Poll: What type of POV do you prefer while writing?

[Lilani]

I like third person, specifically third person limited. But sometimes I do like to cut into second person for descriptive purposes, sort of in the tradition of Tolkien.

 

[coldfrog]

It's a tough choice - I really like the way you can write a story with first person that makes people read between the lines and see what's going outside of someone's limited perspective. It works great for horror stories, as Poe and Lovecraft are great at demonstrating. However, it feels to me like it's much harder to write those kinds of stories well (at least in my experience), and with that in mind it doesn't surprise me that most first person stories are shorter.

Actually, I think I've just convinced myself that I'd prefer writing in first person (even though I feel like I'm the worst at it). The process just seems the most interesting to me.

 

[Bara_no_Hime]

What Point of view do you prefer while you are writing a book/fan-fiction/etc?

A close Third Person Limited, or a First Person, depending on the feel of the story.

 

[Hashime]

I hardly ever write fiction but in the few cases I have 3rd person limited has been my style of choice. It is easy.
I usually write in a technical format for lab reports and essays.

 

[Nautical Honors Society]

I like a third person narrator that is not omnipotent or a first person.

 

[Brian Hendershot]

That's what that means. I have been figuring out what POV means for years...

 

[Trivun]

I think my favorite is third-person omnipotent. I hate first person a lot because you know the main character is going to live.

Not necessarily, there are plenty of books and films and games and such where the main character dies at the end. For example, in the realm of video games, manga and anime, there's at least one arc of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. I'm referring to the

Spoiler

first arc, Onikakushi-hen (Spirited Away by the Demon Chapter), where the protagonist, Keiichi, claws his own throat out to commit suicide. The story is told from his perspective until that point.

Or there are plenty of others I could name. Telling stories from beyond the grave, or from a last note or will, is more common in storytelling than you may think.

Anyway, for my choice, it would be Third Person Omnipotent. It's much easier than any other style, and I find it much more satisfying to read and write a story where I'm not limited by what the character knows. I like to go between scenarios and characters, and without constantly flipping between different character perspectives, it can't easily be done with first person. Second person, I'd only ever use if I was writing a 'create-your-own-adventure' type story.

 

[y1fella]

I like alternating because it provides the best view of what is happening in the story. Like for example wheel of time would be pretty terrible if you were stuck to one character (even if that one character was Mat) be cause it's such a big story with such a wide scope. So alternating allows the reader a better view of the events as they unfold without sacrificing depth of character (like wheel of time) when it's done well.
but hey my opinion.

 

[drisky]

3rd person omnipotent has more freedom so it is my favorite. It lets me explore more characters doing less which is just fun for me. There is something to be said about getting deep in to the mind of one charter in first person though.

 

[Ben Hussong]

First Person. For me it's much easier to develop a personal story revolving around the main character, and convey how he thinks and feels that way.

 

[Imat]

Third person limited. 's all I've read, therefore 's all I've written (In terms of fiction).

 

[FalloutJack]

Even before I knew what these terms meant, I had always experimented with different POVs in-story. It has been a thing for me to try for a combination that allows for the story to flow incredibly and not be limited to a single school of thought. This is because perspective is universal. Everybody has a stake in this, one way or another. For animes such as Baccano or Durarara, the use of everyone else's viewpoints to pull the story together is key, every character having their own view while the audience is their third-person omnipotent.

After some years and a BA in college, here is what I have come up with in terms of the POVs I use in writing...

{1} The third-person is to be used in narrative in particular, and is able to switch from limited to omnipotent if necessary. This is to focus you on characters as need-be, but branch out to the world whenever something important and out of the character's perception range happens. If he's being stalked and doesn't know it, you WANT to know that something is up, rather than being caught unaware by a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere.

{2} First-person is for special and important moments, like for when you should hear what the character is thinking, and especially if there's some sort of monologue occurring during an action moments. If the character is about to die, you probably want to hear his last thoughts were during the scene. This is also good for humorous cases of a person reading too many detective novels and making his own mental voice-over about the 'case'.

{3} Second-person is when the narrator decides to talk to you, the person reading the book. So, the third-person (narrator) is talking to, essentially, a bystander (you) for second-person, and he is probably referring to something the character did or thought, which is the first-person. Got all that down? Good. The point of it is that sometimes, I like to break the fourth wall, but mostly in a way that the characters can't notice.

This is the format I've tried to work with here and there. It's received some good comments, so I may just stick with it.