Furry Writers' Guild Forum

Second-Person perspective

General Writing Discussion
#1

I’ve been fiddling with second-person perspective recently. I think it’s kind of gimmicky, personally, but I feel there are corner cases that it can be used well. I think for example “Bright Lights, Big City,” used it well to get across the feeling of heroine addiction. I’m thinking about checking the book out, as I’ve only read excerpts. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions on this particular perspective, or anything they’ve read that has or has not used it well?

I will put in a quick aside that it’s extremely common on video games, for which it is much more suited.

#2

I once used second person in a “choose your own adventure” type of story. I found it restrictive.

#3

Choose-your-own adventures are also a common place to find second-person narration, I forgot about that. How did you find it restrictive? And what POV do you usually write in, out of curiosity?

#4

Hmm. That’s a difficult question. I suppose what makes it so hard is the fact that it feels as though I were imposing upon the reader (more than usual). Mmmmm, I’m not expressing myself well.

Maybe it’s something like, “You do this!”

“Uhh…no I don’t, you crazy person.”

That isn’t to say that second person perspective can’t be done right; it can. It just seems to have limited compatibility with my own style in particular.

I usually write in either first person or in third person omnipotent.

#5

Okay, that makes sense. I feel like that’s a lot of the point of it, to really drive home a sense of helplessness. I’ve heard some readers use it to create an intimate voice, which I think it can work for, too.

#6

Here’s a furry story by Brian Lee Cook that impressed me with its use of second person:

Dreams in the Sky

#7

I had a brief idea sometime a little while ago about doing a second person POV horror story. It would essentially marginalize the narrator’s viewpoint as much as possible, allowing the reader to really feel on edge within the story.
Still haven’t really worked out the specifics on how, but it’s another idea that I think could work.

#8

I like this. I don’t think the second person is used quite as strongly as it could be in some places, but in others it’s used wonderfully, such as: “One morning you will wake up, your body ruffled from sleep but flowing with energy as you step outside.” It hits an emotion, a feeling, that couldn’t be evoked as effectively if the piece was first or third-person.

And Sean, I think that could work well. One of the big issues with horror in a written work as opposed to a film or video game is that it’s harder to terrify the reader. Horrifying them is just as easy/difficult across mediums, but terrifying them is distinctly more difficult to do via text. I think second-person could be a great way to solve that problem.

#9

Granted, I tend to take what might be considered an overly-literary approach to things, but I think you may need to find a few examples of second-person narration that work for you and try to figure out why they work for you.

I’ve experimented with the second person on rare occasions – twice, if memory serves. Both times it was in stories with a horror focus, and both very short (under 1000 words). I don’t think I’ve sold either piece (they’re in a “trunk” file on my flash drive somewhere), which may be more a reflection on me than on the second-person.

The hardest thing of second person is that it’s so very…“writerly.” I find it harder to get the writer to forget they’re reading and sink into the world of the story with such a constant reminder. (BTW, I have a similar issue with first-person POV, for what it’s worth. I usually only use first person when I’m telling a story with an unreliable narrator.)

It can be done, but I’ve seen it most successful in shorter pieces. I’m aware of novel length works that use it – Charles Stross’s Rule 34 and a YA novel whose name escapes me – but I’ve not read them so I can’t comment on how well they work.

#10

The only story I’ve read in second person that I really liked was “The Axiom of Choice” by David W. Goldman. It was nominated for a Nebula Award last year.

http://www.newhavenreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/NHR-9-Goldman.pdf

“The Axiom of Choice” not only uses second person effectively; I think it actually relies on second person to realize its full meaning. Given how unusual second person is as a choice and how difficult to pull off, I think it should generally be avoided. In this case, though, I think it was necessary.

#11

We talk a bit about second person pov on Fangs and Fonts where I talk about my upcoming story in Fang. (http://www.fangsandfonts.com/ and it’s Episode 3)

The story itself is about 10k and second person pov story that I initially wrote it as an experiment to see if I could. I have found that the tense you choose to use will be a big factor if it the story will succeed or fail.

Kyell Gold also did a wonderful response to a question I asked him at RF2011 I believe and if you listen to his live show of Unsheathed then you can hear his tips and hints on how to make 2nd person work for you. (my question was about using 2nd person pov in a horror setting)