Just out of curiosity ...

[sholio]

Yeah, I'm using radio buttons so you have to pick one. *g* This doesn't mean that you'd never read something written in first, or rotating third -- just what you're most comfortable reading, or what might tip the balance if you had to choose between two very similar-looking books or stories. (I'm leaving off second entirely ...)

[Poll #1600796]

Feel free to elaborate on your answer in comments, if you like!

Comments

[trobadora]

Exception for the second question: First person if it's fic for a book written in first person and the POV is the same as in the book.

(The reason I dislike first person in fanfic is that, unlike with original characters, I already have my own ideas about how a person's inner thoughts work. And unless the author happens to agree with me completely ...)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this! You said it better. XD

[trobadora]

I think a lot of people feel that way, consciously or subconsciously - there's very often something that's just off about first person fic, and the "off" thing is that the reader actually thinks they know better than the author about how Character X thinks. *g*

[zillah975]

The reason I dislike first person in fanfic is that, unlike with original characters, I already have my own ideas about how a person's inner thoughts work. And unless the author happens to agree with me completely ...

*nodsnods* Initially I feel like I feel the same way, but then when I think about it, I have to wonder. When I'm reading a very tight 3rd-person POV, in which I'm effectively getting the character's inner thoughts and emotions just as much as if it were in 1st person, I'm no more bothered by them being different from my characterization than if the POV was a looser 3rd-person.

And yet there's something about reading 1st-person POV from the POV of a canon character that tends to just itch at me, and make it hard to want to read it. There's not that much substantive difference between, "When I opened my eyes at o'dark-thirty, the first thing I was aware of was that the dark shape at the foot of my bed was not the bathrobe I'd left there the night before. Without thinking, I reached for the pistol on the nightstand, and only came fully awake when my hand closed on the empty space where it used to be," and "When Roque opened his eyes at o'dark-thirty, the first thing he was aware of was that the dark shape at the foot of his bed was not the bathrobe he'd left there the night before. Without thinking, he reached for the pistol on the nightstand, and only came fully awake when his hand closed on the empty space where it used to be," and yet the first one is a lot more likely to make me back-button it out of there than the second one is.

[trobadora]

It's the same for me. But I think third person is still at one remove - it doesn't pretend to be the character themselves narrating the story; you're just following them along as things happen.

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

There's not that much substantive difference

No, but you can't tell the same story using the same words in first and third person POV. Using third person descriptions makes a first person narrator much harder to relate to, even if the reader is actively seeking out that POV, so writing it like in your example automatically doesn't work.

Er. If that makes any sense.

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

Heh, I have a couple of original projects that I've switched from first to third, or third to first, and it's really astonishing how much of it has to be rewritten -- the turns of phrase that work in 1st simply do not work in 3rd, and vice versa.

[lavvyan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's two completely different ways of storytelling. I find present and past tense to be similar, if more easily interchangeable.

Speaking of original projects, has it been ages since you posted anything or did I simply miss it?

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't posted anything. Mostly because I haven't *finished* anything. I'm going through a really weird sort of writer's block right now ... it's not exactly writer's block so much as a severe loss of confidence, I think. I just don't trust myself to see a project through to the end, so I keep starting things and not finishing them, and it keeps getting worse.

[xparrot.livejournal.com]

Yes, and there's also things you can do with one POV that you can't with the other - for instance, in a 1st person POV it's pretty easy to hide the gender of the narrator, while it's almost impossible with a 3rd person POV (at least in English; it's easy enough in Japanese...)

[friendshipper.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yes, I agree totally about 1st-person canons. Also, for that matter, 1st-person OCs, which zillah975 mentioned above. A couple of my favorite SGA fics are 1st-person OCs narrating an outside POV of the characters. But once you take it inside the characters' heads ... my brain has a lot of trouble coping with that.

I think another exception is letters and diaries, especially if they're interspersed with regular narration. I can think of fics that have used that to great effect (and I've written some myself). But just straight-up 1st-person narration ... I think it's incredibly hard to pull off for a TV canon.

[trobadora]

Yes, zillah975 definitely has a point with OCs. And it fits with my theory - we have no expectations about those OCs' thoughts that could be disappointed.

With letters and such, I think it works better because it's generally only small sections. For one, it's easier to maintain a distinctive voice. And in addition, you have a clear situation they're speaking from, instead of the nebulous narrative situation of many first person stories (where I generally have trouble imagining any situation in which that character might tell that story in such detail and with such honesty about their innermost thoughts and feelings, which doesn't help the suspension of disbelief.)