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Third person past, first person present, second person?
Narration in fiction can come in many different forms, but its importance can’t be overstated. It is how the author conveys everything to the reader—the plot (obviously), setting, relationships between characters, and themes. Narrative style is one of the first decisions an author has to make before writing their novel, so let’s spend a little time talking about how I tend to approach it.
In essence, narrative style can be divided into point-of-view and tense. There are other considerations including linear/non-linear flow of events, but we’ll stick with just these two for this post.
Point-of-view (POV)
POV is how the world is presented to the reader aka who/what’s eye they see events through. The main types include first, second, and third person.
First person: If you see lots of “I” or “me” in the narration, you’re looking at first person. Someone is telling the story, and it’s usually someone involved in the story. First person used to be much more popular, for example in the Victorian era, but it has fallen out of vogue. I think many readers view first person as antiquated, but it really depends on how the author employs it.
Second person: This one is much rarer. You would recognize it by the use of “you” in the narration. The reader is somehow involved in the telling of the story. Second person doesn’t lend itself well to long-form prose (aka novels). The only examples I’ve run into are the Choose Your Own Adventure books that were popular in my childhood.
Third person: This tends to be the default POV for novels and is characterized by a nameless narrator (aka the author) talking about the characters. There are different types of third person, which basically come down to whether the narrator is focused in on one (or a limited number of characters)—their thoughts and inner musings—or if the narrator is more all-knowing.
There may be other less common types of point-of-view, but the vast majority of novels are written using one of the above POVs. Let’s move on to tense.
Tense
Beyond who is telling the story, we also have to think about when it’s being told. Are the events happening in the moment they are being conveyed, or have they already happened? Present or past tense? You only have to look at the tense of the verbs to figure out tense of the novel.
90% of the time it seems to be past tense; do not quote me on the validity of that percentage. Why? I don’t know, but I’m sure someone does. My guess is that there’s some historical reason for it. Maybe it harkens back to prose’s roots in the oral tradition where it was always “once upon a time” but never “right now.” We also tend to talk about our life in the past tense. “I went shopping, I ate a burger, I stubbed my toe.”
Just because most writers use past tense doesn’t mean it is the right tense for every story. I, personally, think the obsession with past tense is a little constraining. Writers should feel free to use what works best for them and their story. I will add that, while you can do whatever you want in creative writing, it’s usually not advisable to switch tense within a story unless you are very skilled and have a good reason for doing so.
On the note of reasons, let’s talk about why an author might employ these different narrative styles, namely the pros and cons of each.
Which is Best?
For a quick answer to the above question, none! Every narrative style gives you different tools and demands varying strategies. Let’s dig into these.
Third Person (Limited or Omniscient)
The sagacious advice given to budding writers is to stick with third person past. It is what most modern novels are written in, so most people are accustomed to seeing it. The “limited” in the parentheses refers to sticking with the focus on one or a few characters. Again, this is recommended to new writers because it is “easier” or, more accurately, leads to fewer inconsistencies. The “omniscient” route can be trickier to pull off.
The pros for the limited style are that readers can get invested in a couple of major characters. They get those characters’ thoughts on events and so form a kind of bond with them. The cons are that the story itself is limited to those characters’ experiences. What if something significant happens that none of the characters themselves are present for? Well, too bad. With limited, you can’t suddenly dive into some random no-name character to convey that information. I joke. You can do whatever you like, but it will likely feel odd and abrupt if the rest of your story focuses only on a small subset of characters.
First Person
If third person is “easier,” why would we ever bother with first person?
Intimacy!
If the writer really wants their readers to develop a bond with the characters, first person is one of the best strategies for that. We usually root for the protagonist, even if they are an awful person, but we can sympathize with them even more when we see the world through their eyes. With first person, they are talking to you, the reader, so they can even go so far as justifying why they did what they did in the story.
Another phenomenal perk of first person is the good old unreliable narrator. Maybe some people think this trope has been overused at this point, but I’d argue that it never gets old if done well. My own favorite example of how to do this superbly comes from As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. I won’t ruin the book if you haven’t read it, but in short, Faulkner has multiple alternating first-person narrators, each with their own chapters. What’s so fascinating is that he will have multiple characters relate the same event, and each time it’s completely different. More on this novel in a moment, but first, let’s touch on tense.
Past Tense
We are geared to receive stories in past tense, but there is a fatal flaw to this mode of storytelling. Namely, we know someone is still around to tell the story. If you have a third-person omniscient narrator, maybe that’s not so emersion-breaking, but if you have a story written in first-person, you know the narrator will survive by the end of it (…or maybe because you could do funky things involving spirits or such, but you get my meaning). This is personally why I am a fan of…
Present Tense
If the story unfolds under the reader’s eyes, they are inherently more engaged. This builds immediacy and tension by default. I suppose for more meditative works, this isn’t ideal, but for many, it is a powerful tool that often goes unused.
The only cons that I can think of for present tense involve the trickiness of time jumps. I (and most writers) rarely write a novel moment-to-moment. We breeze past the mundane to get to the scenes that move the plot along. Perhaps some writers find this hard to do with first person, but I’ve not had an issue myself.
In Defense of First Person Present
I told you I would come back to As I Lay Dying, and here we are. Faulkner wrote the novel in first person present with multiple unreliable narrators, and the result is a masterpiece. I love this story. The dialect can be a bit tough to get used to at first, but the reward is worth it. By writing his novel with this particular narrative style, readers find themselves bonding with the characters, caring about their struggles, and eventually choosing sides. Everyone gets to say their two-cents, but that doesn’t mean the readers sympathize with all of them. It’s just like life. We have our favorite and least favorite people.
I took a page directly from Faulkner and wrote my cyberpunk novel Nytho in first person present. Maybe it was a risky move to try for a debut novel with a less common narrative style, but to quote my lovely editor, “I don’t think the story reads half as well if you’d attempted to tell it any other way [aka not first-person present].”
What do you think of the different narrative styles? Do you have a favorite either as a reader or writer? Let me know in a comment.
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