Second person

Leah_Michelle · May 26, 2009

Has anyone ever tried to write in second person? It's always been interesting to me and I'm surprised that not many people use it. It seems as easy to use as all of the other POVs and it still puts the reader into the story, even more so than first person. So what's wrong with it? Why is it so unpopular?

The only books I know of are the Choose Your Own Adventure ones. Other than that, nada. Anyone know actual fiction books that use this POV?

Danthia · May 26, 2009

The only one I know of that was successful was Bright Lights, Big City. Though I kinda remember seeing a YA/MG that used it, but I couldn't tell you the title. An older book I think. Second person is one of those POVs that is almost universally hated.

Dale Emery · May 26, 2009

Leah_Michelle said:
It seems as easy to use as all of the other POVs and it still puts the reader into the story, even more so than first person.

I don't think it does put the reader into the story. The minute you say something about "you" that isn't true, you've broken the reader's trance. It's really hard to maintain the trance in second person. And (perhaps partly because second person is so unusual) it takes more time and more skill to induce the reader's trance.

When I read first person, the author always has a few extra hurdles to leap, a few extra questions to answer: Who is the narrator telling the story to? Why is the narrator telling this story? (I have a hunch that it's mostly we fellow writers who demand answers to those questions, but still.)

Second person imposes the same hurdles plus a few others: Who is narrating? Why is the narrator addressing me personally? Why would I be in this story? Wait a minute... is the narrator addressing me or some other person? In any case, why is the narrator telling the story to the main character as if the main character wasn't there? Or is the use of second person really a dissociated form of first person, the way you see in interviews of, say, sports stars: "You know, you play your best game; sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."

When I read second person, these hurdles always get in my way. Sometimes (rarely) I can get past them to the story.

Dennis Lehane had a second-person story ("Until Gwen", maybe?) in his book Coronado. In the end, I liked the story, but the second-person POV definitely got in my way, and I can't see that it added anything worth the trouble.

Dale

djf881 · May 26, 2009

You are not going to write in second-person.

Leah_Michelle · May 26, 2009

Dale Emery said:
I don't think it does put the reader into the story. The minute you say something about "you" that isn't true, you've broken the reader's trance.

That can go the same for first person though. 'I' puts you in the story, and while you know the narrator, you still feel yourself in their spot because of first person.

However, I see what you mean about how hard that would be to set the narrator.

For me personally, I've never read anything second person except for fan fiction and I didn't mind it at all. I thought it was a really interesting way to get into the story. I tend to forget myself when I read and go with the flow of what is happening, so when something doesn't apply to me, I think nothing of it. That might just be my mindset though. I don't know how others react.

ccarver30 · May 26, 2009

I had to look this up to get a clear idea of it. It's weird.

dpaterso · May 26, 2009

Ditto.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_of_view_(literature)#Second-person_narrative_mode

-Derek

Leah_Michelle · May 26, 2009

Yeah, it is different, but I don't mind it personally. No POV seems to bother me. I don't think I could write like these, but I don't mind to read them at all.

The Lonely One · May 26, 2009

Good writing is good writing. I think 2nd person lends to shorts, not longs (isn't that the technical term?), but that's just me.

I'll read whatever's good. My "reader's suspension of disbelief" isn't so fragile that I'll react like, "but I didn't really do that!" It's just a kind of voice that can lose its effect real quick, I think. That in mind, just write something good already! That's what I keep telling myself...

aadams73 · May 26, 2009

It's funny, my first instinct is to say that second-person does not work for me. However, any POV done well quickly becomes invisible. At least it does for me.

Diana W. · May 26, 2009

I've never read a 2nd person novel. I read a few of those "Choose your own adventure" books as a kid. They were ok. But a whole novel written like that? I think I would find that too jarring.

Claudia Gray · May 26, 2009

I've seen this done well, but it's tough, tough, tough to do.

cbenoi1 · May 26, 2009

I've seen it applied to a biography and found it very difficult to read.

-cb

scarletpeaches · May 26, 2009

Epistolary novels can be written in second person. Chunks of We Need to Talk About Kevin were in second, as I recall.

jennontheisland · May 26, 2009

The only one I can think of is a short story about a dragon that SPMiller posted in SYW. That was effin funny.

Well, it and the "choose your own adventure" stories I read as a kid.

eveningstar · May 26, 2009

Half-Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins is written entirely in second person. The "you" is a distinct character, not the reader.

I have second person interludes throughout one of my WIPs. I received varying but mostly positive reactions on it from my beta readers. Some people just dislike it, even when it works.

ORION · May 26, 2009

Read Joshua Ferris' And Then We Came to the End.
It was all in second person and it's brilliant!!

unicornjam · May 26, 2009

I don't mind the second-person POV. But I've never read a whole novel in that format -- only one short story and I enjoyed it.

Kris · May 26, 2009

ORION said:
Read Joshua Ferris' And Then We Came to the End.
It was all in second person and it's brilliant!!

Was just going to mention that.

Ideas 'R' Us · May 26, 2009

I think I tried to write in second-person once. It didn't go particularly well. I've never read a novel in second-person though. I think it would be interesting if it was well done, but it would be hard to execute.

Blue Sky · May 26, 2009

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerny is well done. I second that recommendation. I picked it up in a used bookstore on Uncle Jim's recommendation in his thread (somewhere in those thousands of posts). Highly recommended if you intend to explore 2nd person writing.

I'm intrigued by second person as well. If a story calls for it, I'll use it. Writers don't use it regularly, so readers tend to be uncomfortable with it.

Thanks for the other recommendations, guys! I'll check them out.

Leah_Michelle · May 26, 2009

ORION said:
Read Joshua Ferris' And Then We Came to the End.
It was all in second person and it's brilliant!!

That's exactly what I'm looking for. I want to actually sit down and see the perspective, a lengthy one.

I really am surprised. I posted this thread thinking that most people do in fact hate that POV with a passion and that I was just strange in liking it :tongue

. I'm pleasantly surprised that this is not the case.

Thanks for the input. I'll be checking those out this summer for sure

Rebekah7 · May 26, 2009

I have a sort of second person in the beginning of my WIP. Well, not really. It's more of a bodyless awareness that turns to third person once the POV character becomes aware of his surroundings. I don't know if I'd ever do a second person fiction story, simply because it would be hard to develop the character in the main POV. I wouldn't mind reading it if it was done well.

nevada · May 26, 2009

ORION said:
Read Joshua Ferris' And Then We Came to the End.
It was all in second person and it's brilliant!!

I just read an except of this book and the beginning at least is not second person. It's first person. First person plural. "We"

And scarlett's example of epistalitory novels being in second person, thats not correct either. Even if the letter is addressed to "you" and talks about all the things "you" does, the letter is written by a character and addresses a second, distinct character and therefore it is not second person. I suspect that's the case with "We need to talk about kevin" as well.

Second person is really tricky. There is no narrator, no character addressing "you". "you" is not any one person, not another character being addressed by the narrator, nor, even, is "you" meant to be the reader as such. I've read several writing books where the example given for 2nd person was cleary 1st or third. Just because "you" is addressed does not make it 2nd person. A book written, for example, in diary form by a character who likes to address herself as "you" in her diary is 1st person, not 2nd.

nevada · May 26, 2009

That's exactly what I'm looking for. I want to actually sit down and see the perspective, a lengthy one.

Your choice then would be to read "bright lights, big city." Definitely second person, full-length novel.

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