Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

50%
+0 −0
Q&A Please evaluate the effectiveness of both voices, which better brings the character to life?

I much preferred reading the first-person excerpt, but that doesn't mean much when taken out of context like this. There's no simple answer here. First person has certain advantages, third person h...

posted 10y ago by Neil‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T03:30:17Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/10868
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T03:30:17Z (about 5 years ago)
I much preferred reading the first-person excerpt, but that doesn't mean much when taken out of context like this. There's no simple answer here. First person has certain advantages, third person has other ones. Which you use depends on the story. Can you tell us more about the larger work? Is it a personal story, or is it a grand, uber-epic tale? Are there other characters you're following?

Without a doubt, the text in first person gives us a much better idea of the character. It gives us an intimate moment, lets us get a sense of the character's inner thoughts.

However, the story is better moved forward by the third person paragraph. It moves the story forward and there's more action. This may be because the two paragraphs really aren't the same action.

What you need to do is look at your story as a whole, and decide if you need to give us a better sense of story or character. In which aspect is your tale lacking? That should give you your answer.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2014-05-01T22:02:16Z (over 10 years ago)
Original score: 3