First Person Or Third Person?

Do I write in first person or third person? This is a question that many authors often ask themselves, and unfortunately there’s no clear answer as it all depends on the author, their individual style and the story they want to tell.

Some authors find that they can write in one ‘person’ a lot better than another, and so they stick to that one person throughout most if their writing. For example many readers believe that fantasy author, Richelle Mead, writes a lot better in first person, and again most of her books and stories are written from that perspective.

Both the first person and the third person have their advantages and disadvantages that authors should consider.

First person:
• Good for creating an intimate, personal tone.
• Can make the reader feel more involved and a part of the story as they know a character’s thoughts.
• But the reader will only know as much as the character from who’s point of view the story is told from does. So they won’t know what other characters are planning unless they tell them, they find out by accident or they overhear them talking.

Third Person:
• The author’s able to get more than one point of view across by character swapping. This is good for building up suspense.
• Readers are able to know key stuff that other characters don’t know; this often heightens the tension as the reader may be screaming at a character “No don’t do that! It’s a trap!” – this can make the reader feel more involved.
• But it is harder, although not impossible, to create a more personal tone and to make the reader feel like they are there in the story.

Of course many authors do swap between the two persons, an example being in the ‘House Of Night’ series by
Mother and daughter P.C and Kristin Cast. The first books in this series were told in first person by main character Zoey. Yet about halfway through the series the books adopt a third person narrative by different main characters as well as keeping chapters and sections in the first person of Zoey. To get round any confusion with which character is telling the story at the start of each chapter or section it had the name of the character who was telling that particular part.

A lot of books are from multi-character point of views all told in first person by each character. Usually each character has their name at the top if the chapter or section to tell the reader that they are now in another person’s mind. This can be very effective.

When authors want to create a lot of mystery, suspense and tension, they’ll often use the third person, but from andew different character’s point of view.

It is best to limit the amount of ‘narrative character’s to just a handful at the most, this avoids too much confusement, too many sub-stories and an overcomplicated plot (Although if written well it can be very effective, but i believe it is hard to do).

I tend to dabble between third and first person with my writing, although not in the same story! Most of my work, I plan in third but end up writing it in first, yet for some where I need the readers to know extra information I stick to third. The first short story that I had published ‘The Silent Siren’, I wrote in third yet it could have been written in first with no problem. At the moment I’ve just finished two short stories that have both been written in first person to create a personal tone. Currently in planning two different series, one in third and one in first – some stories just scream at me to write them in first from a certain character’s perspective and others, well, don’t.

Don’t forget to vote in our poll: Do you prefer to read fiction written in first or third person?