I'm wondering if I'm the only one who finds in all but impossible to read stories written in 2nd person (e.g. "You walk into the room, brush back your copper-red hair, and whip out your giant boobs.")?
I just can't get into these stories at all, no matter how well written. I try, but after about three sentences I'm too distracted by the fact that I'm simply not the 'you' in the story.
Is it just that I lack the imagination, or is anyone else put off by this style?
-Kinkybelle
No, you're not the only one; I find second-person narratives somewhat off-putting as well. While I do think that viewpoint can work in a short story or poem, the idea of reading a full-length novel in written in second-person is rather daunting.
~ Rascal
i think the author wants you to get into the story and believe it is you that everything is happening to , instead of a fly on the wall aspect of it
*giggles* reminds me... have to finish off my story about Doll this week... ;)
You can’t truly call yourself peaceful unless you are capable of violence. If you’re not capable of violence, you’re not peaceful. You’re harmless.
It is incredibly difficult, and hard to do well.
The second person voice is very intimate, and suited to poetry and letter writing.
If the story is strictly from a female's point of view I don't have a problem with the story.
It takes a woman who doesn't know the word 'no' to conquer a man with a heart of stone.
I think 2nd person is the most difficult viewpoint to write from. I think when it's done right, it can really make an erotic story something special. But it is so rarely done right!
Unless your prose is in the form of a letter to another character or such, the whole point of 2nd person is to talk to the reader. To draw them so deeply into your tale that they can't leave until the end. To make them feel a part of the story, and to make it personal to them. I think where it often fails is that an author tries talking to the reader, and then launches into vivid detail about how the character looks. When I read that, I think 'Hold on a minute. I am definitely not 5'9 with long legs and beautiful blue eyes' and I wrinkle my nose and lose interest. If you want your reader to feel you are talking to them, don't be giving descriptions down to the tiny detail. Be vague, let them picture themselves in your scenario. Let them get involved.
If you're writing with a male's voice, you have a real chance to make your female readers feel involved, and like the only woman in the world. If you're writing with a woman's voice, you can give every man his fantasy.
If you do it right.
I've written one story from this perspective and received good feedback. There are one or two things that I would change if I had to do it again, but for the most part it seemed to work. The biggest problem I found was I kept accidentally changing from 2nd person to 1st. But once I got that down, the story really seemed to flow. Course, I am sure several out there passed on it when seeing it was in 2nd person!
I think we all have preferences for viewpoints as readers, and that's what it will really come down to!
Overall I agree, the perspective tends to pull me out of the story. Focus too much on things that are more fluff then substance. I've found a few 2 person that could draw me in. But still try when I find a summery worth checking into more.
I was the kid next door's imaginary friend.
Not a huge fan in stories. Can work in poems.
The only time I have ever found this to work is in an erotic letter to my lover, or when she sends one back to me.
I think it works on this occasion because we both know each other, and we know how each of us reacts to certain situations . For a wider audience though, I don't think it does work terribly well because the author does not know the reader intimately.
I agree with Classy. If you have a good imagination, as you read, you would be able to imagine all the scenes happening. If I think or see a story like this, it would remind me of a girl on the other end of the phone, telling me what she would like to do, ect.
Although I don't enjoy these stories myself, I think they are just as important as a story either you or I would write and they take just as much thought and effort.
the author wanted the readers to go deeper with the story and make their imagination that the one referring to is the reader itself doing such act so to appreciate/relate to the whole story
