Some people find first person point of view difficult to write. Others find it as comfortable as an old slipper. The same can be said for third person POV. Then are some, like myself, who can write both with equal amounts of comfort. It can be a blessing, and a curse.
There are pros and cons to each way of writing. First person immediately brings you into the character. You always know what the character is thinking and feeling. It has a sense of intimacy and/or urgency that is sometimes lacking in other formats. However, it limits the reader to learning what the character learns, as they learn it. Also, not everyone likes reading first person. In fact, some readers won’t even give it a chance. And lastly, the biggest con to first person is that when not done well, it can be very very bad.
With third person you can get into more than one characters head. You get to see more of what’s happening, and who is feeling what more easily. And you can sometimes let readers in on a secret before the main character learns it. But third person can sometimes dilute the readers experience if the author can’t/doesn’t get deep enough into the character. Head hopping is another landmine of third person. If there are too many characters, too many pov’s, then going from character to character can be frustrating at times. And lastly, when not done well, the characters can become clichéd cardboard puppets.
Now, those are some of the pros and cons as I see them. Opinions vary I’m sure, but hey, this is my post, so I’m going by my experience. The funny thing is, as many times as I’ve gone over the pro/con list of first versus third, I continue to write in both. One novel, My Prerogative, even has both POV’s within the novel.
Why did I do that? Because for me, which POV I use in what story all depends on what I want to accomplish. Of course I want to write a story with characters that readers will connect with, a story that will keep them engrossed and eagerly turning pages. One I hope that they will never forget. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about do I want to tell one characters story, or is there more to it than that?
This is a very simple way of looking at it, but I like to keep things simple so it works for me.
Bound was all about Katie, the heroine, so the whole novel is first person, in her POV. Trouble is a story about how two people deal with their own issues and find each other, so that book has both of their POV’s, in third person. Make sense?
For me if the story is mostly about one person’s journey, path, conflict or issues then the story belongs to that character. And if that characters voice is strong enough in my head, then it’s written strongly, in first person POV. When that happens it doesn’t matter to me if I hear readers say they hate first person, and won’t even look at a book written in it, let alone give it a chance, because to me, some stories, some characters, simply have to be that way.
Like everything else, there are always exceptions to the rules. Even rules we create for ourselves. For me, the exception was My Prerogative.
My Prerogative was clearly Kelsey’s story, from conception on. I wanted to write a story about a woman who everyone thought had it all – a job she loved, a home she loved, family and friends – but deep down she was missing something. A heroine who didn’t like that fact that she felt an emptiness inside simply because she hadn’t found the right man yet. The hero’s POV is in the story, in third person, because of the concept of the story. He’s an artist, he’s observant, and he ‘watches’ Kelsey. The things he learns and feels when he watches her are important to the story, so his POV was also a must. Sure it was a risk to put first and third person POV’s in a story, but it felt right. And it worked.
What am I getting at here? That writing a good story is more than words and rules, more than plotting and craft, it’s also art. And as artists, as storytellers, we need to always go with what feels right. We have to trust our instincts and take risks if we want to create something that will stand out.
