First or Third person?

So do you guys prefer to write in third or first person? Why? And which is probably better?

Andy

Well for me it depends. Do I want to write in past or present tense. If its present tense I normally write it in third person mostly for short stories. But if its a story where there is a lot of conflict between characters and emotions going around, then ill write in first person so I can tap into that emotion you know. For novels I usually write in first person. It really depends on what the story is. If you are writing about a specific person and their life and that then first is best. But if you are writing about a robot or even a group or team of people, like a car racing team or something then third person would be best in my opinion.

I do think first person is better because it gives the reader a perspective and a good connection to the character where as in third person you dont have that connection because you can't get into it on an emotional lever. Like you can say "Sam looked upset." but the thing about first person is you can do internal character reflections and thought processes, It makes your main character more human.

Its a bit like a video game. think of a first person game like skyrim, its more in your face and direct and it feels like its coming at you and more real I guess and can gather some connection with the character if you know what I mean. Where as with a game like Assasin's creed you are kind of watching it all happen and not really feeling it all. You know what I mean? (im not comparing the 2 games btw)

So I hope this helped!

Bye for now. I'm interested to see what the others think.

Have a good one.

Aidan

Good God how many people on this forum are seventeen? Are we attracting an incredibly specific demographic?

When I first started writing Fallen it was in third person. I wrote this way for around 16 chapters before I finally decided that it wasn't working out for me. As a writer I couldn't connect as easily to her, my main character, when I wasn't directly in her head. She became relatively flat and uninteresting because I focused more on what was happening to and around her, rather than what was going on inside her.

Switching to first person for that story felt so freeing. I know that that sounds counter intuitive, but it was true. When I became Her, she became real, it was as simple as that. I heard her voice in my head for the first time and her internal conflict became much more complex
Her sassiness levels also went off the charts XD I'm still not sure why, but I kept in. To me it made her feel that much more legitamate, the fact that her character emerged seemingly out of nowhere.