Maybe I'm a first-person snob.

[thoth_moon]

As in, I don't typically write (fiction) in the first person, and most--most, though certainly not all--things that I read in the first person, doesn't really impress me.  Mind you, I've read some pieces that were treated in first person and they were excellent.  Walk Two Moons, The Vesuvius Club, and Mary Gentle's Ilario books are a few examples

Comments

[ruxi]

I'm kind of on the polar opposite stand: I think third-person yields the laziest writing, because it frequently allows writers the license to infuse the piece with their own voice, to remark on the things they would remark, rather than would their characters - and to more or less get away with it. (But there is a difference between a tight and a loose third person pov, I suppose

[thoth_moon]

Hm... you are a worthy adversary, my friend.

I think that monologue may be one of the reasons I find much first-person repellant, however, is because to me it does read like a monologue, and I begin to think, How boring, or, How pretentious--that last part, admittedly, coming from someone who likes, though not necessarily writes, third person omniscient epsecially *shurgs* As for tight and loose third person, I am not sure what those differentiations designate, so if you could explain I would be most appreciative.

I am intrigued, however, by your putting first-person as a "challenge" and a "bind," intrigued enough to I am restructuring a story idea in my head into first person rather than the third I was intending on writing it in, so I shall see how that goes.

[greynonentity]

I'm with you. I usually end up hating first person POV. I'm not entirely sure why sometimes, but there's a lot of terrible first person out there (just as there is third person). And although the person who commented before me mentioned that first person is more challenging and it's easier to be lazy with third person, I'd argue that it really doesn't matter. You get that with both of them.

I guess I just don't like most first person stories because they're harder to sell to me. I guess I hate first person because I hate being in the MC's head - the balance between inner-outer dialogue/expression and what actions the MC takes never fits due to pacing or some other storytelling tactic. I also just hate the way a lot of first person is told - the MC is speaking to me. I hate that.

I've got a lot of feelings about third person and I wonder a lot about why mostly first person stories tend to be best sellers.

-Kowareta

[thoth_moon]

I don't really follow what does and doesn't make best sellers. I was actually trying, while initially posting this, to think of some different first-person things I've read so that I could in turn think of some good first-person things to cite even while I made my complaint. It kept slipping my mind that the book I was reading up to earlier this week--long-ass, 900+-page book--is in fact written in first-person. Conversely, I sometimes have to remember that other things I have read, such as some of Faulkner's work, were written in the third-person, despite how very personal, very internal portions may get with specific characters. When things are done well, we sometimes forget how they have been delivered to us--so as you said, in the end it doesn't really matter