: Im wondering if for a unique writing tactic, could i shift from first to third person? As a way to show exposition of my characters background,In a dream sequence could I use third person

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Many comic books already do this where the picture and spoken dialog is third person but the text box (typically for the story narrator) are often in first person. Notable examples would be the "Ultimate Spider-man" line where Spidey's internal monolog is contained in Text Boxes, "Superman/Batman" where two different colored text boxes contain the thoughts of the two titualar heros (normally a golden yellow for Superman and a cool Blue for Batman) and would often be counterpoints to one another. In a final nod, Deadpool, aware that he's in a comic, openly acknowledges his text boxes in his inner monologs.

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It wouldn't make it unique. Now that self-publishing has really taken off, people get really wild with POVs...

The main risk is that of confusing your reader. If your reader thinks you don't know how POVs work, or they can't tell whose POV they're in, they might just quit the novel. I can't remember the name of it, but I was listening to an epic fantasy audiobook where the writer switched it up halfway into the book and I nearly quit right then and there. He switched it back by the next chapter, but still...

It's a very jarring thing to do. I personally cannot think of a single time an author getting experimental with POVs ever helped a story...

But I've seen it a lot in stuff that's written week-by-week, like fanfiction and stories on wattpad. If you're doing something like that where you can write a little author's note at the top or wherever explaining to your readers, "Hey, I'm changing temporarily to 3rd person in this dream sequence chapter," then that makes it all much less jarring, and everyone stays on board. Hopefully.

The main thing I'd recommend is just to avoid confusing the reader when/if you decide to do it.

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