I’m not really a fan of stories told by a first-person narrator. I know that, to some people, they make the story seem much more personal, but I just can’t suspend disbelief enough to accept a narrator who can somehow remember the ins and outs of every single conversation he/she has ever had. There are a few books where the story is so compelling that I’m willing to overlook the first-person narration: N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy, Robert Graves’ I, Claudius, and Patrick Rothfuss’ Kingkiller Chronicles are the ones that spring immediately to mind.
Regular readers of my blog know that I’m not really a fan of H. P. Lovecraft. But I don’t see his frequent use of the first person as one of his problems. In fact, he’s usually able to pull it off a lot better than other writers because he doesn’t use a lot of dialogue, so his narrators’ reminiscences seem more believable.
What do you think of first-person narrators? Am I alone in my distaste?
Codex Lochianus 
I don’t like them either, Jason. They don’t seem natural to me. I do have some favorite books that are in first person, though. Still, its not my preference.
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Very interesting sujbect. You’ve hit the nail right on, my friend.I don’t have any favorite POVs. Frankly, IMHO, there can’t be any favorites. It’s the story that will decide if the writer must go in for a 1st person, 3rd person, or in a rare case, the 2nd person.As a writer, once I have a brief sketch of the story in mind, I also somehow, subconsciously (and sometimes even consciously) stumble upon the POV. Then, more consciously, I try to validate and re-validate my decision, and if taking that POV would add a new dimension to the story.For instance, one short story of mine was widely universal in appeal and the characters were such that they themselves had dilemmas of their own. So, there was no way I wanted ONLY one of their POVs to be projected in the story. I wanted a larger, omniscient, POV (like you already mentioned in your blog).In yet another instance, my short fiction was about this character who is looking for redemption. In this case, I wanted my readers to empathize with this character and feel every bit of pain, joy, loss and sorrow that he feels, and undergo the entire process of redemption along with him. So, I HAD to choose the first person.As a thumb rule, I would say, writers should first think of and start a story in 3rd person. And then, if the story requires, move to the 1st person. The 2nd person, however, should be sparingly used. This is specially true for beginners. With time, the trained mind will devise it’s own way to arrive at what suits best for the story.One important point to note here is that, never should a writer try to force a POV upon a story just for the sake of art, style or creativity. It’s fine to experiment to learn the tricks of the trade but not at the expense of doing injustice to the story. I personally believe that every story has a life of its own and will decide for itself if it needs a particular voice or POV.
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