The Difference between First Person Narrative and Third Person Narrative

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Many people become confused when trying to decide whether they should write in First Person or Third Person, let alone know what the difference is. To explain, the first or third person narrative denotes from whose view or perspective the writing is being told.


When you write in the first person, you use personal pronouns such as we, I, me, and us, as well as the possessive pronouns mine, my, our, and ours. On the other hand, if the story is narrated using the third person format, the pronouns used are she, he, it, they, and them, together with the possessive pronouns hers, his, its, their, and theirs.

A good way to remember this is to picture the scene with a television camera in the room. In First Person, the camera is on the ground floor shooting from the main character’s perspective. Everything that they see, the camera sees….and nothing more. With Third Person writing, the ‘camera’ is tracking from above, shooting from the side, and capturing angles from multiple characters as they act and interact.


Both types of writing have their pros and cons. That is the reason why you should choose the appropriate perspective for different types of writing genres.