SFReader Forums

SFReader.com : Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Book Reviews & more

SFWatcher.com : Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Movie Review

Project Wonderful - Your ad here, right now, for as low as $0.00

SFReader Forums > SFReader > Ask The Expert > 1st Person Present POV

Forum Quick Jump

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.
Viewing Page : 1 2

[ << Previous Thread | Next Thread >> | Show Oldest Post First ]

Jordan Lapp
Ebony & Ivory

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 2953

Posted 1/25/2008 8:46 PM (GMT -5)

Totally worked for Fighting Fantasy, because in that case it really WAS supposed to be you going through the adventures, and there was zero internalization.

Jordan Lapp

Managing Editor

Every Day Fiction

Lyn
Today's Word: Sub(sendmoney)liminal

Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1739

Posted 1/25/2008 8:39 PM (GMT -5)

2nd person is great for "Choose Your Own Ending" type of adventures though.
I've got one started at my secret test site - lgptesting.blogspot.com/

Anyone want to help me finish it? lol, just kidding. I'm actually turning it into a traditional, third person past fantasy novel. But the plot is now so much different than the "paths" I've created online. Still, would be interested in any feedback you might have. Thanks.

Lyn from ResAliens

Jordan Lapp
Ebony & Ivory

Date Joined Sep 2006
Total Posts : 2953

Posted 1/25/2008 8:34 PM (GMT -5)

I'm not sure people would buy it. 2nd person tense is notoriously hard to sell, mainly because people don't like to be told how to feel.

Jordan Lapp

Managing Editor

Every Day Fiction

erazmus
Master

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4557

Posted 1/25/2008 8:29 PM (GMT -5)

That could be done in a pamphlet, I think.
Mike

Michael D. Turner
"Psyched Up" in _Turn the other Chick_-ed. E. Friesner-Baen books
www.baen.com
"Dutchman Rescue"in Continuum SF #6
www.continuumsciencefiction.com/orders.htm

"An Incident at Black Tongue Tavern" in _Bash Down the Door and Slice Open the Badguy_ from Fantasist Enterprises:

www.fantasistent.com/books/anthologies/BASH.php
"Stains" in Tales of the Talisman 3-1 www.zianet.com/hadrosaur/index.html
"Morning Coffee" in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/morning-coffee-by-michael-d-turner/
"The Jewel Below" in Flashing Swords
flashingswords.sfreader.com/issues/issue8/vol2-iss8-05.htm
"Happy Landings" in Every Day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/happy-landings-by-michael-d-turner/
"Teller of Tales" in Every day Fiction
www.everydayfiction.com/teller-of-tales-by-michael-d-turner/

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/

erazmus
Master

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4557

Posted 1/25/2008 7:21 PM (GMT -5)

First person present is used in several old radio shows quite a bit, and very effectively in show like _Johnny Dollar_.
Mike

BarbT
Acolyte

Date Joined Feb 2005
Total Posts : 394

Posted 1/25/2008 4:55 PM (GMT -5)

I cast my vote for 3rd person, past tense, and it's what I use most. However, one of my favorite stories (in the late Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine) started with a brief 1st person, past tense introduction; them switched to 1st person present for the remainder of the story. For that story, it just felt right.

-Barb

Daniel Ausema
Acolyte

Date Joined May 2007
Total Posts : 302

Posted 1/25/2008 3:29 PM (GMT -5)

How about an option for all of the above? :-p I my own writing my most common is a deep 3rd, past, but I've used all of these, as well as 2nd person present and past and even a 1st person plural, past. Sort of. In reading what matters is what works. An ill-conceived 1st person is bad, but so is any other voice decision that doesn't pay off. I certainly don't ever decide whether or not to continue reading based on what voice and tense the writer used.

Twigs and Brambles (my writing blog)

erazmus
Master

Date Joined Jul 2005
Total Posts : 4557

Posted 1/25/2008 2:46 PM (GMT -5)

I think 1st person present is very hard to maintain. Whenever I try it I keep sliding through it, like it takes to long to describe things and I slide out the back of "present" and have to catch up.
Mike

Lyn
Today's Word: Sub(sendmoney)liminal

Date Joined Sep 2007
Total Posts : 1739

Posted 1/25/2008 2:26 PM (GMT -5)

I've noticed (with some help) that I seem to gravitate to writing in first person present tense. We may have covered this already in a different thread, but what is your opinion on this POV? Thanks. Oh, and I'm surveying your preferred writing perspective, too.

Lyn from ResAliens

35 posts in this thread.
Viewing Page : 1 2

Forum Information

Currently it is Thursday, January 08, 2009 9:36 PM (GMT -5)
There are a total of 85,856 posts in 7,125 threads.
In the last 3 days there were 15 new threads and 74 reply posts. View Active Threads