First Person Vs. Third Person POV

can’t decide between first person or third, any tips to help? I usually write in third for fanfics but I’m now writing my own story and am so torn

First Person vs. Third Person POV

Both point of views have different abilities to narrate a story. I'm not going to use pros and cons for this, because I believe that it depends on the way you want to tell a story, if these aspects are helpful for you or not.

First Person POV

The narrator is a direct part of the story and narrates what they see and feel with using "I" (or "we").

Features of first-person pov:

it offers a direct link to the story

the story can feel more real and believable

the narrator is part of the situation, but you as the author can still decide if they are an active participant or if they are watching from the sidelines

the whole story is them talking about their experiences

therefore, the story is always subjective and full of what the narrator thinks, feels and believes to be true

if they are also not telling the story in the moment, but rather recounting it, they can also recount some things differently than how they actually happened

a first person pov is the easiest way to create an unreliable narrator

Third Person POV

The narrator is the author, who is detached from the story and narrates the lives of characters without being one of them. The narrator calls the characters by their name or their pronouns.

You have three different options:

Third-person omniscient:

This narrator is all-knowing and can tell the whole story as it is, from every perspective, but not limited to a single character. They know what every character is thinking and feeling and what their motivations are.

Third-person limited:

This narrator is limited to the inner feelings of a limited amount of characters, often just the protagonist.

Third-person objective:

This narrator tells the story completely objective, just telling what can be seen without commenting on it and not going into the thoughts and motivations of specific characters.

Features of third-person pov:

it allows the reader to emerge themselves into the thoughts and motivations of one or more characters, therefore making it almost feel like first-person pov

it can also be objective, with just the characters' dialogues and actions telling the reader about them

it allows the author to jump between scenes and times more easily

the author can tell multiple storylines at the same time (also possible with multiple first-person povs, but the jump between different times is easier for the reader in third-person)

by using third-person pov the author can decide completely on how much they want to tell the reader at any given point

- Jana

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Over the past several months, and inspired by our storied past, we’ve given serious thought to who we want to be to our community moving forward and have been hard at work laying the foundation for a better Tumblr. We’ve realized that in order to continue to fulfill our promise and place in culture, especially as it evolves, we must change. Some of that change began with fostering more constructive dialogue among our community members. Today, we’re taking another step by no longer allowing adult content, including explicit sexual content and nudity (with some exceptions).

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Posts that contain adult content will no longer be allowed on Tumblr, and we’ve updated our Community Guidelines to reflect this policy change. We recognize Tumblr is also a place to speak freely about topics like art, sex positivity, your relationships, your sexuality, and your personal journey. We want to make sure that we continue to foster this type of diversity of expression in the community, so our new policy strives to strike a balance.

Why are we doing this?

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Bottom line: There are no shortage of sites on the internet that feature adult content. We will leave it to them and focus our efforts on creating the most welcoming environment possible for our community.

So what’s next?

Starting December 17, 2018, we will begin enforcing this new policy. Community members with content that is no longer permitted on Tumblr will get a heads up from us in advance and steps they can take to appeal or preserve their content outside the community if they so choose. All changes won’t happen overnight as something of this complexity takes time.

Another thing, filtering this type of content versus say, a political protest with nudity or the statue of David, is not simple at scale. We’re relying on automated tools to identify adult content and humans to help train and keep our systems in check. We know there will be mistakes, but we’ve done our best to create and enforce a policy that acknowledges the breadth of expression we see in the community.

Most importantly, we’re going to be as transparent as possible with you about the decisions we’re making and resources available to you, including more detailed information, product enhancements, and more content moderators to interface directly with the community and content.

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silas-kai

5 years ago