First person or third person point of view? Which is better?

[casuallychilling]

Like the title says, which do you think is better to use in writing a novel?
I tried both and I can't say I figured out what's the advantages and disadvantages of each view.
What do you guys think?

 

[P00H]

First POV is great if you want to tell a very personal story. You can get into the mind of the character and tell his thought process and view everything through his or her prism of thought. You can keep things hidden very well, and use the "unreliable narrator" thing to create even more chaos, and more chaos = good.
Third POV is great for showing and not telling. You keep people's motives and thoughts hidden and only give the information that is necessary for the story. You can have more main characters than only one.
Both are good, but if you want to tell one story with one main character and that MC will be the deciding factor in most things, then use FPOV. If you have many characters your readers want to find out about, and you're perhaps not the best at describing a fictional person's thoughts end emotions, third POV is better. You can write what a character is doing and now how they think and the reader creates that themselves.

 

[LilRora]

To put it very simply, use 1st person POV if you want to focus on emotions, thoughts, and personal experiences, or use 3rd person POV if you want to focus more on what's seen on the outside, not necessarily in regards to the main character. Most plot-heavy novels will be in 3rd person.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Third person is great with Narrative based development, and First person is great with Character based development.

Use third person when you want to tell the reader how the character look with his appearance and acts and acts from outside view,

And use first person when you want the reader to see what inside the character mind and what he's thinking and how he's feeling.

Ofc these are very generalized advice that's not 100% true. But it's quite easy to follow to make decent works.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

Second

Amazon.com

 

[Premier]

I find Third-Person Limited is the best compromise. Nearly all the benefits of First-Person without the awkward challenge of being entirely stuck in their head.

People also don't get that First Person makes action scenes way more limited. You can't have the main character knocked out in a First Person scene (Because it basically ends it, or adds confusion to it when they wake up later), or put in any situation where they can't see what others are doing (Blinded, concealed, drowned, etc)

First-person works really well when limited information enhances the experience. Horror works great in the first person. Frankenstein is probably one of the most well-known books written in it. Romance and Mystery also often use it, because you don't want to give away all the twists and turns. First Person is also very popular for YA, which admittedly is this site's main thing, so maybe you should consider it.

I'd say use First Person if you have a really strong character voice. It can make the story feel like its someone telling it to you around a campfire, or half-drunk in a bar. Being able to bring their character out through the description is part of the fun as they relate things they're seeing to experiences they've had.

Use Third-Person Limited if you want to put your character's thoughts in, but don't want to write the entire story through how they see the world. Also use it if action scenes will be a constant thing, as action is just better to read in the Third-Person you miss way too much in First.

 

[Representing_Tromba]

I use 1st person when the MC is around so that the internal turmoils can be represented easily and then switch to 3rd person when the MC isn't around for something. This allows me to expand the story beyond just the MC's eyes and ears. Scenes, where the MC is making their own assumptions and choices based on the knowledge they know, can be contrasted with scenes that show another level of the emotional complexity of characters that are either friends or foes. Plus, it's easier to describe things when you're not constricted by the limited knowledge of your 1st person characters.

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

Give 4th person pov writing a try. Then you'll figure out never to use that in any narrative that isn't communist or hive mind.

 

[AliceShiki]

You can't have the main character knocked out in a First Person scene (Because it basically ends it, or adds confusion to it when they wake up later)

I mean, that's part of the fun of 1st person? If your character is knocked out, then they just need to figure out what happened and go from there once they wake up... Yeah, the scene ends when they are knocked out, but that's not really a problem~

or put in any situation where they can't see what others are doing (Blinded, concealed, drowned, etc)

I mean, it can be quite fun to describe a character when they can't see what is happening. Having to hear what others are doing and trying to figure out what is happening from there, or if they're hiding in a spot and waiting, you can describe their tension and their worries as they hope for someone to pass by and the like. Your reader doesn't need to know the information of what is happening outside the MC's PoV to stay hooked on a scene where the MC doesn't know what is happening either.

Basically... First person certainly has limitations, but those limitations aren't problems, they're just that... Limitations. Making use of those limitations can make your story very fun~

Of course, the same holds true for third person, or for third person limited or anything else you choose... Each choice has its pros and cons, and you should use whichever you prefer and fits your story better.

Fundamentally, what PoV you prefer has a lot more to do with what you prefer writing about and what you feel more comfortable writing, than about what happens in each specific scene.

 

[Frank-9976]

Give 4th person pov writing a try. Then you'll figure out never to use that in any narrative that isn't communist or hive mind.

https://kindlepreneur.com/fourth-person/ ?

 

[Prince_Azmiran_Myrian]

https://kindlepreneur.com/fourth-person/ ?

See what I mean?

 

[lambenttyto]

Like the title says, which do you think is better to use in writing a novel?
I tried both and I can't say I figured out what's the advantages and disadvantages of each view.
What do you guys think?

Well, third person allows me to have multiple viewpoints. Wakiagaru has eighteen viewpoint characters. In my story House of Gates I think I have twenty five or so. In Lady Commander, I plan on having even more. So if I want a lot of viewpoints, I know first person aint gonna cut it. But, speaking of Lady Commander, the main character's scenes are told in first person, lol.