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

[nia_kantorka]

I love to read 1st person pov and even more shunned 2nd person pov as well. Both suck you directly into a person's head and that's often a way better reading experience than more tame 3rd person pov. I really love it as well when the person who speaks in the story addresses the reader every once in a while. Such a great way to shake somebody up. ;p

I try to not dissect each story I read in its parts, but I always remember how much a sorry made me feel.
When I write myself I let the character decide. I've even changed a person's voice from 3rd to 1st person pov to make them more pitiable, and the other way round to make them seem more detached (they weren't, but that should lure the reader in a false feeling of safety). :)

Long story short. I love to read all the narrative styles because they can serve this or that purpose. And more often than not an author needs all the help they can get.

To answer your question: no stinkers at all. LOL

[torino10154]

I have no strong feelings about it, honestly, though I think I prefer 3rd person limited so it feels more like what we're used to in HP.

(Does anyone ever write omniscient? I can hardly think of one. It's always someone's POV, even when it switches POVs, isn't it?)

I have seen people say that with both 1st and 2nd person, sometimes they find it harder to relate because you're required to identify with the character more? IDK That may not make sense but when you say "I" or "you" it's more immediate, personal which can be a good thing but depending on what you're selling, perhaps not if the character is a harder to identify with one.

I actually think for the most part it's just not the "standard" preference and probably a lot of people who say they don't like it, hardly ever read it and really don't know. :D Well, either that or they did read a few stinkers and haven't given it a try since.

[sdkshelly.livejournal.com]

I'm totally one of those people who tends to avoid 1st person fic. But for me, it's just in fanfic. I have no particular preferences when it comes to orig fiction. And it's mostly just with characters that I'm close to--either ones that I write a lot or have strong feelings about, etc. And it isn't about 1st person per se--not particularly liking that style. It's more about voice-agreement. If the character is one I have strong preferences about (like Harry or Draco) and the author's 1st person's voice for that character doesn't agree with my own preferences, it's jarring for me. I'm not saying that my preferences are right or canon or whathaveyou and the author's are wrong--not by ANY means. It's just a quirk. It's just much easier to handwave things in 3rd person rather than 1st. I'm sure I miss out on some excellent fic because I'm weird.

Also, I'll add on, in smutty scenes, it's easier to get squicked in first person, for me. And squicked might be too strong a word, but there can be little things in sex scenes that I don't particularly enjoy -- nothing huge -- and usually I can just skim or handwave those little bits, but it's so much harder to do that in first person because there's less distance between the reader and the POV character.

I don't know if this is making sense! I hope so! But yeah, it's nothing to do with 1st person being generally horrible for me! LOL! It's more that I'm picky about things and it's a lot easier to ignore little things that I don't like in 3rd person rather than 1st. I guess that's the main thing. But as a writer, I have written in both 1st and 2nd POV because that's the way the story came out and wanted to be written. And I certainly wouldn't want people to stop writing how they want to write just because I'm so picky and weird!

[carpemermaid.livejournal.com]

Most of the original fiction I read is in first person, and I do really enjoy the immersiveness of it and I have read several amazing h/d first person POV or first person alternating POV stories that I've really really enjoyed!! I don't shy away from it but I don't actively seek it out in h/d either, which I think for me personally is because the books aren't in first person?? Maybe?

I find it a little easier to get into something written in third person, it takes me a bit to find my reading rhythm when I come across an h/d fic that's in first person, I have to like get myself in the right headspace for it in fic, I don't know. It definitely takes a strong writer like yourself to be able to pull it off well I think! :)

[kerrilee75.livejournal.com]

I will just say ditto to literally everything from sdkshelly because I couldn't have said it better. Now, agreement aside, I don't automatically skip first person POV stories, but I do find myself back-buttoning out of them sometimes if the voice is just too off for me.

[anemonen.livejournal.com]

I don't think I have any very strong preferences, but I sometimes take a bit longer to get into a 1st person PoV. Maybe because it's so intimate, so it takes me a bit longer to identify with the character? I don't know. But I do enjoy a well written 1pov when I get into it. And you do that PoV very well, so no reason to feel like you should stop imo :)

[firethesound]

I'm always a little baffled by the 1st person POV hate. I think that 3rd person POV is a lot more forgiving of mistakes and inexperience, and maybe that gives 1st (and 2nd!) POV a bad rap? I've read some 1st person POV stuff that's flat-out horrible. I've also read some 1st person POV stuff that's incredible and awesome and amazing. Seems a bit silly to me to miss out on the latter just because the former exists.

I don't know. I don't tend to write it myself, because I'm actually not great at maintaining that close a connection with the character over the course of a story, and I totally suck at writing action in 1st person POV. I like having a bit of distance between myself and what I'm writing, so I stick to 3rd person POV, though I might experiment with it someday. I did a 2nd person POV thing just on a lark, and had a lot of fun with it. I'm perfectly happy to read it, though, both in fic and original works. Also, your 1st person POV Draco is amazing and wonderful and you should keep writing that forever and ever. ::nodnod::

[tamlane.livejournal.com]

I like 1st person in original fiction. Noir and pulp and all those gritty detective tales from yesteryear that I love so much are usually in 1st person, and it makes me intimately connected with the narrator. Like they're letting me in on a secret.

I LOVE original erotica in 1st person POV. It feels more like... well, like a Letter to Hustlertrue confession. XD

But I usually don't like it in fanfic, maybe because I already have preconceived notions of what the characters' voices would sound like. The exception would be a rare or next gen character that we don't know very well from canon.

[oakstone730.livejournal.com]

I am a bit leery of books and fanfiction written in the first person. It does put me more *in the head* of the character, however if I don't like the character or how their personality is coming across. (visions of a mystery written by pretty popular male author where the female lead gazed in the mirror and admired her 36C breasts-but the POV was the least of that's book's problems). Bad ones aside, there are some especially hot *cough* Unguarded *cough* 1st pov because yes they suck you in and make you feel every stroke of the blade.

For the YA novel I'm writing I originally wrote it 3rd omniscient and then have gone back and re-written it in 1st because I realized it needed to be that intimate. Still not the POV I'm comfortable writing and I'm not convinced I've done a good job of it.

I've read some amazing stories in 1st pov, and equally back-buttoned any number of them.

[subtlefire.livejournal.com]

I couldn't give you examples, but I feel like this "First person SUX!!!" thing came out of nowhere? Maybe. Don't listen to me.

I hate second person POV, though. Like, really hate it. That's an actively avoided POV for me. Other than that, bring on all the people. I have zero problem with first person POV, please don't stop writing it just people other people are weird. ;)

[gracerene]

I basically am exactly in the same boat as SDK.

I'm really only picky about first person in fanfic, and I think it's mostly because it makes it harder to ignore things that don't gel with how I generally see/feel characters. First person means there is less distance, which sometimes means it's harder for me to get into a fic. I don't hate it by any means, but it's something that I am picky about, which means sometimes it's just easier to avoid.

On the other hand, I think that's why I don't have any issues with your first person POV fics. Not only because you're a good writer, but because we enjoy a lot of the same kinks and dynamics, so it doesn't feel foreign to be immersed in your characters' heads.

[alisanne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, not sure where the 1st and 2nd person hate came from. Prolly from badly written fic, I imagine, which you can get in any POV, LOL, so I don't usually consider the POV to be an exclusionary criteria when looking for fic to read.

Now, if it's someone who I know is accomplished, I'll plunge right into a 1st or 2nd POV fic with no qualms. lumosed_quill e.g. is SUPERB at 2nd person POV. If it's an unknown writer and they warn for it, well, I'll take it under advisement? *shrugs*

I have had people tell me they only read it in short fics or drabbles, so maybe a longer story in 1st or 2nd is an issue?

To be honest, I'm more worried about my other fic squicks to be concerned about the POV. Let's just say if I notice it and it throws me out of the fic then I backclick and it's no harm, no foul. :)

[chickenpumpkin.livejournal.com]

Oh, my god, this is gonna be such a rant, you don't even know ;D There's a tl:dr at the end if you wanna. (Also, you have excellent taste in 1st person literature, Birds, seriously.)

I loathe 1st person with the fire of a thousand suns--in general. More specifically...I'm incredibly picky and judgmental, and I can turn into a total jerkface about it. Again, there's seriously a tl;dr at the bottom. Feel free to make use of it.

In grad school, we devoted an entire semester to 1st person, which seemed excessive at first, although by the end I felt like it was warranted. The teacher was amazing, though, as when she said that technically speaking, ALL 1st person fics are unreliable narrator fics--or they should be, because we all view the world subjectively, with varying degrees of accuracy and honesty. Every single word is filtered through a character's internal bullshit, and since we're all colored by where we come from and how we got here, and most of us give our behavior about as much thought as we give a sitcom, we're all a skewed reality, or at least, we should be. (Which isn't as problematic in 3rd person--which we spent another entire semester on, ffs). It takes a lot of skill on the part of the writer to offer readers an objective look at an inherently subjective person.

Obviously, this broke my brain, and it made me aware of the flaws of a lot of 1st person narrators, which made me hate hate hate it, because all I did was think--is this the narrator I'm hearing or the author? In 3rd, we expect some authorial interpretation, but that shouldn't exist in 1st at all, and it's so terribly hard to weed it out. And then there's the fact that no one thinks as orderly as fiction must write--we're all a mass of intruding thoughts and emotions and it's rare to come across a book that captures the unwieldy nature of inner thought while also still being readable. Which is sort of the fourth wall of fiction, I suppose--in that we all know that's not really what thought is like, but we pretend we're all organized thinkers because no one really wants to read that stream of consciousness shit or else Ulysses would be more than an exercise in elitism for undergrad lit students. But it can feel disingenuous to me in 1st, whereas in 3rd, I'm just grateful to the author for putting shit in some semblance of order.

The exception to my jerkface, though, is books with a very distinctive narrative voice--including pretty much every book you listed, which is why they work for me. Lolita is one of the most brilliant fucking books ever--pun both intended and not, I suppose--because Humbert Humbert is basically the definition of 1st person done right. Every time I read it, I think "I will never write that well and I should give it up now to go do glassblowing or some such." I can read some Draco 1st person fics--in the hands of a good writer, the sneer, sarcasm, and vulnerability, all add up to a very distinctive personality. And everybody in this fandom knows Draco, uh, intimately, ahem--we know when someone gets Draco wrong, and we know when someone gets him right. This is why your 1st person fics are some of the very few I don't automatically back-button--you get Draco, so you do him right. And then you have Harry do him right. XP I can only think of a handful of 1st person fics with Harry as narrator that I've made it through, though. He tends to suffer from generic narrator syndrome, where the voice is so bland that we might as well let the wallpaper narrate the story.

Um, this is probably way more than you were looking for, wasn't it? Like way, way more. Why do you have to make me think so hard, Birds? WHY? (Actually that's a front-- I love stuff like this and you're awesome for having deep writerly thoughts and asking us to have deep writerly thoughts in return.).

tl;dr: First person is complete horseshit unless it's done really well, and that's really hard, so...yeah, usually horseshit. And Birds is cool. ;P

[nerakrose]

I'm generally more wary of 1st person POV than 3rd person (I see 2nd only very rarely), but I don't dislike it or hate it. I've read some really good fiction and fanfiction written in 1st person POV. I'm wary of it, though, because when the writing is mediocre or bad, it just reads like a never ending really dull and overly detailed blog post, and I just...can't be arsed with that. I just do not care about that sort of thing and never have. And sometimes it's really hard to see where the line between the author's lack of imagination and the intentional dullness of the character. Case in point: katniss' internal thought "the saltiness reminded me of my tears" about porridge she was eating. Author's lack of imagination or katniss' inherent dullness? who knows. Not me, but it doesn't matter as I'm not a fan either way. I don't read boring blog posts. <.<
so yeah, I'm wary. I'm reading the grisha trilogy atm and when I opened the first book and found out it was in 1st person, i had a "sigh, okay, let's see how this goes" moment because I really did not want to sit through a potentially very boring account of the plot. Sometimes, not always, I feel like if the POV switched from 1st to 3rd, the pitfalls of the 1st person POV choice that can make a book boring would be avoided. (I'm enjoying the trilogy btw, the writing isn't the most amazing I've ever seen, but the POV is fine and (so far) it's not boring.)

I prefer to write in 3rd person when I write, I think because I don't want to be in my characters' head. I want to see what they look like on the outside, and try to figure out who they are by observing them and what they do and say. If I'm in their head I feel claustrophobic and like I'm getting all the answers too fast, which then just ends up boring me. If I'm to write about confused characters or whatever, I really need to not be in their head.
(Side effect of being very introspective, perhaps. I know myself very well and am very attuned to my own feelings and inner workings at all times, and I find it hard to relate to/read about characters written in 1st person who don't, and even harder to write them. I get so frustrated! How do you not know how you're feeling??? I scream at characters who think "I didn't know how I felt when he touched me". Gah! Writing them is worse because I feel like I'm making them deliberately obtuse for no good reason at all. Meh.)

I know lots of people hate 1st person POV, but when I've talked to people about it they've all had different reasons that rarely boil down to the POV as the sole reason. 1st person POV doesn't deserve the bad rap it gets, because it can really be amazing when the writing is otherwise good, but the same thing can be said for 3rd person POV, really.

[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!

[groolover.livejournal.com]

I do actively avoid 1st person in everything I read, original or fanfic. I have read quite a few things that are in first person, but I've always felt a bit uncomfortable while doing so. There are a few things that I've enjoyed despite them being first person - in fact I'm often surprised to go back and re-read something I remember loving if I then remember it was first person.

I won't read a first-person story if I'm aware it's first-person (so it does irritate me a little when people don't warn for that... silly, I know, but it's one of the few things I care about when deciding whether or not to read!). (Second-person even more so... *shudder*.) If I start a story and it turns out to be first-person, I won't read on. The only circumstances in which I'll read them is if (a) the author is one I know and like; AND (b) there is some extra reason to make me really, really want to read that particular story - e.g. the plot sounds extra-intriguing, or (more likely) a friend who knows what I usually like pesters me to read it. Just having an author I like isn't enough on its own, sorry. (I do love your stuff, but haven't read the story in question because of all this, sorry!)

So, you will quite reasonably ask, WHY does it make me so uncomfortable? I've thought about this a lot over the years, and I've come to the conclusion that it's the hint of arrogance. It's really, really difficult to have a first-person narrative in which the POV character never comes across as arrogant (in their thoughts), and arrogance is not usually a likeable trait. An example that springs to mind is the Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher. I love that series, and will continue to read it, DESPITE the fact that Harry Dresden is the first-person POV character... but I do feel uncomfortable while doing so. I'd be really interested to see how a book in that series would come across in 3rd person.

Does any of that make any sense? I suppose it all boils down to: there are so many great things I'm yet to read, so why choose ones that I know will make me uncomfortable?

[minesomine.livejournal.com]

I like 1st person POV. It doesn't make me run away. Keep writing the way you feel works best for you.

[teddyradiator.livejournal.com]

With anything, I think it's the skill of the author as to how any POV works out. I'm a big believer in the story writing itself, and showing the author how it should be written. I remember writing a short story in first person and submitting it to a publisher, who said she would prefer it in third person. I rewrote it in third person, and it just didn't have any lift at all. It was functional, but it had lost its spark. I ended up not resubmitting it because it was not the story I had written.

[oceaxe.livejournal.com]

I adore 1st person because I love unreliable narrators. If it's done well, you have the fun of trying to figure out what's really going on vs what the character thinks is really going on. For instance, in Higher and Higher, we get to have the thrill of knowing (when Draco doesn't) that Harry is like WAY into him, which Draco won't let himself see. I find that very entertaining. It can open up vistas of tragedy, too - illuminating the divide between the character's desires and the likelihood of them being sated.

One of my favorite 1st person novels is The Black Prince by Iris Murdoch. More than half the enjoyment of reading the book is trying to determine exactly _how_ delusional the narrator is. You and I recently talked briefly about The Sea The Sea - the narrator of TBP is both more delusional and more likeable than that 1st person narrator. Knowing the the narrator is deluded/blinded feels very real and relatable to me, because I'm always wondering to what extent I'm blinded to the nature of what's "really happening."

[lijahlover.livejournal.com]

I personally like all pov's as long as it is well written I'm good. :)))))

[lauren3210.livejournal.com]

I have a friend, whom I am currently editing for in the hopes that she can get it published professionally. She's an astonishingly good writer, but at the moment we are struggling a bit, because her MS calls for multiple 1st person povs, and had hard as we try, they all keep sounding alike. The problem is that, like all good writers, she has a distinctive style, a certain way of writing that makes it special to her. The problem with 1st person, is that that distinctive style tends to carry over into that narrative, and becomes a quirk of that particular character by necessity. 1st person narration tend to be stinkers - when it comes to fanfic, anyway - because the writer either hasn't yet developed a style (leaving the narration bland and uninviting), or because the writer's already developed style is nothing like the characters we already know and love. It takes someone really special to be able to match their voice with that of an already established character, and as interpretation is subjective, there's always going to be some people who don't find it a good fit. It's different in original fic, because there the important issue becomes whether or not the writer's style matches with the character they have created, and whether or not that match is then strong enough to carry the weight of an entire novel. Some of the best novels out there are written in 1st person pov, and they're considered some of the best novels because the strength of the character and the author's style have meshed together so well that they become something transcendental and timeless.

(all just my opinion, of course, please feel free to ignore!)

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

Interesting question! It seems like the "1st person is horrible" thing that I heard about was when I joined fandom, so I thought too that maybe it was a fanfic thing. I tend to avoid writing 1st person POV myself maybe because of this, but when I do read other fiction it really depends on how it's done. I guess long story short is that any POV can be done in an amazingly wonderful way ("Call me Ishmael" comes to mind re: 1st person POV) but I have to be sold on it.

[enchanted-jae.livejournal.com]

I used to be skeptical of 1st person pov, but now most of the books I read are written in it, and it actually seems odd to read a book written in 3rd person pov.

:D

I haven't written it much (too cautious, maybe?), but I have a fic idea that I want to write in 1st person.

All of this is to say, I love it!

[khalulu]

Arg, comment got lost.

Write what the muse gives you, I say. (Write what you want to read, SU Pacat said.) People aren't complaining about you writing in 1st person, right? They're saying they didn't expect to like it but they did. So you're expanding their horizons. It's okay if a few people decide not to read it. If you follow what gives you pleasure and inspiration, you'll probably write more, and with more joy and verve. Which might mean more of your work gets read anyway.

I don't think about what person something is written in when I start to read it. I can like 1st person, 3rd person limited, 3rd person switching, 3rd person omniscient... (I have to check what 2nd person is - I get confused between a narration of what "you" are doing and an address to "you", if that makes sense). I can also like lots of adverbs and telling without always showing, for that matter, if I like the author's voice. Is it intelligent, funny, moving, insightful, lyrical, honest, charmingly goofy? Those things are more important to me and less easy to quantify.

pir8fancier has written some great fanfic in 1st person, and hers were some of my early favorites, so I never had an expectation of not liking 1st person in fanfic. And I've also read lots of original fiction I loved in 1st person.

Call me Ishmael Huckleberry Finn Plunk Smalley khalulu.

[reijamira]

Interesting question. I can't explain where the dislike for the 1st-person POV is coming from. Personally, I like both POV's, in fics and original novels. I'm a bit wary about 2nd-person POV, though, because it always feels more like poetry to me, and I can't imagine reading 10+k words in that narrative mode.

I also swim in the Gundam Wing fandom. A lot of fanfics there are written in 1st-person POV where the character addresses the reader as though he's directly talking to him. It's highly enjoyable when done right. You get a better feel of a character and his thoughts and it's much more vivid. And it feels more real because we see everything through the eyes of just one character like we do in real life. :D