Young Adult Book Reading Challenges discussion
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Which Point of View is Best
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This question is so easy for me - first person. Third person personas ruin the entire book for me because I generally can't get a feel for the characters.
For me POV doesn't really matter. All depends on the quality of writing. The 1st person POV is easier to screw up though IMO, some writers can make a character utterly unbearable making the entire story hard to enjoy.
Thanks Alyssa and Tatiana. It's great to read the differing opinions.
I think the writing makes a difference, but it has to be really good writing to make third person hook me. Then again, I have read some pretty crummy first person books.... IDK. Maybe it does depend on the writing quality.
Now this is really interesting. Thanks for asking the question Diana, and for answering Alyssa and Tatiana and Cortney.I write in 3rd person because when I read 1st person it feels very overpowering. I try to use dialogue to let the reader into the mind of the character, but will sneak thoughts in as well, when I don't want the other characters to know what is going on in the head of the character speaking (erm...hope that makes sense).
What I'm reading here is that 3rd person is more likely to put off readers, but 1st person is easier to mess up.
I hope a few more people comment, I'm keen to see what others also think.
I agree that first person brings out more intense emotions in the writing and it allows the reader to not only be in their head, but also their body and soul, making it overpowering sometimes. It probably depends on the type of story as well. As in YA novels, there are a lot of emotions going on at that age. That may be the reason for the popularity of first person. As for messing up the first person, that is easily accomplished with any POV, I guess.
Readers are more discriminating these days and unless a story makes them "feel" something, it is just words on a page.
I'd love to hear more comments as well.
Tatiana wrote: "For me POV doesn't really matter. All depends on the quality of writing."Ditto. You can get well inside a character's head in 3rd person and learn nothing about a character in 1st person if the author doesn't put you there. Generally, I'd say that 1st person works best for stories that rely on character development and 3rd on stories that rely on plot, but that isn't always the case, nor is any story fully one or the other. An author can do character development in 3rd and fast-moving plot in 1st to the same effect if they use the POV to their advantage. It all depends on the writing.
We could have this same conversation about tense. People say present tense is overdone and some won't even read a book in present tense because it's hard to do well. When you are living the story with the character it can slow down the action to a stand still (and there's often tense mistakes), but if it's done right it can make a story more intense. I don't judge a book by tense or POV, but I am aware of how authors use them to tell their story. They can all be done well.
I will add ditto as well to how the POV doesn't really matter. All depends on the quality of writing and which POV the story "calls for." There are some stories that I feel if the author didn't use first-person, the story would not have the "umph" it did....same with third-person.
And then to throw in a monkey wrench....there are those few that use both alternately by having a "story within a story."
And then to throw in a monkey wrench....there are those few that use both alternately by having a "story within a story."
Didn't think about the tense aspect. I just realized last night (don't know why I didn't notice it before I read 2/3 of the way into it) the book I am reading is present tense. It's pretty smooth. Hummmmm. Monkey wrenches all the way around.
I don't tend to mind, unless its something really strange. For example The Morganville vampire books (Glass Houses) have a really strange pov/tense which throws me every now and again when something suddenly comes up and i realise its not actually first person. It makes the writing feel uneven and distracts from the story.I actually enjoyed Eternal more because of its strange pov's/tense
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I connect best with books written in first person. Alternating POVs is pretty good too.
Angie wrote: "Personally.... I love to read in first person! I don't know why... it is also the way I dream. And my favorite way to play video games. I just love first person!"Same Here! For whatever reason- i'm not much of an analyzer- I love first person, and a female main! Can't help it.
Another Ditto: No specific preference, a skillful writer can make you feel the character(s) despite POV and also what Annalisa said ;o] Well-stated!
Of course the POV should fit the material, but generally speaking I dislike First Person as so many authors don't seem to do it well. Their characters come off sounding babyish and whiny.
1st person is my favorite. It's more personal to me and it's easier to put myself in the book that way and it's more suspenseful because you don't know what's going to happen. I wouldn't say that the fact that the characters sound whinny is because of bad 1st person writing. If that's the charcter's personality then it fits perfectly.
I don't have a preference. In fact, I believe that certain POVs seem more apt to particular novels. Admittedly, however, most of the books that I have enjoyed were written from the 3rd person omniscient POV.
My son suggested that with protagonist being the narrator, it let him know that he/she never perished at the end so it diminished the suspense a bit, but he still preferred it that way. Thank you everyone for giving your opinion!
Young Adult Book Reading Challenges
Books mentioned in this topic
Eternal (other topics)Glass Houses (other topics)
I have a general question that has been begging to be asked as I read this book. Do you like reading novels in the first person or third person? Sometimes I think the first person is a bit overused, but I like getting into the corners of the character's mind, almost like real time...
What do you all think?