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Writing in the "second person"
Most books are written in first person, I, or third person he/she /it. I have read that "Only the most creative and experimental write in second person-the "you" point of view.
So with this in mind (she says ;) ) I am going to rework a story into second person as I also understand that it is the least used point of view in fiction.
Second person requires the reader not only to step into the head of the protagonist, but into his very shoes.
The writer has to become at one with the reader and convince the reader that the events are happening to him personally and that he is seeing and experiencing these events through his own eyes.
Good writers shouldn't have a problem with this, should they ?
Have you experience of second person writing and if so what do you think are the pitfalls, if any ?
I'll let you know how I get on !
This is another topic that I thought there was a thread on, but I can't find it and even if there is one, there's no harm in re-visiting the subject. :)
Edited to add " One of the difficulties of writing a novel which is entirely a dramatic monologue, however, is that although the reader comes to know the speaker, there are no conversations with other characters to show how they interact with each other. " (from a review by Mary Whipple of "The Portrait" by Iain Pears )
I don't believe this is true - so I shall have to produce an example !
Comments
Of course another person's words might not be reported accurately by the person speaking the monologue who would be speaking from memory and possibly altering the conversation to suit themselves. (The same goes for conversations in autobiographies!)
Good luck - it'll be interesting to hear what you find to be the advantages and disadvantages of writing like this as you work through your novel.
I didn't include dialogue in my story, so can't help with that.
There's a bit here, if the link works.
I have read so many admonitions against it that I haven't dared. I am not convinced though, that as a POV it's invalid. It will be interesting to see what you come up with. Keep us posted.
Probably the biggest recent success, well that I know of anyway, is Bright Lights, Big City. If you read that you'll see it couldn't be any other way. But even if it was it wouldn't have been such a huge best seller, become a modern classic and have a Hollywood film made of it.
You probably wont believe this because you dont seem to know it yourself.
Maybe you do but dont talk about it or rather you dont talk to me about it.
So thats why I have to say this because I know, and even if you think I dont understand, I have felt what you feel and it scares me too. It's scary when your thoughts appear to have a will of their own and the world around you carries on regardless.
Control.
Thats what we dont have and thats why you are afraid, as I am afraid.
For if we dont have control, then we are nothing.
Like this morning, and every morning since it happened.
You are awake and you lie there in your bed and you wonder why you are trapped and encased like a mummy in a tomb where there is no light, because you dont want to open your eyes. Then you realise that the sheets and the covers are wrapped in a tangle around your legs where you thrashed and fought in your sleep against so many evils. Your muscles are stiff and taut and all that moves are your eyeballs behind the lids. You keep your eyes closed for as long as you can, trying to move first your toes and then your legs and arms, slowly remembering that you are a being in the here and now and that the terrors of the last few hours are not with you in this room.
To be continued ... perhaps :)
This is why I'm never sure if the second person really exists - there's still a 'me'.
Of course there can't be a ME. I wasn't thinking straight (but seeing as wrote that half an hour after waking up, I will excuse myself that way ;) )
[quote=Jay Mandal]'You' is how we all talk to ourselves anyway, isn't it?[/quote]
I think that real second person is not talking to yourself though. I guess that's the difficult bit. It's like talking to someone else but without letting it sound like there's a narrator.
Do you reckon the second paragraph is second person then ? I will take out the I's and the me's and see what difference it makes, if any.
The story that I am re working doesn't have any me's or I's in it, by the way - but maybe that is why it's taking longer than I thought to re do it !
I think your last statement goes without saying, Jay. Mentalists Rule OK ! :)
I'd cut the earlier stuff if I were you (or should that be 'if you were you? :) ) and start here.
The only second person prose I remember reading is a section of Complicity by Iain Banks, and the device is used to confuse the reader as the protagonist at that point needs to be ambiguous. I think it can be very effective if it is used at the right point.
You can always change it if it doesn't work.
List of notable second person narrativesNarratives written consistently in the second person or narratives including chapters or larger and/or intermittent passages in the second person:
Ilse Aichinger 1954 "Spiegelgeschichte" from Meine Sprache und Ich: Erz