# First Person or Third Person Paranormal?



## Lori Brighton (Jul 10, 2010)

Hope this is the right place to post this, but...

I always thought Urban Fantasy was first person and Paranormal Romance was third. But I've read a few books which are third person and the author/others consider it Urban Fantasy and of course vice versa. What are your thoughts on this? 

Also, when you're reading paranormal what do you prefer, first or third?


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## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

I don't think the genre of the book has anything to do with deciding what voice the story is in. The author makes that decision, based on a variety of reasons.

That being said, 92 percent of the time, books in any genre (except autobiography, humor, or travel/adventure) in first person (or present tense) instantly turn me off from the first paragraph. But that's just my opinion.


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## Daniel Arenson (Apr 11, 2010)

First person is fantastic when done right... but it's hard to do right.  I tend to write (and read) tight third person books.  I think this is true for any genre.


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## Monique (Jul 31, 2010)

Daniel Arenson said:


> First person is fantastic when done right... but it's hard to do right. I tend to write (and read) tight third person books. I think this is true for any genre.


What Daniel said. It's a rare thing to find first person done well. I usually find it distracting. Fwiw, I've never heard anything about first being specific to urban fantasy.


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## L.J. Sellers novelist (Feb 28, 2010)

The only genre that really seems to fit well with first-person is the private detective novel. Some writers pull it off in other genres but not many. I prefer books with tight third-person POV, and usually from multiple characters.
L.J.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

I've never really understood the aversion to 1st person many people have -- other than when it's done poorly. I love it when it's done well. (Zelazny uses it a lot to great effect, Brust's "Vlad Taltos" books do, too.) But I know that some people find it interrupts the willing suspension of disbelief, though I've never found that to be an issue for me.

I think one reason I like it is that it forces (or allows?) the author to focus on one story line and just the characters the narrator comes into contact with. I often find the 3rd person, multiple plot line, multiple character monstrosities so common these days in my favorite genres to be fatiguing; such that I find it refreshing to read the more linear and narrowly focused type of stories you get in most 1st person novels.


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## terryr (Apr 24, 2010)

NogDog said:


> I've never really understood the aversion to 1st person many people have -- other than when it's done poorly.


That's just it. If it's done well, it's great. A lot of the books I've read or tried to read in recent past--not so great. Maybe just checking out the wrong ones. I approach with caution.


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## Steph H (Oct 28, 2008)

I like first-person books, I like being able to see inside the protagonist's head better than you do with third-person.  But LJ is right that you mostly see it with private detective novels.  In a way, though, that's what a lot of urban fantasy seems to be, regardless of the vampire/werewolf/witch or similar characters. The main character is often quite simply still trying to solve some kind of mystery, just in a paranormal environment.  So maybe that's why a lot of those are also done first person?

Third person is good too, to see different viewpoints; but it can be as messy and poorly done as a badly done first person viewpoint, and make things too confusing.  So there's good and bad to both types of writing, IMO.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Steph H said:


> I like first-person books, I like being able to see inside the protagonist's head better than you do with third-person.


Agreed. The psychological depth a writer can achieve with 1st person can be phenomenal, particularly when a character has interesting blind spots about himself or herself. I wish more fantasy/paranormal/sci-fi novels were told like _Catcher in the Rye_. Zelazny does a great job with Corwin's character in the Amber Chronicles. Also, Anne Rice accomplishes this in the first couple vampire books, and I love it. I want to feel what having extraordinary powers and problems really does to the psychological make-up of a character, and 1st person does this in a close-to-the-bone way that 3rd person can't. But it has to be done right.


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## EliRey (Sep 8, 2010)

Personally everything I've ever written is in third person. My novel Forever Mine is in third altering from his and her POV. But lately a paranormal story has come to me. Mind you, I've never written a paranormal story and for some reason it's pulling me to write it in first person. It's wierd. It just doesn't feel right in third which I'm much more comfortable writing in. Never heard of any type or rule about certain genre's being written in first or third though.

My preference, in writing, third, in reading if the story is good and it's done well I really have no preference. Although I don't think I can even think of something I've read in first person _present_ tense.


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

EliRey said:


> ... Although I don't think I can even think of something I've read in first person _present_ tense.


I couldn't get through the sample of Charles Stross's _Halting State_, as it's written in _second_ person present tense.


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## Alice Y. Yeh (Jul 14, 2010)

NogDog said:


> I couldn't get through the sample of Charles Stross's _Halting State_, as it's written in _second_ person present tense.


Yowzers. I think the only time I've read and enjoyed that perspective was when the title had "Choose Your Own Adventure" in it!

I think that there are advantages to both first- and third-person perspective. As mentioned above, first-person really allows you to get inside a character's head, but the implication there is that there is some sort of thought pattern or interpretation worth reading about. If you're simply going over the events that happen, you really might as well use the third-person with the omniscient narrator. (I'm reading _The Distance Between Us_ right now. It's written in the first-person perspective, and I don't think it would have nearly as much oomph if it weren't, primarily because Hester is such a complex person that you really need to see what she's thinking.)


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## Lori Brighton (Jul 10, 2010)

I'm fine with First person too, never read one that was terrible. Although most of the books I've read and written are in third. It seemed to me Urban Fantasy was mostly first, but I could be totally wrong. What about first person with more than one character? Isn't The Time Traveler's Wife done this way? I've never read it, so not positive. I guess it must work, since that book did so well


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Alice Y. Yeh said:


> Yowzers. I think the only time I've read and enjoyed that perspective was when the title had "Choose Your Own Adventure" in it!
> 
> I think that there are advantages to both first- and third-person perspective. As mentioned above, first-person really allows you to get inside a character's head, but the implication there is that there is some sort of thought pattern or interpretation worth reading about. If you're simply going over the events that happen, you really might as well use the third-person with the omniscient narrator.


Good point--the character has to be interesting and well-developed enough to carry the 1st person POV.

A few of Susan Howatch's books (I don't think any of her stuff is available on Kindle) switch between characters in the 1st person POV. I love this kind of writing, incidentally, so I need to check out _Time-Traveler's Wife _. Susan Howatch was a great influence on my own writing, at least when it comes to switching between characters in the 1st person--her writing demonstrated to me that it could be done. Her books like _Cashelmara_ show so many different facets of the same situation. It's addicting to read--and write--that way, at least to me.

But present tense 2nd person--now that just scares me. Ayn Rand's _Anthem_ is interesting--she used the 1st person plural to great effect in that book to make a point.


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## Aris Whittier (Sep 21, 2010)

I read over on the Amazon boards that one of the number one rants from readers were the story being told in the first person. 
Personally I don’t like to read in the first person and it would kill me to write in it. But as others have mentioned if it’s done right the reader may not even notice.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

Aris Whittier said:


> I read over on the Amazon boards that one of the number one rants from readers were the story being told in the first person.
> Personally I don't like to read in the first person and it would kill me to write in it. But as others have mentioned if it's done right the reader may not even notice.


During the 2009 Amazon Breakout Novel Award, there was a lot of angst on the contest forum about this very issue. Apparently a number of the Vine reviewers who were reading submissions for the contest didn't like the 1st person POV in some of the stories. It seems that these Vine reviewers had read a number of poorly written 1st person POV stories, and it had permanently affected their view of 1st person POV. I think it's a shame if writers aren't skillful with stylistic devices and it permanently turns some readers off from reading that particular style or genre ever again.

On a personal note, I hate stories told in present tense. However, if I'm really drawn into a story and enjoying the characters, I may not even realize it's told in present tense. A good story-teller can overcome any stylistic device.


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## kae (May 3, 2010)

@ purple pen 79


> Agreed. The psychological depth a writer can achieve with 1st person can be phenomenal, particularly when a character has interesting blind spots about himself or herself.


It seems this is better done in close third person, so narration can point out the blind spots. In first person, the character isn't aware of them. 
First Person is very hard to do consistently through an entire novel. As L.J. said, the mystery book detectives do seem to be the best reflection of this voice.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

kae said:


> @ purple pen 79
> It seems this is better done in close third person, so narration can point out the blind spots. In first person, the character isn't aware of them.


Ah, but that's the fun of well done 1st person. The narrator isn't aware of his or her blind spots, but the reader is. Maybe I'm a bit of a voyeur, but 1st person, if it's done right, reminds me of reading someone else's diary. You read between the lines and see things that the narrator (or diary writer) isn't consciously aware of.


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## Alice Y. Yeh (Jul 14, 2010)

purplepen79 said:


> Ah, but that's the fun of well done 1st person. The narrator isn't aware of his or her blind spots, but the reader is. Maybe I'm a bit of a voyeur, but 1st person, if it's done right, reminds me of reading someone else's diary. You read between the lines and see things that the narrator (or diary writer) isn't consciously aware of.


It's probably a matter of preference in this situation - do you want to know more than the protagonist, or do you want to discover things alongside him/her? I belong to the latter camp, so I have a lot of difficulty writing outside of the first-person perspective. Thankfully, reading doesn't present the same challenge, provided that the book is written well


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

I'm not a fan of 1st person narrative but it can be done well and there are books I know I've really enjoyed (just can't think of any right now)
Generally,  I prefer 3rd person.


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