Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Point of View

The letter P stands for Point of View.

(repost)

Frankly, I think writing in FIRST person point of view is MUCH easier than writing in third person. Why?


Here's my number one reason:

When referring to parents, do you write:

1. Abby's mother
2. Her mother
3. Mom

According to "Uncle Orson's Writing Class" (click here) you should use Mom (basically). To quote: "You refer to the parents by the names or titles that the point of view character would use."

But ... according to Meg Chittenden (click here) you should use her mother (basically). To quote: "She was getting sick of her mom yelling at her for something that wasn't her fault."

What's your vote?

I'm going with Uncle Orson.

5 comments:

  1. I think it depends on context and tone. In first person you would use both at different times, so you would in L3 too. Most of the time you would use Mom to make the bond strongest between character and reader.

    The Chittenden example is skewed to help make her point, you wouldn't use 'her mom' you would just say: "She was getting sick of Mom yelling at her for something that wasn't her fault."

    mood
    Moody Writing

    ReplyDelete
  2. I also think it all depends on the tone of the individual story.

    I also have a friend who refers to his parents by their first names. So what happens when your character does that?

    ReplyDelete
  3. I love writing in first person. I for some reason have such a hard time writing in third.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hear what you're saying, but it depends on your aduience. I find it much easier to read YA books in the first person than I do adult books. For me, adult fiction needs to be in the third person. Quirky, I know, but there you go!

    ReplyDelete