First person point of view is hugely popular in certain genres: YA and Romance, in particular. It’s also a perfectly fine choice for literary fiction—think David Copperfield (narrated by David Copperfield) or To Kill a Mockingbird (narrated by Scout Finch). But is it the right option for your story?
We’re going to take a look at different approaches to the first person perspective and different examples of it, but first, we’ll clarify what first person point of view is.
What is the First Person Point of View?
The first person perspective is
the “I” perspective, using the pronouns I, me, and my. Think “I walked back down the street to my house” not “John walked back down the street to his house.”
The first person narrator will usually be a single character … but if you want, two or more first person POV characters can share the story. If you have a split narrative like this, each chapter will usually have a heading with the narrator’s name, so you know who the “I” is right away.
First person stories can be told as if the character is actually talking to you, or they
can be told without any sense that the character knows they have an audience. We’ll come to examples of both of these (plus some other approaches) shortly.
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