Whose POV Do You Write In?

Whose POV do you write in? Why? How did you decide that was who you'd like to hear from? Do you find it easier to write out the thoughts of your favorite character, or the one you're a big fan of? Could readers (albeit perceptive ones) guess who your favorite is based on your writing?

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Personally, I find it much easier to write in the ~other person's point of view, or the one who's not necessarily my favorite. I know more about my favorite character - which means I can roleplay them better - but oddly enough, RP and writing are separate for me. I can think in my favorite character's POV, but articulating them in an actual story is harder for me. Probably because I'm more intimidated or afraid of getting them wrong.

How about you?

*This is about whose POV you prefer writing and why - which makes it more character-based than general technicalities. If you want to discuss POVs as a method of writing, please go here.

I think, by now, anyone who reads my stuff can immediately tell who my favorites are. But I think that's also because I've changed how I write a bit. I don't really switch POV's much anymore.

I write from a certain character's point of view now because I feel so well in-tune with her. It's actually pretty hard to take sometimes how much I relate to a fictional person.

I'm a bit surprized at how well I've pulled off romance involving characters I don't like as much. That's one way writing fan-fiction has helped me as a writer, it encouraged me to empathize with characters and see them from different perspectives.

Ryan Ross, for currently fandom, generally. I relate to his character the most and I feel I can relate the most to his narration. I have narrated as other's before. Pete, Will, Brendon, Gabe once I think, Spencer ever. But even my slash tends to be a little more Ryan-centric, so third person still leans more toward his thought process.

When I wrote a lot of Frerard, I usually wrote from Gerard's POV because the characters I assigned him (I'm not really a purist fanfic writer; it was always more that the people meant a lot to me than my wanting to capture them) were usually less fragile and vulnerable than the ones I gave Frank, and it was easier to portray the vulnerability through someone else's eyes. Also, I can relate a lot to the position of wanting to help, or fix someone/something, but having personal issues and just overall shit getting in the way, so that was a POV I liked to write from. I love writing from the perspective of people who usually mean well in their own way, but their thoughts are just so twisted and they're so messed up that they can't keep it together. That's what Gerard's POV was to me, although you could probably say Frank was my 'favorite.'

I actually write 3rd person quite a bit. I've noticed that's a bit rare in fanfiction around here. Although, I write a lot in first person, too, don't get me wrong. A lot of my stuff isn't here yet, but in my most recent projects I've been using first person POV for Patrick Stump and Justin Pierre a lot. I try to be relatively capable of narrating from anyone's perspective, but so far those are the only 2 I feel most comforable with and I feel like I fail the least with them. Other than that I like narrating as my original characters when applicable (it's a lot less nerve-racking for me, as fanfic characters make me go uber perfectionist and pressured.)

I adore a first person steam of consciousness.

Although, I would love to invent or use a fourth person narration, just for...lols really.

^Lol I wonder what that would be like? Fourth person...

EDIT:

I write in both. It really depends on what I want to get across in a story.

Aviators is in first person. However, I am planning on [and already have one] introducing several chapters of third person interspersed throughout in scenes that have to be written but that don't have the first person narrator present in the scene.

But most of my fics have been in one or the other. Several had multiple first person povs. But, I try not to write like that anymore. And most are in third person, omniscient. I find it difficult to write in third person limited.

^That's what I like about using 3rd person. You aren't limited to only events where your character is present and/or conscious or only describing what they know. I often use it in chapters when I need to show what all characters are thinking or doing, and that's something first person usually can't do.

I'd say any POV has its pros and cons that is why I honestly don't have a preference.

I used to write in first person a lot, but that was when my writing was more of me pouring out my own emotions. Nowadays I stick to third because I think it's better for fanfiction, at least the stuff I write.

In Star of David (as well as Bitterbitter), the strange thing is that even though in reality Bill is the one I'm a bigger fan of, Tom is my favorite in the story. I love writing him, even though I used to not give a damn about him and found him harder to write. Now it feels like he has a more profound personality because of how I've written him and I lean towards him more. He's more dynamic, where Bill is more static. Tom has layers and layers like an onion and I just can't go as deeply with Bill as I'd like to, now, for some reason.

In For The Looking Glass, Bill is the main character, but the story revolves around Tom, and Tom is the logical and more realistic character in it. Bill is, as in real life, over-emotional and highly sensitive and very dramatic. He feels a little fake to me if I'm writing them in canon (save the fact that it's KC and not canon, obv), and Tom is more down-to-earth and believable. But, in SOD, Bill lacks the drama, at least the canon type, and is more of a quiet and solemn type, where Tom has all the drama going on. But he's the better one.

I haven't written KC romance in awhile (since I only write them and two other pairs, one of which I stopped writing), and I'm not up to the romance in SOD. But generally I empathize more with Tom because he's, again, more complex, and Bill's just a layer of topsoil with no roots, generally an all-around weaker character.

And I do not switch POV in the middle of stories, but I'm about half and half for which POV out of the two I use more, even though now I do third more. I have a few second-person but they've gotten stale. In SOD, I do switch back and forth between Tom and Bill's POVs smoothly and equally, I think. But I might be leaning towards Tom more, now.

And no, I'm not sure they could guess my favorite. Some like the weakness of Bill and some like the diversity of Tom. As stated, Bill is my real life favorite, and Tom comes second, but Tom is my favorite fictionette compared to Bill.

(Wtf I wrote a lot. -_-)

I like 3rd person because then you get a feel for all the characters and they feelings without being directly told.

And Sing:

^Lol I wonder what that would be like? Fourth person...

I'm experimenting and it's really odd.

it's like a combination of first and second person.

I'm seeing where I'm going with this but I like it.

Quote

Oh, we stopped and took light wisps of air before laughing at the dark sky. the sky was morose; some barren queen in finery but she has no child. No child has the night! Ha!

- Where are we going? we said. We stopped to consider our reply.

- The night is full and waning; the white knuckle of the illusion of life and light. We can go anywhere, anywhen. Existence is our oyster. We will go everywhere! we called back to ourselves.

I usually write my stories in third person, so there is no point of view. But a few times I tend to stray away from it and use the main characters point of view.

First person tends to make the main character a lot more relatable, although with third you can cover a lot more ground.

When it comes to whose it is, I rarely switch points of view. it's something I used to do a lot, but I've noticed it makes the continuity sort of complicated. it's difficult to do well. I haven't seen many authors (published authors) who were able to do it with more than two people in a way that didn't confuse me.

I generally write in first person and switch narrators halfway through the story so the reader knows both sides of the story, but on my newest story I'm experimenting a bit, both with third person POV and self-insertion, so we'll see how that goes.

The Doctor:

I like where you're going with that, but to me it still reads like an really informal 1st person. At least, that's what I'd call it if I wrote it.

I write in 1st when I do poems, but when I write in my (handwritten) novel, its 3rd person.

Rre232:

I write in 1st when I do poems, but when I write in my (handwritten) novel, its 3rd person.

That would go in this thread.

This thread is more for specific character's point of views.

Usually first or third. Both are easy to me, I guess :]

For those of you who are familiar with TV Tropes, I swear by The Ishmael. I quite frequently write in 1st but the narrator isn't the main character.

I write all my fanfiction characters in third person. I don't know, but first person seems to be too ... personal to me, if that makes sense. I guess I'm not comfortable with it. I can read it, but I can't write it.