: Choosing between first and third person I'm not an author, but I often wonder if I was to write a novel would it be best in third person or first person? I like being able to delve into

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I strongly prefer third-person limited in much of my own writing, but there are few cases where first-person stands out:

when your viewpoint character has a distinctive voice (e.g. Huckleberry Finn);
when you want to have an unreliable narrator (e.g. Holden Caulfield).

There are, of course, exceptions that define the rules. The Thirteenth Tale, includes a deceptive narrator telling her history to the viewpoint character.

From what I've read, you will find a lot of omniscient-view third person in older books, but it seems to have faded in popularity. The only times I've really noticed it myself, though, it had distracted me from the story, so examples of well-written omniscient perspective could have slipped by me.

Your market might also influence the choice of viewpoint. It appears [citation needed] that teen/YA SF stories these days favor first person, while adult SF favors third-person limited. I can't speak for other genres.

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Third person limited may be what you are looking for. This is where the narration is given in the third person, using third person pronouns, but is limited to the thoughts and experiences of one character.

This style allows you to see inside the head of a character, but it isn't quite as limiting as first person. For example, you can write a scene from the point of view of another character, and if you do it right, it won't be too jarring for the reader (this is sometimes called third person alternating). This allows you to give away important information that the main character doesn't know.

The Wikipedia page on narration explains various narrative perspectives and some examples of each.

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Third person is the best way to go, especially if you are a novice writer.

Many writers make the mistake of using first person narrative thinking they need to explain what's going on instead of showing what's going on.

While I write plays, they follow the third person even though every character is speaking in first person. But it is the character speaking, and not the writer telling.

If you are very skilled, you could get away with a first person narrative, whether injected into a story or do a whole story in first person.

You need to be a skilled writer to pull that off. It is not that it is difficult to write. What is difficult is to get your readers to buy into it. That is where the skill resides.

In plays, I have to use diaglog that advances my plot, and if I write in an action scene, it must also do the same. Most plays, it's not about the dialog as much as what is done on stage with it.

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