[Batty]

I'm very particular about perspective, when it comes to books.

I really, really don't like first person, I'd much rather read my books in third. But I've been adapting to reading first person, and putting myself in the main characters position, and then.. translating it, I guess into third.

Anywho! What is your perspective preference? First person? Third person? Or do you really just not care?

Discussssssssss! xD;

[Suzerain of Sheol]

First person needs to be very well done for me to enjoy it. And the narrator needs to be an interesting character, otherwise I'll get hopelessly bored. The only books in first person that I really liked were Glen Cook's Black Company books.

I tend to gravitate towards third person with multiple point-of-view characters. It's been a while since I read book that was third person with just one PoV character throughout. I can't even think of one off the top of my head.

On a similar note, unreliable narrators are awesome, too. Damnably hard to write, but awesome, nonetheless.

Good idea for a topic, by the way. :)

[Batty]

Why, thank you very much! I'm insanely drawn to third person view, when it comes to reading AND RPing. Even though its coming from me, I still can't do it. Anywho, I thought it would be interesting to see peoples preferences, when it comes to PoV. I know some people who swear up and down on first person written books, others who abhor the thought, etc etc.

Luckily for me, I've found some pretty good authors who write in first. It seems like my favorite genre has some pretty darn good authors, who write that way. But as I said, I gravitate FAR more towards third person. Its more comfortable for me.

[Lunaryon]

As I writer, I seriously love writing in first person, but... I'm not as good at it as I would like to be. I'm going to have to clean up my work.
As a reader, I kind of like third person, but the reason I like writing first person is because I like reading it too.

[Batty]

When reading first person, I have a horrible habit of putting myself in the position of the main protagonist/character. Doesn't matter how they're described in the book, I just see me. xDD;

As with third person, I imagine the character as what he/she is SUPPOSED to look like. Unless I come up with a better visual myself. I'll make a character look how I want them to look, depending on their personality.

<.<; I'm such an odd cookie.

[Serra Britt]

That's a tough question, I kind of like both :P When I used to write I would write third person when the character was "outside" of me, and first person when the character was "in" me. As for reading, I find it easier to picture the world when I read in first person and easier to picture the people when it's third.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

That's what struck me about the The Black Company series I mentioned above. The narrator is so unique that his voice and his character come through vividly in the first-person narrative.

On that note, I'd say that 1st person can only work when the actual writing style tells you something about the character. That's... a very difficult thing to write, or at least to write consistently.

[Quiet Man Cometh]

I prefer first person perspective most of the time but it sours really fast when it's not done well. The favourites of my own writing are those I chose to write in first person.

The difficult thing about it I think, is to keep the narrative natural. Few people are going to introduce themself and then describe themselves in detail. It makes it trickier to get descriptions across sometimes and involves a lot of sidestepping things that might otherwise be straightforward in third person. My favourite first person books, which are also some of my favourite books: are Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus; All Quiet on the Western Front; Doctor Glas (which also has an unreliable narrator); and Oryx and Crake, for something written after World War II (much of my perferred books were written pre-1950. Might explain why I seem to have some out-dated writing habits at times).

I like third person too, but most especially when the narrator sounds like a character themself. War and Peace for instance, in which the narrator speaks of the things that occurr among the characters and what's happening in their perspectives, as well as musing on larger, historical events pertinent to those events, interspersed with philosophical musings on the nature of history, war, and life in general.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

One of the more interesting experiments in perspective I've read is in the eighth Malazan Book of the Fallen, Toll the Hounds, in which Erikson has a character from the previous books (who has a very distinctive way of speaking) narrate the entire book in third person, making for a narrative that sounds *very* different than the seven books that came before.

It's split the fan-base in two, but I rather like the effect, personally.

[Fey]

I don't know if I can recall reading anything in first person.... but I tend to not really care as long as the book is written well. What does drive me mad is when writers suddenly got into third person omniscient when the start of the book was third person limited >.< I've got two or so books that do that and I just wonder where the editor was, or if they just read the first half the book.

[AceValkyrie]

To me, it really doesn't matter which perspective the story is being told as long as it works. If the story line fits the perspective, then I am fine with it. I, myself, am a first person writer, and sometimes I find it doesn't really work for my stories, just like it doesn't work for some novels/stories out there. And the same goes to 3rd person perspective.

[Taki]

I prefer writing and reading in third person, but sometimes I don't mind if an author writes a book in first person, as long as it's done really well. It makes me feel more connected to the character that way, as well, instead of observing them from the outside like reading a book in third person. xD

[Ashley]

I like reading and writing in third person. First person only works well in some cases. Like if the book is written as if it was made up of journal entries or such then it would probably be first person. I can't write in first person at all.

[Ginger]

I prefer reading in third person. I like to know what's going on inside of the main character's head. I also understand more about what's going on in the story.

[Suzerain of Sheol]

For the most part, 1st-person will only work if the story follows one character from beginning to end and never branches away. This obviously limits the scope of the tale to whatever the narrator directly experiences. It also forces the narrator's bias onto how the reader sees the other characters.

In contrast, 3rd-person can follow multiple points of view and tell more elaborate, intricate stories that show different facets of the characters' personalities.

They both have their advantages, but I think 3rd-person is more widely applicable. You have to want to tell a very specific kind of story for 1st-person to work.

I have seen book that have multiple 1st-person points of view, but those tend to be rarer and I don't have enough experience with them to decide if they work as well as 3rd-person for layering the story.

[Duchess]

3rd person now that I think about it.... a lot of times, 1st person feels awkward to me.

But for funsiez.. I LOVE 2nd person. XDD Idk why, those choose your own adventure books where they always say "You find a knife" and stuff like that... I love it x3