First person or third person?

[Tinybabyboy76]

Hi,

I imagine this may have been discussed previously but I am having a difficult time searching properly.

I am working on trying to write a story for the first time. In my initial draft I started out writing out in first person but I am wondering if that will be best for me or if I should switch to third?

What are some of the pros and cons for third person and first person?

Thanks,

Max

[WBDaddy]

So, if you do first person (1P), you are literally barring yourself as the narrator from telling people what other people are thinking or what they're doing if you (the main character) are not in the room or otherwise privy to the conversation.  If you switch off and talk about what someone else is thinking or what they're doing off-camera (because the camera is the eyes of the main character), then you're breaking the narrative and ruining the suspension of disbelief. 

The same is true if you operate in third-person limited (3PL), where we're only talking about what one person is doing.  But third-person omniscient (3PO) gives you the freedom of telling people what is going on everywhere.  

The flip side is, 3PO creates an *expectation* that you talk about what everyone is doing.

Personally, I like 1P or 3PL for stuff that really just centers around the main character and I don't really want anyone to care about anything else.  3PO is best suited for a story where there are a lot of little subplots that involve some of the characters some of the time and others at other times. 

[spark]

I'm more of a part-time hobbyist, so I'm hardly an expert.   I have a really hard time to write a story in 3PO.  I lose my muse very quickly, and it just seems forced.   The best stories I read in this genre are usually 1st person, and the ones written in 3rd person feel forced

[kasarberang]

I'm by no means a "writer", but with the few stories I've written I usually swap between first and third person depending on the situation, usually sticking to third person for most situations.

[Little Cub Pants]

48 minutes ago, kasarberang said:

I'm by no means a "writer", but with the few stories I've written I usually swap between first and third person depending on the situation, usually sticking to third person for most situations.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️?☺️❤️??☺️??????

[kasarberang]

2 hours ago, BabySpiderBoy said:

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️?☺️❤️??☺️??????

That's a lot of emoji.

[Little Cub Pants]

1 hour ago, kasarberang said:

That's a lot of emoji.

Yep, that's me! The signature of the Spider!???☺️??❤️??️?️❤️??❤️???? *BIG HUGS!* BUDDY!???????☺️?❤️?????❤️?❤️??❤️☺️❤️?❤️?

[Tinybabyboy76]

11 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

So, if you do first person (1P), you are literally barring yourself as the narrator from telling people what other people are thinking or what they're doing if you (the main character) are not in the room or otherwise privy to the conversation.  If you switch off and talk about what someone else is thinking or what they're doing off-camera (because the camera is the eyes of the main character), then you're breaking the narrative and ruining the suspension of disbelief. 

The same is true if you operate in third-person limited (3PL), where we're only talking about what one person is doing.  But third-person omniscient (3PO) gives you the freedom of telling people what is going on everywhere.  

The flip side is, 3PO creates an *expectation* that you talk about what everyone is doing.

Personally, I like 1P or 3PL for stuff that really just centers around the main character and I don't really want anyone to care about anything else.  3PO is best suited for a story where there are a lot of little subplots that involve some of the characters some of the time and others at other times. 

Thanks! This is really helpful!

[Personalias]

On 1/5/2022 at 10:11 PM, Tinybabyboy76 said:

Hi,

I imagine this may have been discussed previously but I am having a difficult time searching properly.

I am working on trying to write a story for the first time. In my initial draft I started out writing out in first person but I am wondering if that will be best for me or if I should switch to third?

What are some of the pros and cons for third person and first person?

Thanks,

Max

Point of view is how you control the mind's eye camera from the reader.

Third person, be it limited or omniscient, is closer to a classic T.V. show and the reader feels like they are sitting at home watching.  Observing the action but more of voyeur and still divorced from the going's on.

First person is having a single character whisper in the audience's ear.  "Hey buddy, lemme tell you a story. Follow me!" It's more intimate.

Both are good tools depending on how you use them.

[dlover49]

One occasional gripe about first person is when the narrator does not make it clear of sex, approximate age etc.

 

[tammie2]

I am a writer and have published three mystery novels with a fourth on the way later this year. All of them are in first person because I want the reader to see only what the main character sees and to hear his thought processes. I think this works well with mysteries because the motives and thoughts of all of the other characters are hidden from the reader, heightening the suspense. That being said, it's more difficult to write from that perspective and there are a lot of mainstream readers who refuse to read first person fiction. When I write AB stories, it's always third person. I prefer it because then I can show the thoughts of the character being babied, the person who forced him into that role, and everyone around them. It really comes down to what you're comfortable with, though. 

[Tinybabyboy76]

Thank you for all the feedback!!

[TestAccountPleaseIgnore]

One thing to note is that you can write in first person, but switch who's perspective you are telling from.
This works as long as it is very obvious when the switch happens and to who. Chapter breaks are a good baseline.

As an example, some mystery novels will write the prolong from the perspective of the killer while leaving out details of their identity.

This allows the reader to learn details and motives that are kept secret from the protagonist, while giving a feel for the killer.

Honestly, write whatever feels best to you and whatever helps capture the feeling you are going for.

[Elbs]

On 2/3/2022 at 10:14 AM, dlover49 said:

One occasional gripe about first person is when the narrator does not make it clear of sex, approximate age etc.

 

Conversely, sometimes this can be an advantage of first person. Eg I often use first person perspective when I'm writing about a character who's questioning their gender identity, because I can avoid the issue of gendered pronouns that way.

[WBDaddy]

On 2/3/2022 at 11:14 AM, dlover49 said:

One occasional gripe about first person is when the narrator does not make it clear of sex, approximate age etc.

 

Frankly, this is a function of the narrator failing to weave clues into the story (not two-sentence info dumps like "so and so was 20, 5'1", 120 lbs etc) to backfill that information.

Though, if your gripe is that you don't have that information  at the outset of the story, I guess I understand why people resort to the info dumps around here.  

[ValentinesStuff]

16 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

Frankly, this is a function of the narrator failing to weave clues into the story (not two-sentence info dumps like "so and so was 20, 5'1", 120 lbs etc) to backfill that information.

Though, if your gripe is that you don't have that information  at the outset of the story, I guess I understand why people resort to the info dumps around here.  

There is a Kindle author that introduces every character: Mary (28 years old, blonde, 5'4", B-Cup) 

Fortunately all their book covers are similar, so they're easy to avoid.

[WBDaddy]

7 minutes ago, ValentinesStuff said:

There is a Kindle author that introduces every character: Mary (28 years old, blonde, 5'4", B-Cup) 

Fortunately all their book covers are similar, so they're easy to avoid.

The worst part about that kind of introduction is that they feel like the breast size is important enough to mention as part of the fucking intro.  Which is so fucking degrading to women.  "Who cares about your personality, all that matters is how big your titties are!"

 

[Cute_Kitten]

12 hours ago, WBDaddy said:

The worst part about that kind of introduction is that they feel like the breast size is important enough to mention as part of the fucking intro.  Which is so fucking degrading to women.  "Who cares about your personality, all that matters is how big your titties are!"

 

It cracks me up when writers (and I use that term very loosely) insist on giving exact cup and band measurements. "She was busty/ buxom is one thing. But "she wore a76 triple G bra" just reads as very fappy. As you said, it's degrading to women. A casual mention of relative boob size is okay as part of an overall description- like "the thick sweater made her small chest look flat like a boy. Like a pancake." 

Though I'll admit now I'm tempted to write a story with "She had BIG HONKIN BOOBIES!!? So big she'd suffocate if she slept on her back and at the gym she had to wear 20 sports bras to keep her jumbo jugs from bouncing up and giving her a black eye" ?

[~Brian~]

23 minutes ago, Cute_Kitten said:

It cracks me up when writers (and I use that term very loosely) insist on giving exact cup and band measurements. "She was busty/ buxom is one thing. But "she wore a76 triple G bra" just reads as very fappy. As you said, it's degrading to women. A casual mention of relative boob size is okay as part of an overall description- like "the thick sweater made her small chest look flat like a boy. Like a pancake." 

Though I'll admit now I'm tempted to write a story with "She had BIG HONKIN BOOBIES!!? So big she'd suffocate if she slept on her back and at the gym she had to wear 20 sports bras to keep her jumbo jugs from bouncing up and giving her a black eye" ?

@Cute_Kitten
 

yeah something tells me you would do exactly that – I agree: a story is a story, but it sounds a little bit “brash“ to come directly out at the first opportunity to describe someone’s boob size. A casual mention of it is one thing, but if you are an author and you are developing your story, you develop your characters, I saw that you describe how they Are, and what Kind of people they are, and you do that by developing the character: I admit that there are stories that I like, But I prefer to be able to read the story, and actually imagine the person that is being described. The better the description given, the easier it is for the reader to get into the story itself. As in real life, I don’t judge a person’s breast size, or their butt size when making a decision like this – I like to think that the person that I am dealing with is showing me what type of person they are, By their actions, their words, and the way they conduct themselves.

I was always taught that “beauty is skin deep“ and this means that a person could be one way on the outside, but you have to determine how a person acts responds and and deals with situations, because basically the most important thing is what a woman is to a guy on the inside: you could have a person with the biggest breast size on the planet, but they could act like a total dweeb or a two year old, while you would have other women that may not be as “pleasurable“ to look at, but they have a heart of gold.

no I’m not saying that women are dweebs or anything like that. What I’m trying to say is that brush size is not that important. What is important is the person itself and what’s on the inside that counts! In order to prove that, you just be yourself, and that’s the basic way you do that. You could also be a pretty lady, And have a good head on your shoulders, and be able to handle yourself well, and that is important as well. Judging a person based on their butt size or their breast size is not exactly something that would make a story interesting, but I guess there are some people who have dreams like that. Women should not be considered “playThings” because they do have a mind, and they do have their beliefs and their characteristics: so as I said, breast size is not the only attribute that I look for when I end up reading a good story, because what I look for is a story that as well thought out, well executed, and one that will take the reader, myself, and put me in the situation of the author. By that I mean, an author may say something like: “Brian sees a pretty woman, she smiles at him and gives him a big hug. Brian is tired, so she offers Him a seat, and tells him to put his feet up: she then gives him A massage on his tired legs, and tells him “I will take care of you”

if a woman is “well endowed“, I have no objection to someone stating that, but the idea of sexualizing women may not be a good thing. In my example above, I acknowledge that the woman is pretty, and that I like her, and she offers me a seat, and then offers to help me. She makes me feel good, and helps me relax. However, all the ladies that I have dealt with in my life I’ve been pretty good to me, And I have always been taught to show respect: do not do that, would make me look like a fool: someday I would like to be able to have a female companion, but if I’m going to do that, I have to treat her with respect, and treat her like a lady, and not as an object.

this is just my two cents: I guess because of the way I was raised, I always try to be respectful of the opposite sex, and be respectful of everyone in general.

Brian

[LittleFenny]

Keep in mind that an entire book is not necessarily written in only a single choice of person. When I started writing Finding New Things (incomplete, but it will eventually be getting more!) it was an intentional choice to write James in 1st Person and Andrea in 3rd Person, 3rd Person Limited but I don't recall that I thought that deeply on 3PL vs 3PO but you only ever get comments on what's going on in her head not other characters or things outside her perception. Having James in 1st and Andrea in 3rd provides another level of separation between the two characters beyond the header when the viewpoint changes. To my mind the main story there is James' reaction to ending up in a new world and finding himself in a situation where he's not in diapers by choice and as I figure he's the character most readers will identify with he's the one who gets 1st Person. The other half of the story is Andrea's, but I figured even any women reading were more likely to be identifying with the ABDL James than the non-human, graduate student, research scientist who accidentally yoinked a guy off another Earth, and so she got 3rd Person. That said, I suppose any Mommy/Daddy/Caretaker types on the site who read might identify more with her.

 

This is a decision that's also coming up in the stories I'm currently doing prep work for. One, that I'm currently calling 'Tweener Blues, I am expecting to entirely or almost entirely tell from one character's perspective so my expectation is that it will be in 1st person. Another, which is also set in my own version of the Diaper Dimension that I'm developing, I'm thinking may well be a split viewpoint between an Amazon and Little, but I'm thinking here it will probably be 3rd Person Limited for both of them. Visited By The Continence Fairy (which at this very moment I have finally come up with a working title for) will likely be another split 1st/3rd. It's about a boy living in an Earth in which tooth fairies are is is visited in the opening by a young tooth fairy who notices he wet the bed when she's swapping his lost tooth for some coins and decides that this is the perfect time to set in motion her plan to start a new branch of fairies, the Continence Fairies and will at this point I'm expecting scenes from both their viewpoints. Some scenes from her as she tries to get recognition for the new Continence Fairies (and recruit others so it isn't just her) and other scenes from the boy after he wakes up to discover his bed is now an oversized toddler bed, his dresser converted into a dresser/changing table, and all his underwear traded for diapers. That might change however as I'm thinking there may be additional viewpoints from family and others in the community as the fairy finds other opportunities to unleash the magic potential she's been saving up for this. If I do expand the number of viewpoint characters, even if most remain the fairy and boy, then I might well go 3rd Person Limited or Omniscient for everyone.

[Cute_Kitten]

4 hours ago, ~Brian~ said:

: someday I would like to be able to have a female companion, but if I’m going to do that, I have to treat her with respect, and treat her like a lady, and not as an object.

 

Or become a billionaire like Hugh Hefner and have a trophy wife you exchange ever 5-10 years for a newer/younger/ hotter model. ? (I joke I joke!)

[WehavePi314]

I’m fond of third person limited with multiple characters a la Game of Thrones.   It really lets you dig deep into each character’s mindset and speech patterns to see the world from all viewpoints.

 Only downside I’ve found is the sheer amount of deep dives you find yourself doing to get the details on each character right.   Remembering what dialects they all use or which character never uses a direct yes or no or which character uses which swear word habitually takes a chart sometimes.  

On 4/17/2022 at 3:34 PM, Cute_Kitten said:

It cracks me up when writers (and I use that term very loosely) insist on giving exact cup and band measurements. "She was busty/ buxom is one thing. But "she wore a76 triple G bra" just reads as very fappy. As you said, it's degrading to women. A casual mention of relative boob size is okay as part of an overall description- like "the thick sweater made her small chest look flat like a boy. Like a pancake." 

Though I'll admit now I'm tempted to write a story with "She had BIG HONKIN BOOBIES!!? So big she'd suffocate if she slept on her back and at the gym she had to wear 20 sports bras to keep her jumbo jugs from bouncing up and giving her a black eye" ?

It comes off fappy when it’s stated by someone who clearly has no idea how breasts work.  If your character has big honkin’ boobies, I damn well expect them to feel the consequences of having her bra taken away by whoever is doing the babying.  
 

The more… well-endowed of us would not enjoy going about bra-less in a onesie.  Any society that habitually babies grown women (looking at you, DD) would have developed a solution to that.   On the benevolent end some combination of a binder and camisole, on the evil end some nanite removal type thing.

[Cute_Kitten]

5 hours ago, WehavePi314 said:

I’m fond of third person limited with multiple characters a la Game of Thrones.   It really lets you dig deep into each character’s mindset and speech patterns to see the world from all viewpoints.

 Only downside I’ve found is the sheer amount of deep dives you find yourself doing to get the details on each character right.   Remembering what dialects they all use or which character never uses a direct yes or no or which character uses which swear word habitually takes a chart sometimes.  

It comes off fappy when it’s stated by someone who clearly has no idea how breasts work.  If your character has big honkin’ boobies, I damn well expect them to feel the consequences of having her bra taken away by whoever is doing the babying.  
 

The more… well-endowed of us would not enjoy going about bra-less in a onesie.  Any society that habitually babies grown women (looking at you, DD) would have developed a solution to that.   On the benevolent end some combination of a binder and camisole, on the evil end some nanite removal type thing.

My previous post was very tongue-in cheek with examples exaggerated for comedic effect to poke some genial fun at the type of stories that tend to use in depth physical description (most notably on the exact cup and band size bra and size of clothing) a female character wears instead of focusing on the characterization/ personality. It's this fixation on the specific measurements and ignoring other elements that give off the fappy vibes. 

But yes, generally if a female character has large breasts, the reality of how that affects her should be shown. the TL;DR of my post- boobs are just part of the package, not the whole package when writing a female character. Yet in certain types of stories, females are all reduced to their boobs and panties (diapers).  

Now to get this thread back on topic, I tend to freely mix third person omniscient and third person limited when I write 3rd person. It's not something I consciously do, it just tends to happen. The only time I've written in 1st person was when I co-wrote "Of Leopards and Their Spots" with Personalias all those moons ago.

Various POVs are just various tools in the writer's tool box. I'd advise using whatever you (general you) feel more comfortable with/ drawn to, or whatever you feel works best for what you want to accomplish in your writing.

[Ohmo]

Writers tell stories. To me that means first or third person, which can be mixed and mingled as long as the voice is consistent in a scene.

I do not read anything written in 2nd person because I am a cranky baby that does not like to be told what to do by a complete stranger.

[spark]

For me, it depends on what I'm trying to get across.   A well-written first person allows the reader to experience the protagonist's story as it happens.  I personally like that in a story.   Field of Dreams was told in the first-person and really worked that way.  The main point of the story was the reconciliation between Ray and his dad, which only works if you experience it from Ray's perspective.     If it was 3rd person- I would want to know what the hell is behind the corn- which wasn't the point of the story, and since Ray didn't know- the audience couldn't either.  

But if you're in another universe/reality, I think you need to be a 3rd-person perspective.  Try to tell Star Wars from Luke's, Leia's, or Han's perspective.  Godfather is how you can zero in a character (Michael) but then use the privilege of 3rd-person to expand on the story.

FTR- most ABDL fiction is crap (no offense- and 90% of what I write is crap).  In that case- it doesn't matter.   Crap is crap and it would be crap if it was in 1st, 2nd, 3rd person, or even the terrible duel POV format that people sometimes use.  1st of all if you do that- use the third person, but if you do that it will be crap anyway, so who cares.

The last two stories were in both in 3rd person and then the 1st person.  The third person was R.A.D.S. where I created this reality where there is adult daycare.  The first time I wrote it, it was from a 1st person perspective (and male- because I can't write 1st person female), but then I wrote it in 3rd person, but from the perspective of the original's character's sister as a prequel.  It worked, and it was the first time I wrote from a female perspective.   Btw- it's much easier writing feminized characters in ABDL fiction.      It worked in the third person, because I had to jump into the motives of various characters to make the story work.

On the other hand, this is the 4th time that I've tried to write the current story that I'm writing.     3rd person was clunky, but it was even clunky in the first person.  Each time I started to write I got it closer.   I've ended up with a 1st person narrative from a socially awkward character that is hard to describe (My New Mommy).  In this case- I think the limits of 1st person works.