What do you prefer to read: first-person POV or third-person? I know this is a DEBATE in Romancelandia, and people tend to have very strong feelings one way or the other. I’ll admit I maybe lean towards third-person deep POV as a favourite, with the caveat that if either first-person or third-person is done well, I don’t really care which one is being used—in those cases, it's so seamless that I barely even notice it.
The bigger question for writers is which POV do you prefer to write in? If you’re a historical romance author, you’re probably writing in third-person, since that’s pretty much the standard for historicals. But since first-person is so prevalent these days, especially in a variety of subgenres, let’s explore how first-person works so you can do it well if you need to.
Why does first-person not work sometimes?
The most common reason why I think people who don’t like first-person REALLY don’t like it is because the voice of the character(s) isn’t distinct enough, especially when it’s dual POV, alternating between the two (or more) main characters. If your reader is reading along and can’t identify which character’s head they’re in, that’s a problem— and if they have to go back and check, they’re going to get frustrated, and that’s going to harm their enjoyment of the book. Your MCs have different personalities, backgrounds, and experiences, and that should be clear in how they articulate themselves in dialogue and in their narrative. Make sure the MCs’ voices are really well-defined as individuals.
Another reason why first-person might not work is that it feels too self-conscious and not natural enough. Instead of feeling like you’re in the character’s head with them, it feels like you’re being held at a remove and getting a narration of what they think they should sound like, not what it’s like to be actually in their head. But because first-person is all about immediacy, the reader really needs to feel like they’re getting ALL of the character’s interiority, warts and all.
And when first-person doesn’t work, the POV feels like a distraction. (This also holds when third-person doesn’t work, but the immediacy of first-person makes it more obvious.) Whichever POV you choose, the characters’ voices have to be fully realized so that the reader doesn’t even notice it and they just go along for the ride. (And if you do it well, it means you’ll get fewer of those “I just really don’t like first-person” reviews.)
Why use first-person?
If people are bitching about first-person, why even use it? Well, for every person who says “I only read third-person,” there’s another who says “I only read first-person”—they pretty much cancel each other out. (Know right away that you’re not going to please everyone with the POV you choose to use, and you shouldn’t try to.) But for those who love first-person and those who will read either (bless them), really good first-person POV is <chef’s kiss>. When it works, you get that immediacy of emotion and the realism of it, and everything is heightened because you're feeling their feels right along with them.
Another reason to use first-person? That's what sells in YA, New Adult, and a number of contemporary romance subgenres. Specifically, many Kindle Unlimited contemporary romance bestsellers are in first-person POV. It’s what’s hot right now—that may change in the future, but being able to be versatile in whatever POVs you use will help you adapt quickly to trends and innovate when necessary.
It’s also just a really good skill to have in your author toolkit to shake things up during the writing process. If you’re usually a third-person POV writer and are stuck on characterization, switching to first-person POV may help jolt you into a new perspective, or vice versa. (Just remember to switch back to whichever one you’re using throughout to maintain consistency!)
Okay, so how do you do first-person well?
First-person is all about connection to the character—both for the reader and the writer. People who love first-person often want to put themselves into the character’s shoes, so you want to channel the character and be able to translate them onto the page so the reader can have the same experience of being in the MC's head. For the writer, the impulse with this might be to tell everything because you CAN, since you have access to all of their thoughts and feelings. There’s a balance, though, between having access and overexplaining in the narration.
To find this balance, you’ll want to eliminate those words that overtell. Words like “felt,” “knew,” “realized,” “because,” and even sometimes “am" or "was” can lead you to tell too much. For example:
“My breath caught in my throat. I was shocked.”
If you’re in the character’s head, you already know you’re shocked so you don’t need to say it! If you’re the reader, you’ve already gathered the character is shocked by context clues. Really tight prose is vital for good first-person POV, so parse it back and only give readers what they need to know, not the full inner monologue and description of thoughts and feelings.
And as I said above, you’ve got to nail your character’s voice. You might want to create a character sheet so you have everything you need to know about that character all in one place, and then start to build their voice from there. How have their experiences informed their personality, their reactions to events, the way they speak in their cadence and speech patterns. Are they nervous? Do they stutter? Are they a take-charge, no-nonsense type with perfect diction? Are they confident with the perfect comeback every time? Find their voice, and you'll find the secret to first-person POV.