Newbie here, so please forgive me if this topic has been addressed in another post, but I'm wondering what y'all think about POV? It seems to me that the a lot of stories I've read here are in the first person, and I've written my share of those, too. But as a writer, I find the third person POV more fun to write, and my readers - all four of 'em - seem to like it better, too, if the number of reads each story receives means anything. So, when you sit diwn to write, do you make a conscious decision about POV, or does the story just sorta flow and come out however it comes out?
I'm almost exclusively first person past tense. Although I am writing a first person story at the moment with a series of third person inserts to get at what my protagonist doesn't know, but the reader needs to.
I find first person much easier to write, essentially because it's my experience, or a version of it. I don't have to keep track of anything else or what anyone else is thinking or feeling. It's just a matter of observing their behaviour. I also find that first person puts me, as a reader, more in the story, rather than watching it from afar.
I should, and probably will branch out one day. But in the meantime, I want to get it nailed before I move on.
My latest story is a racy little piece about what happens when someone cute from work invites you over to watch Netflix and Chill. I find first person comes easier to me but that being said I plan on trying out 3rd person with a few of my stories.
I like challenging myself.
I've always preferred first person for a couple reasons.
1) It allows the reader to be inside the head of a narrator who is inside the story (as opposed to only hearing a narrator who is outside the story). To me that makes the perspective more immediate and better draws the reader in.
2) It allows you as a writer to keep things hidden naturally and to deflect and misdirect. An omniscient narrator outside the story knows everything and should reveal everything (In fact, as a reader I actually feel a bit cheated when I read a third person story and there is some reveal near the end because I think 'Well, you're the third person omniscient narrator so you knew this all along. Why didn't you tell me before?' It makes me feel manipulated). But a first person narrator in the story is not that way. Maybe that character doesn't have information, or they have information that they don't understand, or they have information they have misinterpreted, or they have incomplete information, or their understanding of information is colored by some emotional or relationship issue. You see, there are many reasons why a full understanding may be delayed.
It's one thing when you read: "He suddenly realized.....(something that the narrator obviously had to know all along)
It's another thing entirely when in the natural course of the story you read: "The truth became clear to me. All these years I'd thought he.....
For short stories, I've always used 1st person.
Longer form, 3rd person limited.
However, the current story I'm working on, I'm splicing together both 1st and 3rd for two different POVs for two different characters.
I've changed from first to third between drafts before. First is fine if the only head you need to be in is the one telling the story
Looking at my own work, gender appears to be the deciding factor. Where a female character is the focus of the story (Daguerreotype, Three bears, Brazilian Wanderer) the stories are told in 3rd person. Where a male is the focus (Student Body, Unreserved Seating, Totally Unacceptable, Scotch Bonnet) I use first person.
Luckily you have a gender-neutral name and av - this helps with first person as some readers are easily confused. For me, a female voice from a clearly male author (and vice versa) can impede the flow or lead to extra exposition in the opening. Yes, I know lots of people here manage it but I must be in the easily confused portion of the community.
There is a draft of Unreserved Seating where at the end it's revealed that the narrator is female but I dropped it before publishing. It can still be read with a male or female voice but I would think 99.99% of people read it as male.
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Why not read some stories instead
NEW! Want a quick read for your coffee break? Why not try this... Flash Erotica: Scrubber I like first for erotica, esp. for "stroke stories', because there's an immediacy to the sex and a chance to delve pretty deeply into the feelings if you wish. Third, on the other hand, works well if you're trying to see more of the big picture rather than focus on one person's experience. In the end, as others have said, the story will often dictate which is appropriate.
I believe 1st person flows better. However, I'm always trying to get something different, more original, a "twist in the narrator", if you please.
Sometimes I feel it is a great idea, sometimes - not that much. Having a third "person" narrate brings more opportunities of using both 1st person, third person, and jolts of humor, which otherwise wouldn't be obtainable. However, it also distracts from the story. I'm continuing this because I believe originality in a story is what sets it apart from others, and even if you couldn't get off, you'd certainly remember it.
Why this obsession with odd ordinal numbers? What's wrong with second and fourth? And will fractions and decimals ever get their say?
I think for erotic short stories, first person is generally more effective, more intimate and arousing, allows a more personal perspective on what is generally a very personal interaction and thus makes the whole more believable. I've written erotic stories in third person and have later changed them to first and found them more effective, but I suppose it depends what your aims are, what you are trying to say and why.
However, if you are simply choosing between 'I fucked him,' or 'she fucked him,' I can't imagine it will make much difference.
"If I sign off with pithy quotations, ignore all preceding opinion for I am undoubtedly a fool. And if, after our discourse, I abuse you by proffering my vulgar produce, cast me into the gutter."
I'm with naughty nurse - it depends on the story, though generally I write first person narratives - but i'm not always the same person!!
Further thought for Chanel - you can write a first person narrative involving me anytime. Love, Will xoxoxox
For me I like 1st and 3rd POV.
1st because it feels like I'm telling the reader the story as if I was sitting right in front of them.
3rd because I get to play God: make my own world on the pages and affect my characters within it.
write what feels right
