Storytelling styles

[Molalzsath]

I'm coming to the conclusion that I'm better able to write action and emotion from a first person perspective then from a third. Which got me wondering, do any other writers have preferred story telling styles?

For example, I've done a few pieces where it's told as the lead character recounting their adventure to the reader. These are okay, but you can't express much in the way of feeling and thoughts, especially if your character is not supposed to be particularly literate.

In IRP I've written in third person, and it always reads as stilted and lacking flow to me.

I'm considering writing a story written from first person, where the expressions seem to come easier to me, then going back and rewording it into third person. Or I should just practice third person more.

What does every-one else find? Any particular styles you like, or tricks you use to make it all work better for you?

[Glove]

I prefer first person style, because I like to see things from a biased perspective. Third person is too cold for my taste, because it doesn't show how a character interprets its surroundings. But some things are better recounted in third person, if you want the reader to see everything that's going on. I try to write in third person sometimes, but it's never as good as my first person stories.

[Schrau]

I started with first-person after many years of contributing to ongoing story threads from a third-person perspective. Couldn't really stick with it.

Part of the reason why is that I like dialogue, something that everyone who has read many of my stories would have picked up on. I can spend... oh, weeks writing dialogue. Again, this falls back on my story thread writing days where, after a few threads working with other writiers we could figure out who did what best - I was without a doubt the best dialogue and exposition writer in the group, others were better at battles, and so on. I could just go in, do my thing, and let other people do the icky stuff I couldn't really handle.

Dialogue is a lot harder to write in a first-person perspective than third-person. Compare, say Into Odie's Palace 4 with my later stuff, such as the talky parts of Exodus, pretty much all of Cunning & Guile, and Background Check. I found that the dialogue between Odie and Schrau was a PITA to actually write, but all my other dialogue flowed as natural as it did back in the story thread days.

Also; action. There's only really one action sequence in the two stories that I wrote in first person (Aldar's End), but that was hell to do in a first-person perspective.

One advantage I can think of of a first-person perspective is that it lends itself towards introspection and situational analysis a lot better, and I could get away with reams of italicised inner monologue quite often. The last time I tried it was... Ooh, let me think, near the end of Thoughts of Chaos, where it didn't come out as well as I'd hoped.

Some thoughts for you. I could probably give a fully-blown lecture on how I write a story, but no matter how eloquent and concise it would be it would be just as valid as the next guy's methods.

[Loktai]

I just say 'what do I want to happen next?', and write it. I find that third-person seems to flow better for me, and if you allow your viewpoint to be semi-omniscient (let your reader 'hear' the person's thoughts, if that's what you need, etc etc), more power to ya. My writing is also rather more sparse than Schrau's... I think both styles are effective and enjoyable. But maybe that's more me tooting my own horn, to compare my writing to Schrau's at all!

[Nobu]

I prefer third person perspective, because I like the reader to be able to know things the characters don't know. Also I tend to write stories as if I'm actually telling the story to the audience, and since I don't consider my characters to be me (well, not usually) it is more comfortable to use a third person perspective.

I also usually use the past tense, since the storyteller is recounting events that already occurred. This makes it easier in my head to mess around with the story I'm telling, which I like to do.

In the past I have written in first person, but I almost always end up with internal dialogues when I do this. The dialogues either involve the character imagining he's speaking to someone or actually having a discussion with a voice in his head. That gets tired fast, even with random references to apple pie. I really like to use dialogue, but I don't like it from the first person perspective very much.

When I roleplay with other people (which I don't do much) I usually write in a way that is mostly first-person however. I sort of change viewpoints a lot though, which is annoying, but I get bored writing the same perspective all of the time. In the past I've told bits of stories from the viewpoints of minor characters, weapons, bored deities, and random pieces of furniture because I like the change of pace.

[Lacrifish]

I'm really horrible at writing dialogu and character interaction, so I tend to prefer third-person omniscient. Its also because most of the authors I like write in that style too, I suppose, so I don't have a lot of good mental examples for first person.

[Carnely]

I prefer 3rd person/past tense. Can't do 1st p/present tense well, and 1st p/past tense just doesn't suit Carn - he's too secretive to go around blabbing about the cases he handles.
And then there's the non-native-speaker thing. : P My tales aren't that simplistic and plodding in Polish; I admire Schrau's witty style, but couldn't emulate it in English for love nor money.

[Shania]

In the early days, it was all about description and in a first person basis pretty much like Emili Bronte's Wuthering Heights . My writing somehow evolved into what it is today, as I dawned on me early on that even though I wished to emulate the effective first-person style, I always ended up falling in love with the characters interacting with the narrator and the story ended up in third-person.

Most of my influences come from Spain and Britain around the late 19th and early 20th century; thus, I am often struggling with my language so as not to sound as an over-used thesaurus. (Oh god, now that I look back at the very first 'serious' pieces I wrote I want to puke. Who the hell uses 'osculate' nowadays?)

My real problem lies in the character introspection. Once I get started in explaining as the "why and hows" of a character's choice, its really hard for me to stop. At the very least I dont' come out sounding like a ranty monologue....though it comes close.

[Mireille]

I prefer first-person, as a writer and in RP. Third has the perk of being able to explain other viewpoints as a story unfolds, but I write the story as if I'm there, so telling it in first just goes with what I see.

My only pet peeve is first person present tense. I had a writing mentor who explained (repeatedly and loudly) that present tense should be used only rarely in those cases, because as you tell what happened, it is already in past tense, even by a billionth of a second. Third present tense just irks me, but for no grammatical reason. I'm just a fussy old broad.

Death to present tense!

Mir