Last week I talked about the major drawbacks, but what are the advantages of the first-person perspective? It’s a hugely popular perspective, so what’s drawing people to it? Let’s look at four of the biggest pluses to first-person narration. And, of course, I’ll also let you know if there’s a downside to watch out for with them!

It can sometimes be easier!

When you tell a story about your own life, you probably use first person. Well, unless you like talking about yourself in the third person for some reason. But, because of that, first person can feel like a more natural perspective for writing in. There’s still plenty that you can get wrong in the first person, obviously!

Slipping between present and past tense is something a lot of people are prone to, and I think it can be particularly easy to fall into with first-person. Since it’s the closest to how we talk normally, and we often slip between tenses when storytelling in real life! It’s also important to watch out for saying things that the character couldn’t be aware of. Even with those things to watch out for, first-person might be an easier fit for some authors than third-person.

You can create a strong sense of personality

When readers are right in the head of your character, there’s a lot of scope to get personality and character across. In a third-person perspective, readers are largely limited to interpreting the character’s personality through actions and dialogue. With first-person though, the reader can see every thought and feeling that you care to share with them.

There is a flip side to this, of course. It can be easy to over-share, overwhelming the reader with a running commentary of thoughts and feelings that become boring or irritating.

It’s easy to create empathy in your readers

Nobody thinks they’re the villain, right? Well, with readers inside the perspective of your main character, you can take them along for the ride. Whatever decisions your character makes, readers will have a front-row seat to exactly why they made that choice. When they make a mistake, readers can see clearly how they feel about that. It gives you a lot of opportunity to build empathy with your point-of-view character, even if they’re doing things that the readers don’t completely agree with.

That’s not to say that first-person perspective means your characters can get away with literally anything. Readers are completely capable of disliking or disapproving of a character whose story they’re reading in the first-person viewpoint. But

You can play around with the unreliable narrator

Most first-person narrators are unreliable to some degree, even if you don’t intentionally play that up. Everything they do and see will naturally be filtered through the lens of their perspective, so it’s not fully objective. But you can choose to dial that up, through moments where the point of view character contradicts things that the reader has seen. Or through them clearly misremembering, misinterpreting or fudging details for the audience.

Naturally, when using techniques like this you have to be a little careful. It can look like clumsiness, or that you’ve forgotten the details of your own story, rather than a deliberate choice. If you want to set up an unreliable narrator, think about how things like the character’s personality, other characters’ reactions, and the genre of the story can build together to support it.

Do you like writing in the first-person?

What are your favourite things about the first-person perspective? Let me know!