Personally, for reading purposes, I like both 1st and 3rd person, (2nd can be tricky, I've only ever written two drabbles in it but I did read an amazing and long 2nd person POV DTH that was so good) and it certainly does not deter me from reading a fiction. I do understand some people's comments about being attached to a certain character and having a preconceived idea of how that character acts/thinks but at the same time usually 3rd person is written from one characters POV and to a similar extent you are diving into their head space as well. To me, personally, you're either a great or decent author or you're writing might be lacking/need some work and whether the story is written in 1st, 2nd or 3rd doesn't really change that.

p.s. I *adore* your 1st person POV fics!

[birdsofshore]

I think shorter fics definitely suit 1st person better than longer ones. If I was writing a longer fic, it always used to be Harry POV, and 3rd person. If it was shorter, it might be Draco and 1st person. Very sensible choices. Then the 1st person started to leak everywhere. I wrote Harry 1st person. Then a LONG Draco 1st person. Where will it end!!!? ;)

I think the amazing 2nd person DTH was lq_traintracks'? That was seriously fabulous. Or was there another?

And thank you very much for your encouragement and appreciation <3