The Battle of Point of View: First Person vs.Third Person
So as an author I have the choice of what point of view/voice I want my book/characters to have.
First Person: The book from the point of view/voice of the main character (i.e. I, Me, We, etc).
Second Person: The book is talking to you (best for self-help books not fiction...that would be weird)(i.e. You).
Third Person: The book through a narrator's voice (i.e. She, He, They, etc).
When I sat down to write my first novel Star-Struck, I initially started in first person. And I've heard somewhere that many first time writers might want to use first person, because it's easier to write. But for some reason first person just felt too personal for me, I wanted a challenge and I didn't want to get too comfortable writing that way.
Nearly every single novel I read growing up were in third person. It wasn't until recently with many chick lit novels and erotic novels that I started seeing first person. At first it was jarring reading in first person, since it almost feels like you, the reader, are telling the story. But once I got into those novels, I did find that I kinda liked it.
Though really thinking about it for myself when writing, I thought that first person seemed self-absorbed. You know; I, I, I and Me, Me, Me, so on and so forth. Also, I felt that no one truly wants to be inside the head of anyone. To know someone's every thought, especially someone that over analyzes everything (myself). But in third person, someone else is telling the story, an outsider.
As well, when reading romances, I like to know what the male character is thinking too. I like to know how he feels about the heroine. In first person, you have to go off of the clues that he gives to the main character and you never really know for sure how he feels. And I think that is why so many authors who write in first person decided to either have a chapter at the end of the book, going back to the beginning of the relationship and showing the guy's perspective. Or they write a whole separate novel, of the exact same story but in the guy's voice. Or I've even seen where the author goes back and forth with each chapter, alternating from the woman's voice to the man's (which is sometimes hard to follow and a bit jarring, because just when you're getting into a rhythm in one character's voice, it then switches to the other).
But in third person, the narrator can follow whoever I want them to. The heroine or the hero. The reader can understand what they're both thinking and why they do what they do. I can even jump to other characters in the story, if they're significant. And if I want the reader to know exactly what's going on in the head of the characters, I just use italics for inner thoughts.
So anywho, that's just my thoughts on Point of View and Voice, especially for romance. Other genres could be different. Just my two cents. For any authors reading this...what's your take on it? What do you prefer?
