Though closely tied with the point of view you choose, and somewhat prescriptive of the narrative distance in your story, choosing between first and third person is a related, but separate issue that can be summed up in one simple question: Who is telling your story?
Do you really want a Storyteller?
Most of the time, your answer is going to be no, because a true narrator, what we'll refer to from here on as an independent storyteller, is secretly your main character whether you want them to be or not.
So the first thing you need to do is decide if you need the framing device of someone telling the story, and realize that this someone is your main character whether you intend them to be or not.
The Never-Ending Story and The Princess Bride are two excellent examples of books that use a distinct and necessary storyteller to frame the narrative. In both cases these independent storytellers are themselves characters and they add to the narrative experience by becoming the hero in a way.
So again, you probably don't want an independent storyteller, or if you do, you may actually be thinking of writing in the first person so you can make comments and narrate in what is called "stream of consciousness" which can be as entertaining as an old man rambling on about his life, and as dense as Finnegan's Wake.
I'll cover the proper use of an independent storyteller in a future article. For the present, we'll return to the discussion of choosing between first and third person.
Revisiting Narrative Distance
The biggest difference between first and third person is how far away the action is from the actor. First person is the actor themselves, narrating their own world through use of internal monologue. Action originates from within them and happens to them. Third person, even tightly narrated, is still outside the actor.
Let's refer to film for a moment. The POV shot is used sparingly, but it is the equivalent of first person in film. The camera becomes the eyes of the character. Horror films like this because it puts the audience in the same peril as the characters, it closes the narrative distance.
Third person has many more levels of distance, but the closest is the "over the shoulder" shot used very often in filming a conversation, especially one where the characters are close or deeply connected. In this technique, the camera shoots literally over the shoulder of one actor.
Of course, we're also used to seeing wide shots, where more than one character is in focus, or even extreme wide shots where we see whole towns in focus.
And that's the key here: Where is the focus?
Even if you choose third person, you still need to decide how to vary the narrative distance, something that first person distinctly lacks, and to my mind the biggest deficit. Not, as some would say, the lack of information to the audience, but the inability to ever pull back from the situation. In first person you are in the midst for the whole ride. You never get a chance to let up, to back away and to breathe.
So when should I use first person?
To complete the thought above, when you want to force the reader to stick with a character through every moment of every scene. When you need the reader to be a part of both the internal and external worlds of this character. When you require intimate identification with the protagonist that would otherwise be lost if viewed from the outside.
Additionally, when you want a storyteller to color the narrative, to skip around, even to jump quickly between time and space, you may find that what you truly desire is to be within the mind of the protagonist and to truly follow their thoughts wherever they may go.
It feels more natural to be told things in first person, than it does in third. And the author can be very creative in stringing present events into revealing exploration of thought while still maintaining the "action" of the narrative if she employs the first person and establishes a "stream of consciousness" tactic to it.
What the Protagonist doesn't notice.
It is, however, more difficult, though far from impossible, to slip information directly to the reader which the protagonist does not know themselves while using first person. I will give you a brief example, and save more detailed exploration for a future article.
You must separate your protagonist's ears from their thoughts. This is key, because as in real life, the sound waves strike the ears regardless of our mind's focus when they do. When you want to slip something to the reader, the protagonist can hear it, you can report the statement on the page as dialogue, but true to human nature, the protagonist is distracted by what the speaker is wearing, or emotionally reacts to the tone of voice rather than the content.
Are you ever going to talk about third person?
Briefly. Because it's actually so ingrained in you, even if you want to write first person, especially in the present tense, you'll find yourself slipping without noticing back to third. We're raised on third person stories from birth.
But that's exactly why third person is so common in narrative, and why it often feels better to both reader and author. However, as with all narrative choice, you should make yours intentionally.
So, where first person is intimately close narrative distance, third gives you a range of choices, and often using several throughout the course of a work aides the reader in pacing and focus.
In third person, you are the filmmaker. You have two things you can control when you write. 1) How close you are to the action. 2) How deep the focus is on your description. Hollywood actually had a sort of rule book about how a director was allowed to use shots in sequence, and an author needs to consider having a similar aesthetic for their own use.
But, when you break the rules, you can create interesting effects. Most emotional scenes are close, in the character's face, the tears or rage striking the reader directly. But what if you pulled way back, and narrated the crowd ignorantly moving around the character?
Third person is a choice to give yourself choice, to give yourself the ability to change the distance from the action. First person can only choose focus, the camera is bolted to the protagonist's head. Third person gives you freedom to subtly shift the narrative distance, allowing things like outside information affect the reader and not the character.
It is also highly drawn to action and less so to character. Because you are outside the character, only what they do is readily apparent. You must cheat at times to show what the character is thinking, and these cheats come across that way to readers as well. They allow them, they accept them, but like voice over in film, you are cheating and we all sort of know it.
When you choose third person, you should do so because you are confident that you can capture all the necessary character change mostly through what the characters do and say, and not because you know you can read character minds when it's convenient. That's a lazy use of third person, and results in a weaker story.
Special Considerations for New Adult
The exception to this is a limited third person, a sort of permanent over the shoulder, and is the reigning choice of many Young Adult authors. Rowling used this in Harry Potter. Like first person, she attached her narration to only one character and stayed with him even if distant action was occurring elsewhere. (Something she savored in book six when she finally got to skip a Quidditch match, the bane of her writing existence.) You have most of the benefits of first person, including the ability to read the characters mind, but you also have a lot of the deficits of the first person as well.
It's a toss up, but personally, I think you're giving up too much in both directions, and it restricts your story in ways that you may not have to deal with should you choose one or the other. Again, book seven proves this point out. Rowling was stuck with Harry, and she really needed to be other places in the quest story she was writing.
Because New Adult is exploring the inner dynamics of late adolescence, I will say that either first or limited third fits better with the voice and the intent. Even though Riordan is using multiple points of view in his latest Percy Jackson series, he is sticking with a limited third person narration style that keeps the reader right with the action. This is a trend we are likely to see continue for a long time. It's accessible, it's easy, it can be broken on occasion when necessary, and readers are used to it.
But I urge New Adult authors to study film, to look more closely at narrative distance, and to intentionally make their choice of storyteller so that the narrative gets the exactly right treatment for the subject at hand.
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