can’t decide between first person or third, any tips to help? I usually write in third for fanfics but I’m now writing my own story and am so torn
First Person vs. Third Person POV
Both point of views have different abilities to narrate a story. I'm not going to use pros and cons for this, because I believe that it depends on the way you want to tell a story, if these aspects are helpful for you or not.
The narrator is a direct part of the story and narrates what they see and feel with using "I" (or "we").
Features of first-person pov:
it offers a direct link to the story
the story can feel more real and believable
the narrator is part of the situation, but you as the author can still decide if they are an active participant or if they are watching from the sidelines
the whole story is them talking about their experiences
therefore, the story is always subjective and full of what the narrator thinks, feels and believes to be true
if they are also not telling the story in the moment, but rather recounting it, they can also recount some things differently than how they actually happened
a first person pov is the easiest way to create an unreliable narrator
The narrator is the author, who is detached from the story and narrates the lives of characters without being one of them. The narrator calls the characters by their name or their pronouns.
You have three different options:
This narrator is all-knowing and can tell the whole story as it is, from every perspective, but not limited to a single character. They know what every character is thinking and feeling and what their motivations are.
This narrator is limited to the inner feelings of a limited amount of characters, often just the protagonist.
This narrator tells the story completely objective, just telling what can be seen without commenting on it and not going into the thoughts and motivations of specific characters.
Features of third-person pov:
it allows the reader to emerge themselves into the thoughts and motivations of one or more characters, therefore making it almost feel like first-person pov
it can also be objective, with just the characters' dialogues and actions telling the reader about them
it allows the author to jump between scenes and times more easily
the author can tell multiple storylines at the same time (also possible with multiple first-person povs, but the jump between different times is easier for the reader in third-person)
by using third-person pov the author can decide completely on how much they want to tell the reader at any given point
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