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| SFReader Forums > SFReader > Ask The Expert > 1st Person Present POV | Forum Quick Jump
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| I prefer to write using... | | 1st person present tense - 5.6% | | 1st person simple past - 16.7% | | 3rd person present - 11.1% | | 3rd person past - 61.1% | | a different POV altogether - 5.6% |
| | 35 posts in this thread.
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erazmus
Master
      
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4557
| Posted 1/25/2008 2:46 PM (GMT -5) |   | | | |
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erazmus
Master
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4557
| Posted 1/25/2008 7:21 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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Gustavo
Sage
Date Joined Aug 2007
Total Posts : 1399
| Posted 1/25/2008 7:35 PM (GMT -5) | | I've tried them all, and I tend to stick either to 1st person past or 3rd person past.
Present tense, though useful for some story types usually adds more difficulty to the writing than it brings benefits. If you can use it easily, then go ahead. I rarely bother with it unless I'm in on one of my litfic days, in which case I will consider it seriously.
What 1st person gives is an easy way to make the protagonists feelings evident. If you have a main character with a really strong voice, 1st person is a great way of showing it off.
Now, just for the heck of it, how about we put together an antho written entirely in 2nd person, plural, future tense. Criteria for inclusion is that the tense and person don't interfere with the story, and actually ADD something to it.
Visit my livejournal! http://bondo-ba.livejournal.com/
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erazmus
Master
Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4557
| Posted 1/25/2008 8:29 PM (GMT -5) | | | | |
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Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1785
| Posted 1/26/2008 7:16 PM (GMT -5) | | |
agregious language deleted . . .
A well-rounded artist should be able to slip from one to any other POV with subtle shift. This can be done within a work as well as between works. A work (not spec) in progress by the very talented and genius poet Daniel E. Blackston I've been advising on does just this with almost seamless efficacy.
RHFay said...I will say that it often works for my poetry, but I don't think I've really tried it with a story.
Overall, I would say that consistency is most important - but there are always factors that can override that. I like what i call "camera-eye" perspecive, which is a specialized 3rd-person demi-omniscient that rarely goes into the psychological internal aspects of narration except in terms of figurative photo-realism. If you've seen that wierd Jackman film with the Tree of Life thing, you know what I mean. (Can't believe I'm blanking on the name of that film . . .)
"Serpent and the Rainbow" used it to lesser effect.
I am enjoying the first-person of my current novel, but prefer the above-stated 'camera-eye' view. It actually comes from my penchant for photographic portraitism and my motion-picture imagination.
Read me soon in The Return of the Sword!
Blog: http://bitterhermit.wordpress.com
Poetry Blog: http://fringemonkey.wordpress.com | | Back to Top | | |
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tchernabyelo
Acolyte
Date Joined Oct 2006
Total Posts : 474
| Posted 1/28/2008 6:00 AM (GMT -5) | | I've written stuff on all of those and others (I've used future tense on occasion: I've never used true second-person POV, though). Predominantly, I write past tense. I choose presetn only rarely and generally for particular purposes. For instance, I've done some retellings of Norse myth and I deliberately do those in present to give an immediacy that counters the "oh I'm reading stories from a thousand years ago" preconception.
Brian Dolton
Yi Qin stories:
"The Box Of Beautiful Things" - IGMS#3
"The Man Who Was Never Afraid" - Abyss and Apex #20
"At Blue Crane Falls" - Abyss and Apex #25 "Where No Wind Blows" - Staffs & Starships #2 (forthcoming)
"What The Sea Refuses" - Black Gate (forthcoming)
"What The Heart Bears" - Black Gate (forthcoming)
Other Land Of Wind And Ghosts stories:
"The Dragon Path" - Fictitious Force (forthcoming)
"Three Out Of Four" - Sorcerous Signals Feb-Apr 08 (forthcoming)
Stories in other settings:
"The Unicorn Hunter" - OG's Speculative Fiction #8
"Call Centre" - Necrotic Tissue #1
"When Winter Came" - ASIM #32 (forthcoming)
"Cold Fire" - Flashing Swords #9 (forthcoming) | | Back to Top | | |
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Hermit
Diavhrati Luminary
Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 1785
| Posted 1/28/2008 2:48 PM (GMT -5) | | | If you ever want a really horrific example of second-person past, check out Stuart O'Nan's "Prayer for the Dying". It's historical fiction, takes place during a cholera or diptheria epidemic in Wisconsin or Minnesota I think. Chilling and really darned uncomfortable to read. Good story, though.
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Anthony G Williams
Greybeard
Date Joined Apr 2007
Total Posts : 430
| Posted 1/28/2008 10:01 PM (GMT -5) | | |
I agree with Gustavo: 1st or 3rd person past.>>
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I used 1st person in "Scales" because I wanted to emphasise the intensity of the experience of the main character. In "The Foresight War" I used the 3rd person because I needed the POV to keep switching from one character to another. It's horses for courses…>>
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One book I've read recently which plays around with POV is VanderMeer's Veniss Underground: 1st, 2nd and 3rd all in the same story. I posted a review on my blog. >>
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My least favourite to read is omniscient: I really hate it when the all-knowing narrator interposes comments like ""little did he know that this would prove a terrible mistake". I've stopped reading books at that point.>>
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Tony Williams
Scales (2007), The Foresight War (2004)
Homepage: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk
Blog: http://sciencefictionfantasy.blogspot.com/ >>
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Ana the Druidess
Stablehand
Date Joined Jan 2008
Total Posts : 7
| Posted 1/29/2008 6:51 AM (GMT -5) | | I have used both first and third pov in writing.
I really like third person (mixed) past pov for SF because then everything/one has a chance to explain their actions/ideas/thoughts etc which so adds to the full spectum of the project's time and place.
Having said that, for quirky crime and humour I really like first person past pov because you are right in there up close and personal. Somehow it doesn't work for me (being the operative word - me) so well in SF as it's more difficult to get the accurate "feel" of that one individual in that very specific time zone *absolutely* right.
But...whatever you're happiest in will work best for you. Good luck! | | Back to Top | | |
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