Aug 12
I’ve been pondering 2P POV and why it can be so effective. I think at face value 2P seems like “You the Reader are the Character and the narration tells you what you’re doing” But actually the craft of 2P POV is that You is the Character. And the Reader is the narration, informing the Character “this is what you do. This is what happens to you.” Which is why it’s so particularly effective at two things:
A) a character that the reader doesn’t know that well—either a bit part or an OC, etc.
B) for scenarios where the POV character is having some kind of distress/out of body experience. Where one would go outside themselves and feel they’re telling their body what to do.
I have no conclusion. Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk
#i'm going to add so much fucking unsolicited commentary to this when my tendonitis is better#re-adding to drafts for this purpose#the ick that runs thru my blood when ppl assume reader = character vs u are so balls deep in character's head you'll never find ur way out#EXCELLENT for unreliable narrator or repression or guilt or shame#which is precisely why i didn't use it for my latest fic#the pov character is self assured. we can handle his crisis from a distance#(plus i was worried about becoming too dependent on 2nd)#(and i still find myself slipping into it whenever i write intoxicated)#anyway bea is correct as always#second person supremacy
