Writing Writing in first person vs. third person

tofu_moon

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Which is easier? I used to write in first person when I was younger since I thought that would be easier, but after working on 2 stories, one in third person and another in first person, I'm finding third person is better. With third person, at least for me, I can do a better job at world building, while in first person it's easy to forget including details that the main character won't know about, that I as the author, know.

Which one do you guys prefer more?
 

Lon3ly

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I used to write in first person but then I switched to 3rd person because I liked explaining a bit of the thought process behind my characters actions more and adding sub plots and deeper meaning is just easier in my opinion.
 

NotaNuffian

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Third, because ffs self insertions makes it a pain to explain the stuff around, unless you want to read about some unreliable narratives.

It is also easier to switch perspective as 3rd instead of 1st iirc for novices like myself.
 

NotYourTypicalMan

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3rd is easier,1st is a lot of harder.
But each of them has it own speciality and flavour.
3rd can be used to write generic novels.
But writing a psychological stories (ex:Joker) required you to write in 1st person.
 
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1st person here. Not because I prefer it, but it's the POV of my main novel. The limited POV also adds suspense to the story.
 
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i've tried to write some detective too...but it seems my brain too smol for it :3
its not too suited for web chapter after chapter format.. for me anyway. I write how it starts write how it ends. and then do the middle. and as I do that keep rewriting the start and end until it works.
 

Jemini

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I only write in the 1st person when my MC is a highly capable and compitent person. If it's someone who is not so skilled, I will use 3rd person because it's just a pain to use the POV of someone who lacks confidence or is constantly making social blunders.
 

Suzumiya

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Which is easier? I used to write in first person when I was younger since I thought that would be easier, but after working on 2 stories, one in third person and another in first person, I'm finding third person is better. With third person, at least for me, I can do a better job at world building, while in first person it's easy to forget including details that the main character won't know about, that I as the author, know.

Which one do you guys prefer more?
Third person writing is what is taught primarily in schools. It is also the format of academic writing for most subjects and in most instances. Therefore, third person writing styles tend to be more accessible for the public. However, just because they are accessible does not mean that they are more simple to write.

Consider the following: narrator, voice, grammar, speech.

With first person writing and first person literature, both the narrator and the voice of the author are decided. Preclusion of narrator and voice makes writing in the first person far more familiar when the author's first person is of similar voice to the author; this is why some webnovels and light novels have such an easy time of new content. Speech, being what it is, covers great lengths of narrative content or plot with incredible brevity, e.g. "What's up?" "Chillin'." Third person narrative, on the other hand, is more verbose with the tradeoff of being more versatile, e.g. a first person narrative must be extremely creative when expounding on minute details of a new world: most first person isekai novels avoid extensive worldbuilding in the first person by using classroom settings or suspending the first person narrative for an interlude.

With respect to grammar, first person tends to be more difficult because it necessitates both a concrete understanding of grammar, formatting, script communication or speaking skills, and is even enhanced by a great number of other bizarre things such as dialectic, slang, multilingualism, etcetera. Failure in the first person is also far more damning than failure in the third person, as the reader will not only disenjoy your literature but will also have no idea what it's about. First person writing also allows for greater creativity in formatting, as the entirety of its literature is subject to the linguistic whims of the first person. Even outside of speech bubbles, a first person narrative could read like "YOOOOOOO DAWG x1133333xD" if the author wanted it to, and it wouldn't necessarily break with the structure of the literature.

Speech, well, that's always difficult. Try to imagine a conversation with your best friend. Are you finished? Then call your best friend and do your best to stick to the script. Can't do it? Neither can I. :^)
 

Aachiin0914

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I used to write in first POV...

But writing first POV all throughout the novel seems kind of restricting...

Well, it just my opinion. First POV is writing one person's thoughts, perspective, and feelings. It all within this person's line of sight. What he sees is what you write, what he hear, touch or what he thinks. That's all you write in First POV.

It seems restricted cause all throughout the novel you have to follow this one person, except if your plan to change POV from another person.

And in third POV, you'll looking at things in birds eye view. It was more harder though. Cause you have to describe much more than just seeing in one pair of eyes. Cause third POV is seeing as though your an observer.

You have to get all necessary perspective, and it might get too chaotic if not done properly.

But we'll, it's depends too.
 

OvidLemma

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I write roughly half and half and usually do 3rd person by default, but switch to 1st if I think 1st person exposition will be more entertaining to the readers (usually for comedic effect). The real benefit to 3rd person is controlling exactly where the narrative lens is at all times, whereas 1st person is more fixed. However that fixed perspective tends to be more intimate and allows particularly quirky, amusing, or fucked up characters to vent, rant, or editorialize in a way that would come across as stilted or amateurish if done in 3rd person. At least that's what I've found.
 

bigbear51

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I find it's easier to put down a lot of words when I'm writing 1st because there's a lot in regards to the POV character's thoughts and opinions. But 3rd is a bit more solid in terms of spreading out the development of all the characters. Especially if there's a lot of them.
 

Saileri

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For non-omniscient narrator and a story that focuses on emotions, development, interactions, it's usually easier to capture in first person since you can have an easier time to write through the eyes of a character.

For omniscient (but non works too) and story which is more actiony and a lot of things happen with plenty of characters at the same time, it's usually easier in 3rd person.

Also, third person works slightly better with Past Tense Narration, while Present Tense feels better in 1st Person.

Those are just general points and it doesn't have to dictate anything. Every person has their own preferences and has to discover them with time. I started writing with 3PP Past for my first story, but got the idea for the one in my signature and decided on 1PP Present for it and I was really nervous since it seemed much harder due to a lot of constraints with verbs and such. But in the end, after like 10 chapters, I'm now pretty sure that I like it more than Past due to my style fitting descriptions from character's POV.

I'd say judge which perspective and time for your story based on what it's about and what you want to achieve in it.
 

ThrillingHuman

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The main limitation of 1st pov is that you have to show the main character's thoughts and plans about basically anything and everything going on in the narrative. It can be troublesome sometimes, especially when you want to try to leave a sense of suspense.
A good thing about it is that you can give your main character more depth, or at least characteristics, than otherwise. Like in Atelier Tanaka, where the mc often goes on a very perverted tangent. Trying to do so with 3rd pov wouldn't be as comfortable
 

DekuKurohi

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I’m fine with either but I’ll admit I tends to go for first-person, because MC’s perspective and thought are quite important since... they’re the MC, they’re important, and first-person give plenty of thoughts and reasons to the character. First person will give the readers more reasons to care for the character they have to share their perspective with. First-person also gives room for informal writing as well, since people don’t think in a formal manner most of the time they can be more flexible and unorthodox in narrating through the character if someone aren’t too comfortable writing everything super immaculately.
Still there’re advantages to both style and I don’t think anyone can deny that. I simply preferred one over the other. I‘d say Fpov is for more character driven story while Tpov is more... story driven... I guess, as in not solely focus on the character but the world as a whole.
 
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