Second Person
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addresses the audience, like "Choose Your Own Adventure", Interactive Fiction Framework or most text adventures
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"who is the you in a second person point of view story? There are actually a few different possibilities:
The narrator is addressing the reader
The narrator is addressing themselves
The narrator is addressing another character"
Pros
- In a second person narrative, the writer casts the reader as the main character. The reader is placed at the very centre of the story, which makes for an intense and immersive reader experience.
- This POV can also be used to reinforce the key themes and ideas of the story. Perhaps the narrator wants to distance themselves from their own narrative because the topic is difficult to think or talk about. Or perhaps self-talk is central to your narrator's identity.
- Second person POV is an exciting challenge for a writer. And an original and intriguing format for a reader. To avoid putting too much pressure on either party, short stories written in the second person provide a good introduction to this mode of storytelling.
Cons
- It’s not something writers or readers are used to. It’s rare to come across fiction written in the second person. And – honestly – writers don’t tend to consider it as one of the narrative formats available to them.
- Readers don’t always like it. They may feel uncomfortable or alienated from events when being told by a narrator that they have acted or spoken in ways that feel far removed from their own real life experience.
- Because readers don’t tend to like second person point of view narratives, it’s much harder to convince an agent or publisher that your story has commercial potential.
- A reader will inevitably question this form of storytelling. So a writer has to convince the reader that the second person point of view is necessary to the narrative. Very few stories really require it – so writers simply choose other points of view.