Third Person is More Professional?

but that would be pretty confusing to the reader and not make much sense story-wise, unless you only do it as a book 1, book 2, book 3 kind of thing, where each character has a good, long turn at telling his/her side of the story... doing it more often would not be a good idea, imo...

go ahead and try it for a chapter or two and you should see what i mean...

 

You know, The Time Machine by Audre Niffenegger is a perfect example how you mess things up even when you're writing in third person (at least, I think it was written in third person). The author switches back and forth between a female character and a male character, and somehow, they both sound like the same person with the same kind of POV.

(You'll know what I mean if you've read or attempted to read the book.)

 

I've done it. I'm not saying that it went amazing, but overall the result was satisfactory. Besides, I'm a terrible writer; others really should have a much easier time with it than I did.

 

I don't really care whether the book is in first-person or third-person, present tense or past tense, just as long as it's well-written and holds my interest.

 

huh

The idea of any point of view being more professional than the other is no more than a personal opinion.

 

I wrote a whole novel that way, but none of my readers had any confusion regarding it. I (literally) was able to know the tiniest detail from them. So I think anything's possible if done well, though I'm a pretty lousy an excuse for a writer.

 

If third person sounds more professional, then why are there books being published in first? Does that make them less important, less believable, less skilled than third person works?

I always prefer writing and reading in first person because I think it feels more personal to the reader. I will not disagree that it is easier than third person, and for that I enjoy it. I find first person writing to be much more stylistic and fun, both to read and write.

 

Writing in first person is like being a vegetarian. A vegetarian can get all the protein they need for a healthy diet, but they face some major restrictions in order to do so. I know a lot of unhealthy vegetarians who do it wrong, and a handful of very healthy ones who do it right.

The author of a first person story faces all of the challenges that all of you mentioned--overcoming the "I, me, my" overload, and shifting the focus away from the self onto the other characters in the story. The story can only be told from a single viewpoint, with no outside information. And everything, from the exposition to the description to the way the narrative is presented, has to be justified by the eyes of the narrator.

I think I agree most with mammamaia way up there. First person is easy to do badly, and difficult to do well. But when it's done well, it can be great. Even so, I can't imagine doing it myself for longer than a short story.

 

neither sounds 'more professional' in and of itself, imo, but more amateur/beginning writers seem to want to write that way and most of the pros don't... but it can 'sound' just as 'professional' as anything else, if it's well-written by a pro... and sounds amateurish when done poorly...

in answer to your question, because first of all, many of those books are self-published and second, established writers can get away with it either because they've done it well, or if they haven't, because they're so well-known and successful from their other books, that their publishers can't tell them not to... ditto for present tense...

pat cornwell is an example of both... i enjoy her books that are written in first/third, which she does really well, but didn't like the one i read of several that she'd done in present tense, though she does do it better than most...

no, not on its own... only the level of skill employed in the writing of them does that!... and that, sad to say, is not very high with virtually all of the works that are self-published [with only extremely rare, if any exceptions] and even some that were published traditionally, where the writer actually gets paid for it...