I don't hate 2nd person, but save for a piece to which I gave a crit here in the forum, I cannot say I've ever read anything of length written in this POV. As regards writing it, I would be hard pressed to deal with the phenomenon of both the person talking at me, and me the reader, being "on set" at all times. Maybe that's not part of it. Don't know, but it would seem to be..?
We're used to the mental gymnastics required to read, say, a first person past-tense narrative set in the 23rd century. We know the "I" isn't actually the author (know the author isn't a space cowboy born a hundred years in the future), we know the things that are being described in the novel in past tense haven't actually happened in the past, etc. We've trained our brains to accept all that. There's no reason we can't train our brains to accept second person, too. We just haven't read enough of it to be comfortable with it. and that's enough of a disadvantage that I think we shouldn't write in second person without a damn good reason. There's nothing inherently less natural or more difficult about second person, but readers aren't used to it.
It would seem the second person is almost a form of omniscience. Like the narrator would have an unlimited God-brain thing going on to be able to create a "you" character and oversee all its machinations.
In Bright Lights Big City the effect was quite close, certainly not omniscient - I think the narrative distance is just as flexible in second as it is in other persons.
I like the use of second with an omniscient narrator, but I certainly don't think it has to be this way. Maybe it would take a little more finesse to do an objective narrator with no access to thoughts, future, etc., but even that I'm not quite sure. I think it might just be a case of unfamiliarity on my part.
I've written a short story in second person - I enjoyed it, personally... It's at [], at least for the "look inside" aspect... Damn, seems like the Amazon links are messed up again? Take the space out from after www. for the following address and it should work: https://www. amazon.com/Rough-Broke-Dark-Horse-Book-ebook/dp/B0061FZJEA It feels pretty "tell"-y to me, skimming it now, but I don't really think that has anything to do with second person.
The Amazon links from here are so frustrating. I put the link in with a space to make it show up for cut-and-paste, if you want to try that...
@BayView none of that stuff bothers me when I'm reading (tense, POV, whatever). I can understand second person rubbing people the wrong way more than he others because it's so uncommon and seems more artificial in a way, but artifice is part of writing, at least from an artistic viewpoint. I do think second person is more likely to be bungled than other POVs.
I tend to think this is exactly why we should write in the tense. Obviously, if you're trying to sell work as quickly as possible then it might not be a good idea in terms of marketing, but I've seen a bunch of articles lambasting second person which say to never, under any circumstances write in second-person. That's just strange to me. My recent obsession with it has put a spark back into the craft that I'd been lacking since my daughter was born ten weeks ago.
