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Post by ian on Jul 28, 2009 8:22:00 GMT
For some reason, the majority of horror is written in 3rd person perspective and I don't know why.
Do you know?
Oh and vote while you're here.
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Post by Dreadlocksmile on Jul 28, 2009 12:30:56 GMT
Sorry Ian, I can't vote on this because I really don't have a preference either way.
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Post by steppedonwolf on Jul 28, 2009 20:03:45 GMT
Interesting - many classic horror stories from the Victorian period are written in first person.
Many of Graham Masterton's early novels are all first person, and most horror writers have written books in both viewpoints.
Preference? Really depends on the story in question. A first person narrative can have more immediacy, especially if the narrative is told from the POV of the bad guy - getting inside the mind of a maniac, etc. If done well, it can be totally immersive (one of the reasons I love FPS more than any other type of PC game, but that's off topic).
It's also a hell of a lot easier to write in, as well - although you run the risk of putting too much of yourself into the narrator/character.
But the limitation with first person? Simple: you know the narrator isn't going to die, which takes away a lot of the dramatic tension. For that alone, I'll vote 3rd person.
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Post by TheWalkinDude on Jul 29, 2009 13:42:07 GMT
Wolf has a good point here, i myself have always written in 3rd parson. but thats mainly because i tried to do FP and ended up makin a rather large testicle of the thing.
i wouild say if your going for something thats based on Cthulhu Mythos your better for 1st person, that way the narrator can describe the sensations he is feeling when he comes face to face with some undescribable abomination that drives him over the edge of sanity.
but if your focus is a more modern setting with loads of characters then you should go for 3rd person so your not limited by what the narrator see's, if I'm making any sense at all lol
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Post by Jim on Jul 29, 2009 16:07:52 GMT
Ade it's not always true about first person narrative.
BIG SPOILER HERE
In Jigsaw Man by Gord Rollo the protagonist kills himself at the end. Great story but that ending made me throw the book across the room. It's not even as though we were reading from his journal and he then says my story is finished now I'm off to chuck meself in front of a 22 bus
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Post by metaltony on Jul 30, 2009 7:51:36 GMT
3rd for me everytime.
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Post by rakie on Jul 31, 2009 15:05:24 GMT
i can think of at least two or three other books with 1st person narrative where the narrator dies. Movie-wise, "American Beauty" springs to mind (and that's not a spoiler because it's announced in the very first line of the movie ;D).
personally i don't think i have a preference.
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Post by dracenstein on Oct 9, 2009 20:57:58 GMT
I prefer 3rd person, can cover more than one person's viewpoint.
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Post by dracenstein on Jul 31, 2010 12:22:03 GMT
Since my last post (and nobody has commented further on this subject), I have come across Jonathan Maberry, who has written a great zombie novel in Patient Zero and it's non-zombie sequel, The Dragon Factory (the series is centred around the Department of Military Sciences and Joe Ledger).
The Joe Ledger sections are written in the first person perspective, but everybody else is written in the third, and I like this approach a lot.
And I have read at least one other book with the same approach.
So 1st and 3rd can be shared in the same book.
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Post by bec on Jul 31, 2010 12:51:39 GMT
For a short story, I'm not bothered either way, even if the narrator of a 1st person POV story dies at the end.
For novels, I prefer 3rd.
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