Vaginal Fantasy Book Club discussion

Hey guys. Just wanted to start a quick thread on your forum. Which person do you guys prefer? I know a lot of people that will not read or write a story in a person they don't like. Do you guys know people like that? Do you guys have a particular point of view that you favor in books or is it all the same to you? This also applies to what tense you may prefer.

I find books written in the present tense distracting and affected. It's possible for an author to pull off the occasional tense shift in narrative in order to convey immediacy, but an entire book written in present tense quickly grows annoying.

(The modern trend for newscasters to speak in the present tense is equally obnoxious.)

By "1st, 2nd, or 3rd" in the title of your post, I think your referring to first person, second person or third person?

If that's the case, I've only rarely read books written in the second person. I found it even more distracting than present tense. I've enjoyed Tom Robbins books in the past, for example, but Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas is in second person, present tense, and I found that a somewhat obvious, and ultimately weak, shift in his normal narrative style.

First person is fine if the story is going to stay in that one character's perspective, but even a single POV change can make that problematic. It's possible to pull off--if I recall correctly, Muriel Barbery does it in The Elegance of the Hedgehog--but it's a tough thing to do without something like big chapter titles announcing the POV character for that section of the novel.

If an author has a Really Good Reason for some sort of change of voice and tense then OK, but for the most part it's probably neither as creative nor as edgy as they might think. In and of itself, it doesn't convey such a step away from convention as to be innovative, so it winds up just being kind of silly.

Thanks for that. I just updated it.

You're welcome.

Isn't The Sound and the Fury in first person from the POV of several characters? I'd have to hit my bookshelf to be sure.... It seems to me that it is, though, and he does an interesting job of conveying the different characters in different tones. That'd be another example of how a first person narrative with multiple perspectives might be done well--assuming I'm right, that is. Been a while since I've read that one.

Second is hard to do, but the world would be poorer without works like If on a winter's night a traveler. It's even a romance. The second person part is in the present tense.

I'm ok with wizardry, provided it is well-carried off. In A Song for Arbonne, Guy Gavriel Kay embeds a flashback within another flashback, and you don't even notice. Chapters set in Gorhaut are in the present tense, which i did notice, but mainly found odd (kind of like the use of colour versus black-and-white in the movie Die Himmel über Berlin).

Margaret Atwood switches from 1st to 3rd (or is it the other way around) in the middle of The Edible Woman to emphasize the protagonist's alienation.

On the other hand, C.J. Cherryh did several novels in the Foreigner series in tight third person, never once shifting view-point characters. It's only several books in when she introduces a second view-point, and it's only then that you realize how awesomely virtuosic this is.

Tense shifts are hard to take for me because I feel they make the story jerky and a bit jumbled. This is in general as there are a few authors here and there that can handle it.

As for POV I prefer third person. I feel that this allows the reader to engage with the characters more. I also feel that unless it is a really good author that first person POV is very hard to get into for me.

If the author is good then those things become a bit less important to me, but I will admit I do avoid first person POV books because they rarely flow right for me. But that's just my two cents. :)

I prefer third person, although I have no problem with shifting viewpoints even on the same page. I usually try to avoid first person narratives as, unless the author is a really good writer, it just takes me out of the story and distances me from the character(s). On the other hand, one of my top five favourite books is written in first person and I've read it about 10 times. There are a few other authors who can pull it off for me, but I certainly don't look for it.

Present tense bothers me in much the same way. It also seems to be easier for the author to make a mistake and slip into past tense which then brings out my English degree in spades. :)

I prefer third person. Only for the fact that I like to feel like I'm looking in on their world. First person is a good one too if I want to know what a person is thinking. With first person you get to see through the eyes of one person and not the whole scenario. But if you are going to have a plot twist then first person is the best way to go with it I think.

Gabrielle wrote: "Hey guys. Just wanted to start a quick thread on your forum. Which person do you guys prefer? I know a lot of people that will not read or write a story in a person they don't like. Do you guys kno..."


If it's well-written, any point of view or tense works for me.

I don't really have a preference, I'm willing to give the author a chance to prove they know what they're doing whatever method they choose.

I do have a pet peeve though, and for me it boils right down to laziness on the author's part. If they are going to use 1st POV for one character through the first 3 books, don't all of a sudden decide to switch to a different POV for a few chapters and expect everything to be honky-dory. Yes, I'm looking at you Twilight, I don't care how dreamy Jacob is, it's Bella's story and her POV, and it's plain lazy to break this standard just b/c it's easier. However, if an author wants to do 1st POV with multiple characters from the start (like Mr. George R.R. Martin in A Song of Fire and Ice) I'm totally okay with that.

The important thing for me is that the author abide by the rules s/he establishes.

I agree that if it's written well that it doesn't matter. However, I personally prefer first person perspective. I do really think this depends on the writing though,so this possibly isn't the most helpful answer :D

I like past tense best, in either 1st or 3rd, but that bit largely depends on the story.

I like first person romances and I don't mind if there is more than one POV as long as the author is adept at making it clear who is speaking. I find first person more intimate and personal.
I've also seen an author use 1st person for the main character and third person when she wanted to convey the thoughts/actions of others. She did it very successfully.

Lori - do you by chance remember the book/author that successfully switched between first and third pov? I'd like to check that out.

Yep - her name is Regina Duke and the book was My Vampire Wedding. It's a very fun paranormal romance. I'm not into paranormal, but this was sweet and interesting - an excellent read!

I like 3rd limited best, 1st in past is fine if the character is engaging enough to merit it. Personally, I will not read 2nd. It makes me uncomfortable.

In this month's read The Lions of Al-Rassan there's a sudden tense shift right in the middle of a scene from past to present and a change in sentence structure from active voice to passive, and I found it REALLY distracting.

I know what he was going for. It was supposed to be a moment of shock. One character just died and another revealed his presence. Everybody is stunned. He was trying to create a whole "out of body" weird experience by using passive sentences, and give it immediacy with the present tense.

But, honestly, it just took me right out of the book so badly that I've put it down. Maybe I'll pick it up again at some point (I wasn't hating it up until then) but even when he shifted back to his regular style I find myself wondering when he's going to do it again, so I'm reading it with a little frown on my face....

I used to really prefer third person perspective and it took me a long time to get used to first. I think it was when I was listening to the Sookie Stackhouse audio books several years ago that I got used to first-person. Now I'm just more concerned with a good story. As long as the story and the writing are solid, I'm okay with either style.

always third. I'm okay with first, but second is awful. You you you. Nope, not for me.