Is 1st. person writing overdone?

First person to me is just so goddam subjectively self-centered. Lots of times I just can't get around it. As far as third person goes I think it gives a path to different characterization totally. Now 2nd person, talk about difficluties try making that sound worth a shit.

I looked to see if maybe you ad something in the workshop I could review to see maybe what your problem might be but alas! Like selfcentered me, theres nothing there. But o answer your question I think everything is overdone but none of that really matters.

oh i'm so flattered that you're looking for traces of my writing footsteps. i'll look for some of yours, i've been away working on writing and other stuff. I've written some things but i'm not at a point to submitt it, i'm such a perfectionist, i have to make sure its proffread and fixed, and every questioned answered before I let anyone read it. Most stuff Ive read on the workshop isn't perfect, but at least they should try to make sure spelling and punctuation is decent.

My problem with 1st person is that it's such the easiest thing to work with. Every story i've read ont he workshop is first person. Like I said I can write all I want with 1st person, but when i'm using third person it's just so hard focussing on the overall story. I write them then ill look back and read and just can't seem to make the story glow, it's just words combine with an idea that wasn't used to it's potential. Maybe i'm asking too much out of this beginner. You know i've never thought about 2nd person...interesting.

Okay, here's the thing. 1st person is NOT overdone, not by a long shot. The reason you're seeing a lot of 1st person on the writing forum is b/c everyone in this forum is a huge palahniuk fan, and chuck writes in 1st person!

Most books you'd buy at the store are third person. Don't get me wrong, there are other 1st person writers out there, but not too many, and here's why:

1st person is actually more difficult. Maybe it is easier for you to write that way, but to make it WORK, that's another story altogether.

One of the main probs with 1st Person is the character almost always ends up being you. You feel too conected to the character, and start putting your own thoughts into it. And you have to give the reader credit, they can tell when this is happening.

Other problems with 1st is not being able to hear other characters thoughts (unless of course you are head hopping in b/t sections or chapters), and you can only see what your main character sees (which can be used to your advantage too, but usually just gets in the way)

Having said all of this, i feel I must tell you, i have written lots of shorts in 1st, and for the most part like it. But the best thing you can do as a writter is think about your story before you start to write, and decide which POV will be the best to tell your story.

Cheers.

-oni

Bah. I like to help out in the workshop, but after five or six stories, the first person's all seem to congeal into a massive orgy of depression. We need more humourous third persons out there. I could definately deal with some works with hints of Adams and Pratchett in them...or something like that. Another author, who is a friggin master of ALL points of view, you may want to check out, is Italo Calvino. He's not very well known in the states, but his collection of shorts, "Numbers in the Dark", just blew me away. He's written novels in 1st, 3rd, and 2nd. Yes. 2nd. Seriously awesome author.

I find 1

What the hell happened there? it posted my reply while i was still writing.

Anyway, i find 1st person easier to write because it makes a lot of statements less ambiguous. For example, if you have a third person character talking to another third person character, and they're of the same gender, then you have to be careful to show who's saying what. First person can also be more emotive, you can get the reader to feel your pain.

The only reason i can think of to write in 2nd person is if you were doing a short horror story, 2nd person would really build up the tension. Or you could a section of 2nd narrative in a first person based story if a character was trying to explain something that he did ('so what would you do in that situation? You would hit him, obviously.').

How about writing from two or more peoples point of view, 'we did this' and 'we did that', could make an amusing romance type thing.

hmm onipar well I agree with you there, i never really stopped to think of the writers who have books, though, I was talking over all but I guess the same could be said about 2nd and third person if i'm thinking about it in that way.

I do feel though, that no matter in what form you're writing it's always going to sound like you, maybe not 100% but there will be a little influence of yourself on it.

"Other problems with 1st is not being able to hear other characters thoughts (unless of course you are head hopping in b/t sections or chapters), and you can only see what your main character sees"

I've just thought of a story idea right now. thanks.

I also like helping out in the workshop, though I feel there are way too many submissions for me to catch up on righ tnow, but this is exactly why i've started thinking 'man 1st person seems to be the most popular form for everyone, whether chuck or anyone else rights in this format it still get's old after a while, but also i guess we have to keep in mind that first person is a great way of staring out our writing careers.

hey Jzero i'll check that author up. He sounds quite interesting.

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by onipar [/i]
[B]Other problems with 1st is not being able to hear other characters thoughts [/B][/QUOTE]

The only time I saw this rule broken was with Girlfriend in a Coma by Douglas Coupland. Very impressive viewpoints he did with that book.

yes, but not everything is starting to get old and boring.

isn't that what overdone connotates, starting to get old and boring?

not completely, but it does, just like a fashion trend. Put yourself in a teachers shoes, if you were correcting papers and all of your students turned in a 1st person paper how would you feel at the end of day? Now lets' s multiply that class times 6, and i'm using high school in general, no. okay let's say 6 college classes..what? no, okay let's say 6 upper division classes. The point is maybe it's time people start acknowledging that there are plenty of other ways to write, not just 1st person, but who am I to say this, i'm just a hypocrit cause i'll probably write in the same format, but i'll try to write it so that it won't sound too much like everything else. that's the key.

what are you saying? are you saying that in your experiance as a high school student (or college)all papers turned in are 1st person? if so, do you think there is a reason for that?
in my experiance as someone who reads a lot and works in a library, there are many more books out there written from a non-first person stance. personally i find first person writing more insightful, because it urges the writer to put a bit of themselves in their writing, rather than attempt to play all the parts in a novel/paper.

who gives a fuck who it sounds like as long as youre during your best. fuck the people who cry about everything being already done, if you are a writer it doesnt fucking matter because its not about what been done or what hasnt been done its about writing the story, your story, that you are satisfied with.

ive been writng the same goddamn story for three years and one could say that IT is overdone, meaning: i have overdone my fucking self. What we are looking for is production and art, heavy on the art.

just keep reading books about writing and keep listening to people tell you what is wrong with your work. Someday maybe we'll all mature and realize a grown up can be no man's disciple.

i agree with you pretty much H.D. only i feel that, like brock feels, there is nothing original left in the world. so what is the point in caring if it's overdone anyway? something similar has been done, so who cares. the point is is your work should be what's important, not if someone else has done something like it before.
take chuck for instance, there are pleanty of nihilistic writers out there, but chuck wrote what he wanted to write, and he cared about what he wrote. he didn't say 'well, most of it's been done before, so fuck it' now did he?

I think that there are some of US out here that still cling to the delusion, the necessity even, of individuality. And this comes from a type of person that believes that we are one consciousness. Beliefs are like feelings seperate from logic or reason.

My main iinfluences in the style of writing that I try to achieve aren't new, they are merely attempts at trying to express my own voice very similarly to those that have influenced me. I'm not talking about mimimalism here for me. Which iI don't find anything wrong with people trying to use technics to express their own voices.

The story I am working on though it may sound real similar to someone elses style and maybe even structured a little relative is an attempt at playing what could be called Hesse's Glass Bead Game. Or a game that is played and past down from generation to generation in an attempt at speaking to and perhaps even recieving some kind of acceptance from the players that went before us.

I look at my writing very similar as I look at the relationship with my son. You being the father that you are I don't think you could actually hold to the nihilistic attitude in believing that nothing is original. My son is 6 and even though he may look quite a but like his pops I know he is completely original, sure we are all a combined effort of everyone we've ever known, but i view things differently and if it weren't for some kind of originality no matter how minute I dont think any of us would find life worth living. And it is originality pure and simple that urges each of us to try and prove its being.

As a writer, I don't consider my goal to be doing something that's never been done. Especially since I'm really just starting out as a writer, I realize that would be far too ambitious. I'm not saying it's never done, but it's done by the extremely talented. I think the real goal of any author is just to put their own original spin on a story that has, more or less, already been told. I'm not saying steal a story and rewrite it! I'm just saying the goal of someone, especially a beginner, shouldn't be to create something groundbreaking but just to create something at all.

I tend to not even think about how I'm writing something. If passion and excitement are present when you're writing it, I don't think that the viewpoint from which your writing matters. Even poor writers when writing about their feelings turn out something that's worth reading. And hell, if a great writer is writing when they're in the moment...well, that's where great literature comes from, isn't it?

No!