Her Little Pony · 7:12pm Mar 28th, 2015
art by d0ntst0pme
One of the most fundamental questions you have to decide when writing a story is whether to write from first person or third person perspective. Each has its merits. First person is inherently more intimate. Third person is more objective and gives the author greater freedom.
The following is from Nathan Bransford, author of How To Write a Novel:
The absolute most important thing to keep in mind as you're crafting a first person narrative is that everything that occurs has to be filtered through your narrator's perspective. Everything the reader sees is therefore infused with the narrator's personality and pathos. Things don't just happen in a first person narrative, they happen through the narrator's perspective.
The really compelling first person narrators are the ones where a unique character is giving you their take on something that is happening, and yet it's clear to the reader that it's not the whole story. You're getting a biased look at the world, which is central to the appeal of the first person narrative.
art by King-Koder
Personally, I feel that for a larger work, first person is considerably harder to write, and not only because it constrains the author to a single point of view, or because it requires filtering the story through the perception of the protagonist, but because it adds a layer of complexity. When writing using the third person perspective, you need to make the story and the protagonist's actions interesting. If you are going to ask your audience to spend considerable time inside the head of a character, you have to also make the inside of the protagonist's head interesting.
At the same time, I personally find it the most enjoyable to write. For me, writing in first person allows a deeper connection with the protagonist, both for my readers and for myself; and this, in turn, creates richer storytelling.
When writing Fallout: Equestria, I employed several tools to attempt to make Littlepip's head an interesting place to be. One of them was giving Littlepip an internal dialogue the consisted not merely of her stream of thoughts, but internal debates between opposing voices.
from the Ask Surprise tumblr
The core of the idea is a classic: this sort of internal debate has often been represented by the little angel and little devil sitting on the shoulders of a character, whispering their opposing advice into the character's ears (a convention dating as far back as the second-century story The Shepherd of Hermas).
However, I find that the idea of the good and evil voices feeding advice into the ear of the neutral self to be not only cliche but a bit disingenuous. Generally, speaking, we aren't neutral. When we mentally deliberate, we are already an advocate for a course of action, and the mental voice that we are debating with represents whatever is holding us back: our conscience, our fears, the voice that urges us to procrastinate, or even just our intellect playing devil's advocate. We aren't silently listening to an angel and a devil, we are arguing with a single other voice that is neither and both.
And from that idea came Littlepip's "little pony in my head". 
Now that I have shared with you a bit about one of my methods, and the thought behind it, I'd like to hear from you. What perspective do you prefer to write in, and why? If writing in first person perspective, what elements do you employ to craft in interesting protagonist's mind?
art by Billysan727
I prefer writing in third-person perspective, as it allows more freedom and I can focus on different characters if the protagonist is indisposed. I have attempted first-person in the past, and the part about filtering their perspective to be somewhat biased was never something I could properly pull off.
I usually write in third person, if only because I otherwise have difficulty explaining how a place looks very informally.
However, a personal project I have outside of all my other works is written in first person, and so far it's felt like the single most powerful and yet realistic thing I've done thus far simply because I can show the contrast between what's going on and what's in a character's head so much easier. So far, the method's been a journal, where the character stops and reflects upon events after the fact, noting thoughts that happened inside and coming up with revelations sometimes hours or even days after the fact.
Though I have one story written, I don't consider myself much of a writer, in time maybe, but I'm probably far behind people half my age. As for the story's itself, I went with the first pony perspective. The third person has it's merit, but it also makes it easy to hold the readers had at every moment. But with the F.P.P. you are not telling the reader that the pony is mad, they are mad, and they are thinking about the best way to kick some ass.
The other advantage is mystery, and miscommunication. For everything is seen through the main character, it's easier to have events happen, as the main character dose not see everything that happens, only what is in front of their eyes.
I've written both third person and first person... but, not too sure what to say about how I write them. Characters are like little virtual machines in my head, running separately from myself, and I just write down what they do, what they think, what they say, how they react to things.
There's no real 'method' in there; I just... let them be themselves, as they would act considering their background and experiences
What about a story where it stays in 1st person but changes to different viewpoints like "Memories" does?
I agree with you wholeheartedly upon the differences between first and third perspectives but I found myself always falling back to first person. I feel like its a trap and that there is a danger to it by which you explained you are limited to the biased perspective of the protagonist. What are the other tools you used when creating Littlepip besides the internal debate?
What about the second and third perspectives? I doubt the third perspecties is any easier despite its flexibility to be objective and with the second perspective being such a rare narrative tool, what's the rule thumb when using writing them?
I think it depends, really. I personally try to avoid the first-person narrative as much as possible. As you mentioned, it's constraining, and I feel limited rather than free. That's how I feel about it. If the narrative feels it needs to be told from their perspective I might attempt it.
The third-person limited (which is how George R. R. Martin writes some of his characters) is another interesting narrative motif that I like. Though of all the narrative roads to take, I love the third-person omniscient. There I can do anything, cover any characters story from any side.
The worlds can be described to its fullest detail without the biased of a character. However, I believe that was one of the strengths you had with your story. Though it was entirely told in the first-person you retained a remarkably high degree of detail that I don't often find in first-person stories.
Between first and third. First being Zero, the protagonist for Silence, and third person for everything else.
2918984 Well, in the case of Memories, it's like 99% Frosty's POV, with only the occasional short scene from another character's perspective whenever Frosty's not around to see an event. So, I'd call that specific POV style "cheating".
Anyway, looking it up, this is apparently called "Multi-Viewpoint First Person" (what a creative name). It's like the bastard child of First Person POV and Third Person Omniscient POV.
I like First Person the most out of all the different styles of storytelling the most. It adds something of an extra layer of immersion to a tale, as if it's not merely a story but the character themselves telling you what happened.
Especially some of the books in the Vlad Taltos series, where the reader is an actual character, whom the titular Vlad is telling the story to, sometimes with little glimpses into the actual meta-situation inbetween chapters.
By writing a First Person Narrative, you should give yourself challenges. Like making sidechapters, where you can see what would have happened if the Narrator would be obsessed with helping others, or non-lethally damaging or killing others. You should always try different characters, a hotheaded in that situation, a calm, a non-caring, a logical, a too-sane and others including combinations.
In the third-person-narrative, you should give bits of every's character to the readers, to let them get attached to each character, or atleast think the characters are no just things you throw in for a one-time-use.
I tend to shy away from 3rd in pretty much everything I write. Emotion is easier to show in first person for me, whether it's the main character's or others' that he/she is observing. I feel that other than grammar and spelling, emotion is the most important thing in a story.
hi hi
I don't know if I would go so far as to call it a preference, but I find writing in first-person to be far and away easier than writing in third-person. For me, it is simply the natural way one tells a story, the kinds of stories people are telling their whole lives. When you get back from a trip and people ask you how it was, you tell your story in first-person. When you had to make up an excuse for why your homework was late, it's in first-person. In that manner, everyone has experience with first-person stories. At least, that is my experience in general.
Part of what makes writing in the third-person harder for me, is because I don't have as much experience with it. It doesn't come naturally. (That is also why I am trying to write more stories in third-person, so that I can improve as a writer.) I find third-person difficult, clumsy, and sterile. Where a segment in first-person might roll off my fingertips, I end up going back over my third-person writing repeatedly, trying to make the characters not feel like emotionless robots, or lab rats in a carefully constructed observation cage. But that's just me. A lot of my favorite stories are in third-person, and I wish I could write like that.
I've found I prefer first-person, actually. It makes it a little easier to put myself into the character and see through their eyes and build their personality based on everything that's happening around them since it allows for a more gradual character building, in my eyes.
Plus, I'm not all that fond of writing entire paragraphs to describe a place and when you write from first-person, you can be as formal or informal as you like since everything that's happening is from the character. Another thing is, I'm not too good with shifting perspectives frequently, especially when something big is happening. It bores me. For instance, say you have a bar fight being written in third person, you've gotta write your protagonist
and even a little of everyone else. In first-person, you can write it whatever way suits you. You could describe everything, including the other bar's patrons, you could describe just the fight, you could have your character not give a damn about the fight and focus how everyone pays attention to something like that or you could just not give a damn. That's what I like about first-person.I tried making a first-person once, and while I believe it was a successful story and fun for me to write, the troubles in doing so were certainly felt. I prefer third person myself for one because my own style has a little dab of the subjectivity of first-person. First-person is biased to certain extents, and I found it easier for me and a little more fun to lay out all the details in loving adoration, but let the audience decide what is and is not important. Instead of providing a narrow view that may be a little biased at time, I provide them with a wide vie, with as many details as possible and let them choose what they do and do not appreciate. This has at times hidden what I guess could be considered the "truth" but... sometimes history is forgotten.
Well I don't really write so, can't pick. As to which I prefer to read?
Neither. One or the other really doesn't matter to me. Like you said, they both have their pros and cons. So it's all about how the story as a whole works out, and how well it uses that perspective that matters to me.
But yes, I LOVED the first person POV for FOE, it really did work and... I think it helped tremendously in making it so easy to connect to the story, the world, the characters. knowing how deeply Littlepip was hurting, her internal hardships and conflicts. Seeing that struggle so directly. It was just... so amazing. It's a great example of how to use First Person POV well. Making the most out of the Pros to it, while limiting the impact of the drawbacks.
How come to think of it.. maybe I DO prefer First person. Just realized, outside Pony, my favorite series is The Dresden Files, which is also First Person, and SO good at it as well. (After the first 2-3 books at least). But yeah when done well, it can make a story so much better, more engaging, just make it something extraordinary. But it is a lot harder to get right then third person.
I became enamored with first person narrative after I saw what could be done by combining that with a story told in a running journal. I have the fantasy series, "The Black Company" to thank for that. The fact that the narrator isn't aware of how the story will end, that they're still going through it as they're telling it (just with a tiny bit of hindsight)... it's such a fun medium to write in.
Sadly I don't wrote often, though I have been a fan of using a rotating first person perspective. This gives one a little more freedom then sticking to one character but is harder in that you have switch writing styles between chapters.
What I find appealing with this style is that each observer observes the event differently, this can help you better understand the villain by spending a chapter following them. Or could show our main heroes' from the point of view of a bystander.
First-person all the way!
Purely and simply to inject awful puns and dry humor into the narrative.
As for methods to create an interesting mindscape, I usually introduce ideas or perceptions upon a specific situation that are inherently wrong, and contradictory to reality. I find that my biggest issue with this sort of personality is that I often write very stupid characters, and I struggle to create more likable protagonists.
Just the nature of writing I suppose. Hopefully i'll work out a more practical way of creating characters through practice.
I prefer writing in the third person, although being that this is my first project I can't really compare the two techniques. I picked third person mostly because I felt a long, complex adventure would be too difficult for me to restrict to only one character's perspective. I know it worked out fantastic in Fo:E but I just don't have the skills for that, and there's too many times I want to show what other characters are doing simultaneously, and those characters aren't even with my protagonist. So like if she's in another room, another town, or unconscious or anything like that, the story goes on without her and we get to see events happen from someone else's perspective for a bit.
I think what might make third person harder is that it is too easy to get lazy with it. The freedom to change perspectives doesn't mean that this is always the right thing to do. For the most part, I have one character who gets perspective at least 80% of the time. Swapping perspectives rapidly can be jarring, but it can also serve the story well, especially in battle scenes where a lot is happening in just a few seconds. I definitely don't have the mastery necessary to depict that from just one perspective, and I was very impressed at how well it was pulled off in Fo:E.
Probably one of the things which I found the most effective was when Littlepip started to get gaps in her memory. Depicting that whole thing from strictly the first-person must have been crazy-difficult. I literally thought that I had somehow missed pages of the book, and stopped reading to check where I had lost continuity. What Littlepip was experiencing with her odd memory gaps is pretty much the exact thing I felt when I was reading it. And if that was the intention, then bravo!! It was really frustrating to actually read it, but in hindsight, it was very impressive. This was perhaps more impacting for me personally because I identify with Littlepip's personality and thought process at a near 100% level. So the entire story was like I was actually living it. And that in itself may not have happened if the story was told in the third person.
One downer from that was that I kept waiting for the time when Littlepip could experience those memory orbs so that she could have her "whole self" back again. That's my desire for wholeness that just left me pulling my hair out by the end of the story. But we can't all get what we want.
Also, I was just ripped to shreds inside at the ending with all the loss, and I was just useless for two whole days because of how it affected me. I pretty much had AnYPony's reaction. And I don't think any of this could have happened to that degree with a third-person story.
I tried experimenting between the two but stuck with third person for most of my works. It wasn't until I had real-life commitments that burdened me with procrastination to a point where I've become rusty and unable to really get back into the swing of things, lack of writing confidence, mostly just giving up on ever fixing comma splices, and yadda yadda yadda...
Thankfully I did some experiments in terms of first person and much as I find how refreshing and different it was in comparison to third person, I was incredibly interested in how a shift in perspective can either add or remove certain aspects of description and detail.
Much like how it can be simply changed like: "Oh this unicorn looks imposing and very hostile, I should be careful." compared to "The unicorn never knew how to tell his feelings to others and instead showed them. Rather aggressively."
I tried combining both perspectives one time. It... didn't really go as I planned it would.
Alright! So here's the Fridge Phases of Character Creation!
One: Confusion - How do I into character? What role in the story/RP needs filling? What is their past? What do I want to do with the character? What do I want to say with the character? Uh. Okay, okay, bootstrap time, what do I have already? WHAT DO YOU MEAN I ONLY PUT DOWN THREE WORDS?!
Two: Enthusiasm - Yeah, this is going great! I have this dude's story down packed, I think I got the tics and the quirks all handled, people are saying that my character's cool, yeah! This is turning out fantastic! Oooh, I think I'll add this and that to that tragic backstory to make him adverse to this and that! Oooh, dude, this dude has such chemistry with that other character! Man, I can't wait to keep going!
Three: Hatred - I hate this character. I hate them and I wish they were gone. Oh my god why was I so hamfisted with their character motivations before? Why did I involve them in this situation that clearly didn't have a place for them? Now I have to somehow write them out of this situation that I put them in and people are going to be all like "dude, what a cheap way to write this dude out of the story". UGH. Why did I think this dude's a good idea?
Four: Depression - I can't think of anything for them. Shit, this is a bad place to be. I think I wrote myself into a corner. Uh. Well, I guess they can just use that to solve the issue, although it just feels kinda cheap to have that be the solution to two problems. I'm such a hack. Why do people read these scribbles I put down on the internet? I'm just a parasite of creativity ripping off everyone else just so I can say that I have created something. What have I created, this dumb character that uses a hack plot device to save the world and get their significant other? This sucks. I suck.
Five: Clarity - I can write this character. I think I've been doing it longer than I remember. I think I even have a pretty decent arc for them. I can write their flaws, and I can write what they would reasonably do in a situation. I'm not afraid to have them fail at things that they would fail at, although I think I have their strengths thought out. Huh. People think that this dude has such great "voice". Like when they read about them, they can see how this could be a person. I... Guess I can see where they're coming from, although I don't think of it like that.
Huh. I wonder what else I could make work?
I like the first person point of view because it adds more depth to the character with their emotions and thought processing. I am in the process of putting together my own story and I am going with the first person POV since it is going to be centered around him.
Hmm... So adding in third person makes it bad for a first person POV.
I write within the fifth and three quarters method! It is the only writing apparatus capable of handling my supreme write fu! I PAINT THE WORLD IN WORD PICTURES SO SUPERB AND A METHOD SO ADVANCED THE REST OF YOU PLEBIAN CANNOT BEGIN TO EVEN COMPREHEND THE MAJESTY AND BRILLIANCE OF ITS EXISTENCE! ERGO TO YOU OF THE SMALL MIND YOU WOULD BE LOOKING AT A BLANK SCREEN WHENEVER YOU READ IT
NOW PAY ME MONEY!
Ehh... actually, I'm closer to what 2918979 SAID