Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Poll

Question on perspective

  • First person (me/I) 2
  • Second person (you) 5
  • 2023-08-11
  • 7 votes
{'title': 'Question on perspective', 'choices': [{'text': 'First person (me/I)', 'votes': 2}, {'text': 'Second person (you)', 'votes': 5}], 'closes_at': None, 'created_at': datetime.datetime(2023, 8, 11, 23, 58, 36, tzinfo=datetime.timezone.utc), 'description': None, 'allow_multiple': False, 'total_votes': 7}

Content

I've got a question for you guys.

One of the things that I've been mulling over for a while is the idea of a 'choose your own adventure' story, and if you've been a subscriber for a while you might remember that a little while ago I was asking for ideas about some of the decisions that the character might be faced with.

As I make a start on it, one decision I've been struggling with is what perspective to write it in: second person (where the main character is "you") or first person (where the main character is "I").

Generally books in the 'choose your own adventure' genre are written as "you". It means that the story is placing you as the main character, trying to make you feel like you're in the story, and getting you to make decisions as though you're the one carrying out the action. For example:

Steve looks at you, waiting for your answer. You're torn: seeing him do this would be all your fantasies come true, but it makes you nervous too. You wonder if this could be taking things too far.

Do you give him the ok to fuck your friend? Or do you tell him not to?

The upside of this is that it should (hopefully) make you feel part of the story. The potential downside - which I think is probably more relevant in erotica than in kids books that this genre developed within - is that it's not that realistic. You know that your husband isn't called Steve. You know that you're not in the situations in the story. And when it comes to writing about the thought processes of the cuck, it seems a bit odd to be telling you what you think - would you be scared of the same stuff as my character? Would you have the same considerations in mind that my character does when trying to make a decision? If I say, "you feel nervous," what if that's not how you would actually react in that situation?

So, I've also been toying with the idea of writing it from my perspective, so it has the vibe of someone asking for advice. So it's more like someone you know telling you about what they're going through and what they're thinking, and asking your advice at each turn about how they should proceed. A little like a AITA, or a reddit thread asking for advice. For example:

Steve looks at me, waiting for my answer. I'm torn: seeing him do this would be all my fantasies come true, but it makes me nervous too. I wonder if this could be taking things too far.

Should I give him the ok to fuck my friend? Or should I tell him not to?

So I'm interested to know, what would you prefer?

Comments

lodelaunch

I find that in your stories that I become deeply immersed in the main character, so second person seems natural for me. But, depending on how dark or full of angst the new story's branches become, first person lets me as the reader stay 1 step removed from intense physical or emotional pain. ("Best Man" was so intense that I would have preferred it in 1st person.) Thanks for asking.

Jack Hornwood

Thanks, that's good to know. I think the point of the book will be that it can be low-angst or high-angst depending on the choices you make. So maybe that means second person is fine because you're not going to go down a track that is too intense - unless you decide to go back and re-read every possible outcome

lodelaunch

I can't wait to see where you take the characters and the story, and I definitely see myself re-reading it multiple times to experience various paths and outcomes.

Daniel Williams

i agree with this. Best Man or Lockdown might have been harder to handle if it were in that super immersive second person mode.

Don Simon

Since part of the fun is playing with the traditional "Choose Your Own Adventure" style, I also like the idea of sticking with the second person "you." It's about the only style of storytelling where I actually like the use of the second person (in regular stories it can be seriously annoying). But I think being able to pretend that we've picked up an old "Choose Your Own Adventure" book that just happens to be about cucks and bulls-- that's a hoot!