In which person do you prefer to read or write?

Quote by MadMartigan
All of them. At the same time. In the same story. With the same character.

Quote by Ensorceled
I used to be pretty much 3rd person only, and was even bizarrely snobbish about it being somehow better than 1st person. A friend suggested I try 1st person, thinking I needed less distance from the reader. It's been a revelation! My last several stories have been first person (including the one posted here) and it's made me a better writer.

I Write first person when I am describing what I have experienced, but when I write a fictional story I write in the third party. Oddly enough my made up stories rarely have an erotic thread, just the occasional tortured relationship which sex invariably screws up. Perhaps my under-mind is trying to tell me something!

As I'm unsure how to properly construct a story, I just imagine I'm in it and base the story around how I believe I would feel. It really is the only way I know how to write and it seems to work for me. 

 I agree with most authors here, I like reading first person.  As to writing, often the story - plot and characters - weave the tale incorporating both first and third person.  In reality, sex is absolutely first person. 

My Stories:

"Excuse Me, Mister" -bondage

"Pontiac Bonneville" - memories and Karma

Let's Give It to the Boy" - first time

Quote by JohnSwitch1959
Depends on the story. If it requires multiple viewpoints third person is best. If I'm describing something I have experienced myself then first person is best as I can better describe my internal monologue that way.

I have read a couple of vanilla novels written in the second person. Found them difficult going and the style didn't work for me. I certainly wouldn't attempt to write anything in second person.

I tend to write in 3rd person but tend to write it as if it was from the main character’s perspective. In the 6 chapters of Charlotte Sometimes, the reader never leaves Charlotte so we don’t know anything else going on in the world unless observed by or told to Charlotte. 

I prefer 3rd person as 1st person feels too intimate to me when writing, but maybe I’m just weird

I find second person to be very weird. Like, "who are you talking to?"

First person, particularly when it's someone completely different from me, represents somewhat of a challenge, which I like sometimes.

Third person is somewhat of a default.

I like third person. I feel it’s more cinematic.  

Quote by deviantsusie

I tend to write in 3rd person but tend to write it as if it was from the main character’s perspective. In the 6 chapters of Charlotte Sometimes, the reader never leaves Charlotte so we don’t know anything else going on in the world unless observed by or told to Charlotte. 

This is an excellent point. It's a modern technique. It is called the "unreliable narrator" and contrasts with the "omniscient narrator," which has been the norm for most of the history of creative writing. An unreliable narrator reports facts from the perspective of the protagonist. When he reports on the mindset of other characters, it is only his inference of what that mindset is, and it may be incorrect. An omniscient narrator is effectively the local God in the world of the story and always tells the truth (in the sense that he says what the author wants you to believe). He knows precisely the mindset of everyone in the story. You can tell a story with multiple unreliable narrators, in which case you wind up with something like Rashomon, where you can see the same events differently through different characters' eyes. Rashomon with an omniscient narrator would have been little different than an episode of Perry Mason.

I am trying to write a story in third person but I think I use my own voice too much so I am thinking about writing it in first person and then convert over to third. That way I can focus on the character's voice more. Does this seem reasonable or stupid? Has anyone tried this method?