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How to Write in the Second Person Point of View: Definition & Examples

by Alex Cabal

Learning how to write in the second-person point of view offers a powerful and unique way of connecting with your readers. By breaking down the fourth wall and addressing the reader directly, you make the reader feel like they’re living in the world of your story.

We’ll illuminate the nuances of second person by defining this elusive narrative choice, exploring how it compares to other viewpoints in fiction writing, and looking at examples of stories and books that have used second-person point of view successfully.

Here’s a quick example of second-person point of view to get started:

Your eyes drink in the page as you read an article to learn how to write in the second-person point of view. Maybe you’re wondering, are you strong enough to master this wild card of the writing craft? Is second person the best way for you to tell your story? You feel the tension in your shoulders ease. Finally, you begin to believe there is hope for your fiction writing. You decide to read the full article in order to learn how to master this interesting choice of perspective.

What is the second-person point of view?

Second-person point of view (or PoV) is a literary technique in which the author creates a sense of intimacy by directly addressing the reader or audience as “you.” It’s an uncommon perspective that treats the protagonist as if they’re in the real world. Second-person PoV stories allow the reader to immerse and live fully in the world of your story.

By writing in the second-person narrative voice and speaking directly to the reader, you immerse them in the plot as if they’re experiencing it for real.

So you, as the writer, must craft a narrative where the reader feels as if they’re telling their own tale. It’s a very intimate and close approach to writing a story, and when done well, can be a unique, nontraditional, and immersive experience.

Because there’s no distinction between the reader and the character, this perspective can be difficult to master and calls for a lot of trust from your audience. They want to know that even if you take them deep into danger and darkness, you’ll bring them back out safely by the end.

First, second, third, and fourth-person point of view

You have four narrative choices when selecting which point of view to use for your story. Each of these uses different word choices within the text to position the reader’s perspective.

First person PoV: “ I rode the bicycle.”

Second person PoV: “ You rode the bicycle.”

Third person PoV: “ He rode the bicycle.”

Fourth person PoV: “ We rode the bicycles.”

The point of view can change the tone of an entire piece. The most common points of view in literature are third and first, or the habitual “He, she, they” and “I.” But every once in a while we’re tempted to reach for second person, or “You,” to address readers. Consider the following examples:

First person vs. second person:

First-person point of view: “Walking down the path, I come to a fork. No signs are telling me where to go, so I decide to take the path to the beach.”

Second-person point of view: “You walk down the path and come to a fork. There are no signs to tell you where to go, so you decide to take the path to the beach.”

Second person vs. third person:

Second person: “You asked him whether he really meant it when he told you he thought your sister resembled a vulgar manatee.”

Third person: “Jen asked Adam if he really meant it when he said that he thought her sister resembled a vulgar manatee.”

Second-person point of view is a powerful perspective with the ability to influence your reader in ways that first and third person can’t. As you can see in the previous examples, second person puts the reader directly into the action— you chose the path to the beach; you asked him the question.

Is the second-person point of view an omniscient point of view?

In general, the second-person view in a fictional story is omniscient.

With “you” as the authoritative voice of the story, the reader is seeing and understanding everything directly from the main character’s perspective. But the reader isn’t the narrator—they’re the protagonist. The narrator is someone who can see and hear everything the main character is thinking.

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t surprise your reader! The narrator knows everything about this world—but they may hold some information back until the very end.

Why choose second-person point of view?

Using a second person voice within a story narrows the gap between the narrative and the reader. When done successfully the reader feels as if they’re fully present within the story, and are experiencing it first-hand.

Reasons for choosing the second-person perspective include:

Immersion : In a second-person narrative, the reader becomes the heart of the story. Rather than having a world and its events described to them, the reader gets to actually live it.

Interaction : This is generally done with “choose your own adventure” novels, where the writer constructs a second-person narration that allows the reader to make choices for how the story will unfold.

Instruction : Other forms of second-person point of view may include directions for how to do something, such as a tutorial that walks the reader through a series of steps.

Advantages of second-person point of view

A few advantages of second-person writing include:

The intimacy of the second-person narrative voice can encourage a reader to deeply empathize with the story, and maybe even offer them an experience from a new perspective they may not have encountered otherwise.

A second-person perspective can create a highly immersive, sensory experience for the reader, as they see themselves directly experiencing the story the writer has created.

Because stories are not often told in second-person point of view, this perspective can be a unique and engaging experience for your readers. It can distinguish your story from the work of other writers and make the act of reading it incredibly powerful and memorable.

Second-person point of view provides writers the opportunity to try on and explore a new perspective and style of writing. Writing from a perspective that you’re not familiar with can be a great way to enhance your writing skills and force you to stretch outside your creative comfort zone.

Disadvantages of second-person point of view

A few disadvantages of second-person writing include:

Some readers may be uncomfortable with second-person point of view. It can require a level of empathy and imagination that not all readers are willing to invest in—some readers want to be told a story rather than experience one.

If your reader dislikes your narrator or the voice of either the protagonist or the narrator, they’ll immediately disengage with the story. There is less room for nuance than there is with third or even first-person characters. If the reader dislikes the choices the character makes, they may struggle to empathize with or invest in the story at all. In this instance, third-person point of view may be a better choice.

Reaching publication for a second-person work can be challenging. Professional editors and publishers may be wary of any book told from this perspective, as it is an uncommon narrative choice that readers may not be familiar with or prepared to commit to.

Tips for writing in second-person point of view

Consider the following tips when writing a second person narrative:

Avoid repetitive language and overusing the second-person pronoun “you.” It may help to break up some of the text with the imperative form—that is, instructing the reader to take the next step in the story. For example:

Explicit example: “You look out the window at the snow-covered mountains.”

Implied example: “Look out the window at the snow-covered mountains.”

Consider using present tense in your writing. Present tense makes the story feel more immediate and engaging, rather than reflective.

Make sure to adhere to the old adage “ show and not tell ” to develop a highly rich sensory experience for the reader that they can see, feel, and imagine themselves in.

A second-person perspective may be best suited to short stories, rather than long-form work. Try getting comfortable in this type of writing in a smaller space before attempting it in a larger one.

Play with using different points of view in different chapters and with different characters to create a highly dynamic and complex story. For example, in a crime or thriller novel, you may use the second-person PoV to describe the actions and thoughts of the person who committed the murder, and third-person PoV for the detective who is solving the mystery.

Ensure that the narrator is a full-fledged character with a rich and detailed identity. If your second-person narrator is doing things and making choices, your reader, as that character, will want to empathize and better understand the motivations, preferences, goals, and driving forces for those choices and actions.

Stream of consciousness writing—or an inner monologue that tells a story—can be an effective technique when crafting a second-person narrative. This is used to explore the inner workings of a character’s mind and describe actions as they unfold.

Should you write your story in second person?

Second-person narration is an unusual and rewarding tool in fiction writing, but it may not be the right choice for every story. Here are a few things to consider when searching for the perfect narrative voice.

The length and scope of your story

Are you writing a short story, poem, novella, novel, or book series? How much time, space, and characterization will this plot encompass? Second-person language is effective for drawing a reader into your writing, but it can be demanding and draining on them as well.

Readers naturally think in first-person pronouns—“I’m exhausted”—or third-person pronouns—“He’s exhausting.” The pronoun “you” can feel jarring or alienating, which is why it should be used with care.

This is why the trick of interspersing second-person point of view with third- or first-person narration can be an effective way to engage this narrative voice. It breaks up the unusual PoV choice in a compelling and manageable way.

If you’re writing an entire novel that remains focused on just one character all the way through to the end, a first-person perspective or a third-person limited point of view might be a stronger choice.

Your story’s effect on the reader’s emotions

What are you trying to achieve by using this narrative point of view? A fiction writer can use both first and second person to have a conversation with the reader, while third person keeps the reader at a distance.

The second-person narrative voice takes the intimacy of first-person narrative even further—in this narrative point of view, there is no distance between the reader and the story. Your reader isn’t just watching the plot happen—they’re living it. This can take them to some uncomfortable places as the narrator describes their own actions back to them, but it can also offer a sharp and visceral reading experience.

Your story’s message and underlying theme

Using second person can be a great way to encourage the reader to examine their own preconceptions and biases. The reader starts to ask themselves, “Would I really make this choice?” “What would I do if this happened to me?”

By bringing them so directly into the piece, you engage them on a conscious level with the material. This is especially useful for things like political or social commentary.

At its foundational level, second-person PoV serves as an invitation for the reader to come fully into a piece with all of their baggage, all of their expectations, and, for a moment, to become fully immersed as a character in the work.

Examples of second-person point of view in novels

For a deeper look at using second-person PoV in writing, let’s look at a couple famous examples of books that have effectively used this technique.

The Dark by John McGahern

John McGahern’s short novel is a depressing portrait of a young boy growing up in Ireland. Half of the chapters are written in second person while the rest are split between third and first, with a smattering of chapters where the voice is so passive it doesn’t even seem to have a perspective. And the chapters aren’t chosen at random, either; each change in PoV serves a purpose.

The first-person chapters, which account for only three out of the thirty chapters, are all ones where Mahoney, the young protagonist, is enjoying himself.

The third-person chapters are all instances of brutal humiliation, failure and abuse.

The second-person chapters are all instances where Mahoney is trying to amp himself up or change his life.

McGahern juggles these viewpoints to alternately distance his protagonist and the reader from the horrors of the book, then invite the reader into Mahoney’s head to witness his pleasures and growth.

This is a perfect example of using contrasting points of view to enhance a novel. It’s an effective tool and really works to highlight the emotional turmoil of Mahoney’s life by inviting the reader to experience the protagonist’s struggle to defend himself, and his eventual triumph. At the same time, the third-person chapters serve to show Mahoney’s trauma while not overwhelming the reader with it.

Redshirts by John Scalzi

A more consistent use of second person is in the “codas” of John Scalzi’s Redshirts .

After the novel’s plot finishes, the reader is presented with a series of short stories—codas—following one of the minor characters through the aftermath of the novel, and each in a different point of view. One of these follows a young man who was in a coma for the entirety of the novel, and is just now coming awake to realize that things don’t exactly add up.

Having constructed the piece in second person, Scalzi invites the reader into the novel to directly experience the rude awakening of this supporting player. And it works as a fun device to more fully integrate the audience into the reading experience and vividly reflect his confusion and curiosity.

A few more books that use the second-person PoV include:

The Malady of Death , by Marguerite Duras

Bright Lights, Big City , by Jay McInerney

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas , by Tom Robbins

Stolen , by Lucy Christopher

How to Become a Writer , by Lorrie Moore

Examples of second-person point of view in short stories

Short stories are a faster read, allowing you to gain an insight into how different authors approach the second-person point of view. Consider the following short stories as a starting point for more context, and for understanding how you can incorporate the second person PoV into your own story or novel.

“A Cure for Ghosts,” by Eden Royce

“All the Colors You Thought Were Kings,” by Arkady Martine

“Black Box,” by Jennifer Egan

“Conversation of Shadows,” by Yoon Ha Lee

“Little Man,” by Michael Cunningham

“Chimeras,” by Jae Steinbacher

“On the Day You Spend Forever With Your Dog,” By Adam R. Shannon

“The Sorcerer’s Unattainable Gardens,” by Merc Fenn Wolfmoor

And just for fun, here is a list of second-person point of view children’s books:

Princess Island , by Shannon Gilligan

Song of the Old City , by Anna Pellicioli

It’s Up to You, Abe Lincoln: How I Made the Biggest Decisions of My Life , by Tom and Leila Hirshfeld

The Cave of Time , by Edward Packard

Space and Beyond , by R. A. Montgomery

Use second person to push the limits of your writing

Whether you’re approaching a short story, novella, novel, exploring poetry or song lyrics, or just looking elevate your business writing, second-person perspective can be an exciting and genre-bending narrative technique. You can smash through walls between you and the reader in ways that are out of reach with other points of view.

In your next writing session, try stretching your creative muscles with second-person PoV.

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What Is Second-Person Point of View (POV) in Writing?

Helly Douglas

If you’re a fiction writer, you may have been told never to write in the second-person point of view. Or perhaps you’re a business writer who’s been told to always use it?

But what exactly is second-person narration and why do people have such fixed opinions about when it’s okay to use it?

This guide gives you everything you need to know, including helpful examples and practical exercises so you can get it right.

What Is Narrative Point of View?

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Point of view is the narrative voice you use to write in. It tells us who is speaking and is split into first, second, and third person.

You might hear people talking in different terms to describe narrative point of view, including the acronym "POV", "narrative voice", and "perspective". They all mean the same thing.

You can usually tell the narrative voice easily by looking at the pronouns used:

• First person: I
• Second Person: You
• Third person: she, he (or a character’s name)

First Person Perspective

In the first person point of view, a character is telling their own story. It creates an intimate atmosphere, making the reader feel as if they know the character well already. First person can also intentionally restrict the information shared with a reader.

The narrator is limited to their own perspective on events and can only talk about the things they have experienced.

Second-Person Perspective

With second-person point of view, the writer addresses the reader using the pronoun "you". It forces the reader into the story, making them part of the action and complicit in events. This is hard to sustain over longer pieces of writing, which is one reason it is rarely used in narrative texts.

Third Person Perspective

In the third person point of view, the author is telling the story of different characters, but is not part of the action themselves. This perspective is further divided into "omniscient", "neutral", and "limited" perspectives .

Looking for more guidance on using pronouns to construct point of view? Check out our guide to commonly confused pronouns to learn when common pronouns are used.

Why Is Second-Person Perspective Less Well-Known?

In school, you probably spent most of your time writing either in the first or third person point of view. These perspectives are well suited to writing stories, diaries, and recounts of events, the type of tasks teachers often use to improve writing skills.

Second-person narrative voice is used less often, and it comes more naturally in spoken language rather than writing. It can feel forgotten about, but that doesn’t mean you can’t use it.

Remember, looking at the pronouns of a sentence is an easy way to distinguish the narrative point of view being used.

First-Person POV Example Sentences:

• I didn’t know where I was going.
• Should I meet him?
• We went to the movies.

In the third example, you may have spotted the plural pronoun "we", which is also a sign that first person narration is being used.

Second-Person POV Example Sentences:

• You walk down the road, glancing behind you.
• You rub your feet at the end of the day.
• After finishing work, you decide to go for a drink.

Third-Person POV Example Sentences:

• He was mean, but she tried to ignore it.
• They were the perfect couple.
• Tommy worked at the bank.

Characters’ names and the pronouns they and he / she help you spot a third-person narrative voice.

A Warning About Deciding POV

Avoid deciding which narrative perspective is being used based on a single sentence as this can be misleading.

For example, the sentence "they were the perfect couple" suggests a third person point of view. But what if we read it as a part of a longer extract?

By reading a longer extract, we can see that this is written from a first person point of view. We can hear the character speaking to us about their feelings for the other characters.

To make sure you have correctly identified the narrative voice used, try to read at least a few other sentences to make sure.

Second-person perspective means addressing the reader directly. You’ll spot the pronouns you , your , and yours being used.

For example:

• Are you always running late for work?
• Your family means the world to you .
• You realise a moment too late that the purse is yours .

We often use a second-person perspective in sales and business writing because it can be persuasive. You’ll see it in slogans and adverts that are trying to make you take action, often using rhetorical questions for impact.

Copywriters use a second-person point of view to establish a bond and intimacy with the reader, to make them believe the writer really understands their situation.

This type of writing differs significantly from fiction writing because readers stay as themselves rather than imagining themselves as a character within a story.

Speech writers often use the same approach. If they stick to a first person perspective, they can inadvertently seem too interested in themselves or removed from their audience. Second person shows they understand their audiences’ problems and want to help.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world." - Mahatma Gandhi

You’ll also spot second-person perspective used in instructional writing, song lyrics, and video games.

These types of writing may seem very different from one another, but they all want to create an immersive feeling where you are at the center of the experience.

Second-person narrative voice is intimate. It creates a conversation, immediately making you feel as if you know the person speaking. This inclusive experience can create feelings of trust, which are ideal for persuasive sales writing.

You work hard every day. When you get home, you want to relax, not work through a long list of chores. That’s why you need Daily Maids.

For fiction readers, a second-person narrative voice is an intense, immersive experience. They’re thrown into the action and become a part of the events that happen. As a writer, you can make them a friend or confidant, or even complicit in misdeeds.

Alternatively, the second-person narrative can create a sense of mistrust. The reader asks themselves, is the writer telling me everything? Can I trust what they’re saying?

A second-person narrative voice can feel unrealistic if you don’t have a clear idea of your reader, although this can be useful if you’re trying to appeal to a specific type of customer. Second-person point of view can seem accusatory and suggest that you’re looking down on your reader.

This perspective is not often used in fiction writing because it is hard to maintain consistently over time. Readers enjoy feeling immersed in a story, but it’s hard for them to suspend their disbelief completely and become a part of the action.

Your reader may enjoy hearing about the life of a bank robber, astronaut, or knight, but can they actually imagine being them?

You may have been told that fiction writing should only ever use the first and third point of view.

Many editors actively advise against using a second-person narrative voice at all. If you look at published works of fiction, you’ll notice how few of them ever use it.

Writing in second-person point of view can be:

• Distracting and jarring for the reader
• Repetitive and boring—only using the pronoun "you"
• Unrealistic

But does that mean you shouldn’t use it?

That’s for you to decide. While there are fewer examples in literature of second-person point of view, they do exist. Your story may only work if it’s told from this perspective.

Before using second-person perspective, ask yourself:

• Can my story be told from a different perspective?
• Why is second-person POV essential to my story?
• Can I sustain this narrative voice for the entire text?
• How will I prevent it from becoming unrealistic or repetitive to read?

Using a second-person perspective creates a unique and distinctive voice. It helps you stand out from the many other stories being told.

While it’s probably best not to pick it just to get you noticed, there is a place for second-person point of view in fiction writing. Just be aware that it could make it harder to get your writing published unless you’re seeking a self-published route .

You’ll see second-person point of view most often used in short stories, flash fiction , poetry, and writing for children.

It works particularly well for "choose your own adventure" type stories. Maybe your writing needs to use this perspective too?

The famous examples of second-person point of view are, in part, well-known because they are striking and unusual deviations from the "rules" of fiction writing.

These popular examples are well worth a read:

• Bread by Margaret Atwood (short story)
• Complicity by Iain Banks
• If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
• The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid
• Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
• There’s a Dragon in Your Book by Tom Fletcher (children’s fiction)
• Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins
• The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty by Vendela Vida

If you are considering using second-person point of view, it’s useful to read examples of published authors so you can uncover the techniques they use and make it work effectively for you.

As with all writing, practice makes perfect. Try changing sentences written in the first and third person into the second-person point of view.

Don’t forget to explore tense too. Try writing in second-person perspective in the present and past tense and consider the effect it creates.

Reading published examples of second-person point of view writing will help you learn how to do it successfully yourself. Look for examples, especially in advertising, and unpick the effect they have on you as a reader.

Stay aware of narrative voice while you write, rather than your own voice. It’s very easy to slip out of perspective.

Keep in mind who is speaking. Add description so your reader can imagine themselves there to make it feel more believable.

Generally, it’s best to keep to the same point of view throughout a piece of text. It can feel jarring for the reader if it changes, so when it’s used, it is for a deliberately unsettling effect.

For example, an opening to a murder mystery could be written in second person to make the reader feel part of the action during the murder, giving them tantalising clues (and red herrings) before switching to a traditional third-person narrative voice.

If you do want to deliberately change narrative voice, make it clear to the reader:

• Limit it to a prologue and/or epilogue
• Use deliberate changes of font and style
• Use chapter breaks and titles to signal the change

Copy and speech writers do get to regularly break the unwritten rule of maintaining the same narrative voice, but they do so in a deliberate (and limited) way. They often move between second person singular and inclusive first person plural.

For example: You want the best for your children. We all do. That’s why you’re investing in their future.

By shifting to an inclusive first person POV, they create a rapport with their reader and avoid sounding superior or aggressive.

Maintaining Second-Person Point of View

Writers often drop out of the second person without realizing. If you want to write in the second person, run your document through ProWritingAid’s Pronoun Report to check your point of view is consistent.

You'll spot any rogue first or third person pronouns quickly so you know which sections you may need to fix. In the example above, you can see I've used the third person "them" in the last paragraph. By scanning the list of pronouns to the left of my screen, I can jump to the potential POV problem areas quickly.

For each of these questions, can you correctly identify which one uses the second-person narrative voice?

Question 1:

A: She walked slowly towards him.

B: You walked slowly towards him.

C: I walked slowly towards him.

The correct answer is: B. The pronoun "you" shows this sentence is in the second-person POV.

Question 2:

A: It’s hard for me to speak about it.

B: It’s hard for Tommy to speak about it.

C: It’s hard for you to speak about it.

The correct answer is: C. The pronoun "you" is used in both past and present tense writing.

Question 3:

A: Dip the chicken pieces into the breadcrumbs.

B: I dip the chicken pieces into the breadcrumbs.

C: Tracy dips the chicken pieces into the breadcrumbs.

The correct answer is: A. Although the pronoun "you" is not used in this sentence, it is implied. This is often seen in instruction writing.

Question 4:

A: Do I have enough money saved?

B: Does Sarah have enough money saved?

C: Do you have enough money saved?

The correct answer is: C. Rhetorical questions are often used by copywriters and generally written in second-person POV because they’re designed to make the reader think.

Question 5:

A: She is an adorable puppy. You want to take her home.

B: She is an adorable puppy. I want to take her home.

C: She is an adorable puppy. They want to take her home.

The correct answer is: A. Although the pronoun "she" is used in the first sentence, the second one reveals the narrative point of view using the pronoun "you".

It can be difficult writing in the second-person point of view and you should use it for a specific purpose rather than as a random choice. It’s very suited to some forms of writing such as copy, instructions, lyrics, and speeches. It’s far less commonly used in fiction writing, because it can feel unrealistic and is hard to maintain over a long period.

If you want to get published traditionally, writing in this narrative voice is generally not recommended unless your story can’t be written any other way.

Learning to write from a second-person perspective takes practice. Reading published examples and experimenting with switching the point of view of sentences will help you get used to using it.

Now is a wonderful time to be a copywriter. Download this free book to learn how:

This guide breaks down the three essential steps you must take if you think copywriting is the career for you.

This article contains an affiliate link for Masterclass.

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Helly Douglas is a UK writer and teacher, specialising in education, children, and parenting. She loves making the complex seem simple through blogs, articles, and curriculum content. You can check out her work at hellydouglas.com or connect on Twitter @hellydouglas. When she’s not writing, you will find her in a classroom, being a mum or battling against the wilderness of her garden—the garden is winning!

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Mastering The Second Person Viewpoint: A Comprehensive Guide To Engaging Your Readers

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Power of Second Person Viewpoint

When to use the second person viewpoint, creating immersion: how second person draws readers in, challenges of writing in second person, tips for success: writing in second person effectively, notable examples of second person viewpoint in literature, switching viewpoints: combining second person with first and third person perspectives, applicability of second person viewpoint in different genres, frequently asked questions.

When it comes to storytelling, authors have a variety of narrative viewpoints to choose from, each with its unique strengths and challenges. One often overlooked yet powerful option is the second person viewpoint . In this introductory section, we will explore the second person viewpoint, its defining characteristics, and why it can be such a captivating choice for writers.

At its core, the second person viewpoint uses the pronoun "you" to address the reader directly, transforming them into a character in the story. This perspective creates a sense of immediacy and involvement, as if the reader is living the events of the story as they unfold. While less common than first and third person viewpoints, second person offers a unique opportunity to engage readers on a deeper level and challenge conventional storytelling techniques.

Despite its rarity, the second person viewpoint has been employed to great effect in a number of literary works. Some noteworthy examples include "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay McInerney and "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" by Italo Calvino. In both cases, the authors use the second person perspective to create a sense of intimacy, urgency, and reader immersion that would be difficult to achieve using traditional first or third person narrative styles.

One of the reasons the second person viewpoint is so effective is that it breaks down the barrier between the reader and the story. By addressing the reader directly, the author creates a sense of immediacy and involvement that encourages the reader to become an active participant in the narrative. This can be especially powerful in genres such as Choose Your Own Adventure books, where readers are asked to make choices that directly impact the story's outcome.

However, the second person viewpoint is not without its challenges. Writing in this perspective requires a delicate balance of engaging the reader while avoiding the pitfalls of making assumptions about the reader's thoughts, feelings, and experiences. This can be a difficult tightrope to walk, but when done successfully, the rewards are well worth the effort.

In the sections that follow, we will delve deeper into the intricacies of the second person viewpoint, discussing when and how to use it effectively, techniques for creating immersion, and how to overcome the challenges inherent in this narrative style. By the end of this comprehensive guide, you will be well-equipped to harness the power of the second person viewpoint and create captivating stories that engage your readers like never before.

While the second person viewpoint can be a powerful narrative tool, it is not always the best choice for every story. In this section, we will discuss the situations in which the second person perspective can be most effective and some of the considerations to keep in mind when choosing this narrative style.

Interactive Stories: One of the most effective applications of the second person viewpoint is in interactive stories, such as Choose Your Own Adventure books and certain types of interactive fiction . In these stories, readers are active participants, making choices that directly impact the narrative. Using the second person perspective in this context allows the reader to feel more immersed in the story, as they are directly addressed and involved in the unfolding events.

Creating Intimacy and Empathy: The second person viewpoint can be used to create a sense of intimacy between the reader and the protagonist. By addressing the reader directly, the author can evoke empathy for the character's experiences and emotions. This can be particularly effective in stories that deal with personal or emotional subject matter, such as epistolary novels or personal essays.

Experimental and Literary Fiction: In some cases, authors may choose the second person viewpoint as a way to challenge traditional narrative conventions and explore new ways of telling stories. This can be particularly effective in literary fiction or experimental literature , where authors are often seeking to push the boundaries of storytelling and engage readers in new and unexpected ways.

Short Stories and Flash Fiction: Due to its unique and sometimes challenging nature, the second person viewpoint can be particularly well-suited for shorter works, such as short stories and flash fiction . In these shorter formats, the second person perspective can create a sense of immediacy and engagement, without the risk of overwhelming or alienating the reader over the course of a longer narrative.

When considering whether to use the second person viewpoint, it is important to weigh the potential benefits against the challenges. As discussed in the introduction, writing in the second person can be difficult, requiring a delicate balance of engaging the reader without making assumptions about their thoughts or experiences. However, when used effectively, the second person perspective can be a powerful narrative tool that sets your story apart and creates a unique and memorable reading experience.

As you contemplate using the second person viewpoint in your own writing, consider the goals and themes of your story, as well as the desired impact on your readers. Ask yourself if the second person perspective will enhance your narrative and better engage your audience, or if another viewpoint might be more appropriate. By carefully considering these factors, you can make an informed decision about when to use the second person viewpoint and how to harness its power to create captivating stories that resonate with your readers.

One of the key strengths of the second person viewpoint is its ability to create a deep sense of immersion for the reader. In this section, we will explore the techniques and strategies that can be employed to achieve this level of engagement, drawing readers into your story and making them feel like active participants in the narrative.

Direct Address: The most obvious way that the second person viewpoint creates immersion is through the use of direct address. By employing the pronoun "you" and speaking directly to the reader, the author establishes a connection that is both intimate and immediate. This connection encourages readers to identify with the protagonist and imagine themselves in the story, experiencing the events and emotions firsthand. To maximize the impact of direct address, it is important to use the second person pronoun consistently and intentionally throughout the narrative.

Sensory Details: Including rich, evocative sensory details can enhance the immersive quality of the second person viewpoint. By describing sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations, you can create a vivid, immersive world for your readers to inhabit. When writing in the second person, focus on providing specific, concrete sensory details that will draw readers in and make them feel as if they are truly experiencing the events of the story.

Active Voice and Action: Writing in the second person often lends itself well to the use of active voice and a focus on action. By using strong, active verbs and emphasizing the protagonist's actions, you can create a sense of immediacy and urgency that draws readers in and keeps them engaged. This can be particularly effective in genres such as adventure fiction or thrillers , where a fast pace and high stakes are essential to maintaining reader interest.

Interiority and Stream of Consciousness: Another way to create immersion in the second person viewpoint is by delving into the protagonist's thoughts and emotions, using techniques such as interior monologue or stream of consciousness . By offering readers a glimpse into the inner workings of the protagonist's mind, you can create a deep sense of empathy and understanding, further drawing them into the story. This can be especially effective in character-driven stories or those that deal with complex emotional or psychological themes.

Reader Expectations and Surprises: Finally, one of the most powerful ways to create immersion in the second person viewpoint is by playing with reader expectations and incorporating surprises into the narrative. By subverting or challenging what readers might expect from a story told in the second person, you can create moments of surprise and intrigue that keep them engaged and eager to discover what happens next. This can be achieved through unexpected plot twists, unconventional narrative structures, or unique character development.

In conclusion, creating immersion in the second person viewpoint requires a combination of narrative techniques, including direct address, sensory details, active voice, interiority, and surprises. By employing these strategies and carefully considering the unique strengths and challenges of the second person perspective, you can craft stories that draw readers in and make them feel like active participants in the narrative.

While the second person viewpoint offers numerous benefits and opportunities for creating immersive, engaging stories, it also presents unique challenges for writers. In this section, we will discuss some of the most common difficulties associated with writing in the second person and offer potential solutions to overcome these hurdles.

Reader Resistance: One of the primary challenges of writing in the second person is that some readers may be resistant to this narrative style. Since it is less common than first or third person viewpoints, readers may be initially put off by the direct address and unfamiliarity of the second person perspective. To overcome this challenge, it is important to establish a strong narrative voice and engaging storyline early in your story, drawing readers in and encouraging them to embrace the unique qualities of the second person viewpoint.

Maintaining Consistency: Writing in the second person requires a high level of consistency and intentionality in order to maintain the immersive effect. Inconsistently using the second person pronoun or switching between viewpoints can disrupt the narrative flow and undermine the immersive qualities of the second person perspective. To avoid this issue, carefully plan your story's structure and narrative voice before you begin writing, and be diligent in maintaining the second person viewpoint throughout the entirety of your work.

Avoiding Assumptions: A key challenge of writing in the second person is avoiding assumptions about the reader's thoughts, feelings, and experiences. Since the second person viewpoint directly addresses the reader, it can be easy to inadvertently make assumptions that alienate or disengage your audience. To combat this problem, focus on describing the protagonist's experiences and emotions in a way that invites the reader to empathize and imagine themselves in the character's shoes, without explicitly dictating how they should feel or react.

Limited Character Development: Writing in the second person can sometimes limit opportunities for character development, as the focus is primarily on the reader as the protagonist. To overcome this challenge, consider incorporating other narrative techniques, such as epistolary elements or interior monologues , to provide insight into the thoughts, emotions, and motivations of other characters. Additionally, pay close attention to the development of secondary characters and their interactions with the protagonist, ensuring they are fully realized and contribute meaningfully to the narrative.

Restricted Scope and Flexibility: The second person viewpoint can sometimes feel restrictive, as it limits the narrative scope to the protagonist's direct experiences and perceptions. This can make it challenging to incorporate multiple perspectives or convey information that the protagonist is not directly privy to. One potential solution to this problem is to experiment with combining the second person viewpoint with other narrative perspectives, such as first or third person, to create a more flexible and expansive narrative structure.

In conclusion, while writing in the second person viewpoint presents unique challenges, with careful planning and attention to detail, these obstacles can be overcome. By addressing potential issues such as reader resistance, consistency, assumptions, character development, and narrative scope, you can successfully harness the power of the second person perspective and create immersive, engaging stories that captivate your readers and leave a lasting impression.

Now that we've explored the unique challenges and benefits of writing in the second person, let's discuss some practical tips and strategies for successfully employing this narrative perspective in your own writing. By following these guidelines, you can create captivating stories that effectively harness the power of the second person viewpoint.

1. Develop a Strong Narrative Voice: One of the most critical aspects of writing in the second person is establishing a compelling, consistent narrative voice. This voice should be distinct and engaging, drawing readers in and encouraging them to invest in your story. To develop your narrative voice, experiment with different tones, styles, and diction until you find a voice that feels authentic and resonates with your intended audience.

2. Choose the Right Story: Not every story is well-suited for the second person viewpoint. Consider the themes, plot, and characters of your story and determine whether the second person perspective will enhance the narrative or detract from it. As discussed in previous sections, the second person viewpoint can be particularly effective in interactive stories, character-driven narratives, and experimental or literary fiction.

3. Focus on Sensory Details: As mentioned earlier, sensory details are crucial for creating immersion in the second person viewpoint. Be sure to include vivid, specific descriptions of sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and tactile sensations throughout your story. These details will help readers feel more connected to the narrative and create a more immersive, engaging experience.

4. Use Active Language: Writing in the second person lends itself well to active language and a focus on action. Use strong, active verbs and emphasize the protagonist's actions to create a sense of immediacy and urgency. This can be especially important in genres like adventure fiction or thrillers , where pacing and stakes are key components of the narrative.

5. Balance Interiority and Exteriority: To create a well-rounded narrative, it's important to balance the protagonist's inner thoughts and emotions with their external experiences and actions. Utilize techniques like interior monologue and stream of consciousness to provide insight into the protagonist's inner life, while also incorporating vivid descriptions of their actions and surroundings.

6. Experiment with Form and Structure: The second person viewpoint offers unique opportunities to experiment with form and structure in your writing. Consider incorporating unconventional narrative techniques, such as epistolary elements or nonlinear narratives , to further engage readers and create a distinctive reading experience.

While the second person viewpoint is less common than first or third person perspectives, it has been employed to great effect in a variety of literary works. In this section, we will explore some notable examples of the second person viewpoint in literature, showcasing the unique narrative power and potential of this narrative style.

Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney: This 1984 novel is a prime example of the second person viewpoint used effectively in a modern, urban setting. The story follows a young man navigating the excesses and pitfalls of New York City in the 1980s, with the second person perspective providing an intimate and immediate connection to the protagonist's experiences and emotions.

If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino: Calvino's 1979 postmodern novel is a masterful exploration of the second person viewpoint and its potential for creating immersive, engaging narratives. The story follows "you," the reader, as you attempt to read a novel but are continually interrupted by various obstacles and digressions, resulting in a complex and multi-layered narrative experience.

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins: This 1994 novel uses the second person viewpoint to tell the story of a stockbroker named Gwen, whose life begins to unravel over the course of a single weekend. The second person perspective adds an extra layer of depth and engagement to the novel's exploration of themes such as spirituality, materialism, and the search for meaning in modern life.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: While not entirely written in the second person viewpoint, Morgenstern's 2011 novel incorporates sections of second person narrative to draw readers into the magical world of the titular circus. These interludes serve to create an immersive, interactive experience that complements the novel's enchanting atmosphere and intricate storytelling.

These examples demonstrate the wide range of possibilities and potential applications for the second person viewpoint in literature. From modern urban settings to postmodern metafiction, psychological thrillers to magical realism, the second person perspective has been employed to create immersive, engaging narratives that challenge conventions and captivate readers. By studying and learning from these notable works, you can gain valuable insights into the power and potential of the second person viewpoint, and apply these lessons to your own writing endeavors.

While writing exclusively in the second person viewpoint can be a powerful and engaging narrative choice, some authors choose to combine second person with first or third person perspectives to create a more flexible and multifaceted narrative structure. In this section, we will explore the potential benefits and challenges of combining second person with other narrative viewpoints, as well as offer some practical tips and techniques for successfully integrating multiple perspectives into your story.

Benefits of Combining Viewpoints: There are several potential advantages to incorporating multiple narrative viewpoints in your story. Combining second person with first or third person perspectives can provide a more expansive narrative scope, allowing you to explore multiple characters, perspectives, and storylines. Additionally, alternating between viewpoints can add variety and interest to your narrative, creating a dynamic and engaging reading experience. Finally, using multiple perspectives can help to deepen characterization and enhance reader empathy, as it allows you to explore different characters' thoughts, feelings, and motivations from various angles.

Challenges of Combining Viewpoints: While there are numerous benefits to incorporating multiple narrative viewpoints, there are also potential challenges to consider. One of the primary difficulties is maintaining a consistent and coherent narrative voice, as switching between perspectives can be jarring or confusing if not executed skillfully. Additionally, combining viewpoints may require careful planning and organization to ensure that your story remains focused and cohesive, as well as to avoid potential inconsistencies or continuity errors.

Tips for Success: If you decide to combine second person with first or third person perspectives in your story, consider the following tips and techniques to ensure a successful and seamless integration:

• Establish Clear Boundaries: Clearly delineate the different narrative viewpoints by using separate chapters, sections, or other structural markers to indicate a shift in perspective. This can help to avoid confusion and maintain narrative clarity.
• Develop Distinct Narrative Voices: To create a cohesive and engaging reading experience, develop distinct and consistent narrative voices for each viewpoint. This may include differences in tone, diction, and style, as well as unique narrative techniques or structures associated with each perspective.
• Maintain Balance: Strive to maintain a balance between the different narrative viewpoints, ensuring that each perspective contributes meaningfully to the overall story and receives adequate attention and development. Avoid overusing one viewpoint at the expense of others, as this can create an uneven or disjointed narrative.
• Plan and Organize: Carefully plan and organize your story's structure and narrative arcs before you begin writing, to ensure that the integration of multiple viewpoints is purposeful and effective. This may include outlining each character's storyline and considering how their perspectives intersect and influence one another throughout the narrative.

While the second person viewpoint is often associated with specific genres or styles of writing, it is, in fact, a versatile narrative technique that can be employed effectively across a wide range of genres. In this section, we will explore the applicability of the second person viewpoint in various literary genres and consider the unique opportunities and challenges it presents within each context.

Literary Fiction: The second person viewpoint has been used to great effect in literary fiction, as it allows authors to explore complex themes, emotions, and narrative structures in a highly immersive and engaging manner. Examples include If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino and Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney. The second person viewpoint can be especially effective in experimental or postmodern works that challenge conventional narrative techniques and reader expectations.

Science Fiction and Fantasy: In science fiction and fantasy, the second person viewpoint can be employed to immerse readers in unfamiliar, fantastical worlds and introduce them to unique concepts and ideas. For example, The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern incorporates second person interludes to draw readers into the magical world of the titular circus. The second person perspective can also be used to explore alternate realities or parallel universes, creating a visceral and immediate connection between the reader and the fantastical elements of the story.

Horror and Psychological Thriller: The second person viewpoint can be particularly effective in horror and psychological thriller genres, as it heightens the sense of tension, unease, and immediacy within the narrative. A notable example is You by Caroline Kepnes, which uses the second person perspective to place the reader in the mind of a stalker, creating a chilling and intimate reading experience.

Choose-Your-Own-Adventure and Interactive Fiction: The second person viewpoint is a natural fit for choose-your-own-adventure and interactive fiction, as it directly addresses the reader and encourages them to participate in the narrative. In these genres, the second person perspective can create a strong sense of agency and engagement, as the reader is actively involved in shaping the story's outcome.

Romance and Erotica: In romance and erotica, the second person viewpoint can be used to create a deep sense of intimacy and connection between the reader and the characters. By directly addressing the reader and inviting them to experience the emotions, desires, and sensations of the characters, the second person perspective can heighten the emotional impact and eroticism of the narrative.

Young Adult and Children's Literature: While less common in young adult and children's literature, the second person viewpoint can be employed to create engaging, immersive narratives that resonate with younger readers. For example, the second person perspective can be used to explore themes of identity, self-discovery, and personal growth in a way that encourages young readers to reflect on their own experiences and emotions.

Below are some frequently asked questions that will provide you with more information.

What are the benefits of using second person viewpoint in my writing?

Using second person viewpoint can create a deep sense of immersion and connection between the reader and the characters, making the narrative feel more personal and engaging. It can also challenge traditional narrative conventions, providing a fresh and innovative approach to storytelling that sets your work apart.

How can I effectively combine second person viewpoint with first or third person perspectives?

To effectively combine second person viewpoint with first or third person perspectives, establish clear boundaries between the different viewpoints, develop distinct narrative voices for each perspective, maintain balance between viewpoints, and carefully plan and organize your story's structure and narrative arcs.

Can second person viewpoint be used in different genres of writing?

Yes, second person viewpoint is a versatile narrative technique that can be employed effectively across various genres, including literary fiction, science fiction and fantasy, horror and psychological thriller, choose-your-own-adventure and interactive fiction, romance and erotica, and young adult and children's literature.

What are some notable examples of second person viewpoint in literature?

Notable examples of second person viewpoint in literature include "Bright Lights, Big City" by Jay McInerney, "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler" by Italo Calvino, "You" by Caroline Kepnes, "Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas" by Tom Robbins, and "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern.

In this comprehensive guide, we have explored the unique qualities and challenges of the second person viewpoint and its potential for creating immersive, engaging narratives. By examining when to use this narrative technique, how it can draw readers in, and the specific challenges it presents, we have gained valuable insights into the power of the second person perspective in storytelling.

Furthermore, we have offered practical tips for writing effectively in the second person viewpoint, analyzed notable examples of this narrative technique in literature, and discussed how it can be combined with first and third person perspectives for added depth and complexity. Additionally, we have explored the applicability of the second person viewpoint across various genres, illustrating its versatility and potential for innovation.

As you venture into the world of writing in second person, keep in mind the importance of immersion, connection, and narrative voice in crafting compelling stories that resonate with your readers. By experimenting with this narrative technique and honing your skills, you can unlock new creative possibilities and enrich your storytelling. We hope that this guide serves as a valuable resource for you as you explore the power and potential of the second person viewpoint in your own writing.

For further learning and inspiration, consider the recommended Further Reading section, which features non-fiction books that delve into various aspects of narrative technique, including the second person perspective. And, as always, continue practicing and refining your craft to develop your unique voice and style. Happy writing!

Further Reading

• What Is 1st Person 2nd Person 3rd Person With Examples
• What Are The Three Points Of View?
• What Is The Point Of View?
• Mastering Point Of View In Writing: A Comprehensive Guide
• Third Person Point Of View Explained (With Examples)
• First Person Point Of View A Comprehensive Overview For Writers [Including Examples]

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Scholarly Voice: Second-Person Point of View

Second-person point of view.

Generally, it is best to avoid second person pronouns in scholarly writing because they remove the distance between the reader and the writer.  Instead, try to use first or third person pronouns to enhance clarity.  Most Walden programs and APA (2020) allow the appropriate use of first person . (See APA 7, Section 4.16 for more information.)

Here are a few examples.

Paragraph using second person:

Fire safety is important for everyone to learn. You have to evaluate if you would be prepared to face an emergency fire situation. In order to be prepared, you must be familiar with the emergency exits as well as the building's fire safety plan.

Paragraph revised to avoid second person:

Fire safety is important for everyone to learn. A resident must evaluate if he or she would be prepared to face an emergency first situation. In order to be prepared, residents must be familiar with the emergency exits as well as the building's fire safety plan.

Inappropriate use of the first person:

I found the sources to all cover the same topic of workplace bullying. I then surveyed 60 people to find out if the same theory applied to my own workplace.

Appropriate use of the first person:

The sources all covered the topic of workplace bullying. I surveyed 60 people to find out if the same theory applied to my own workplace.

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Wondering what it’s like to be inside a story? “Writing In The Second Person” is the key. Discover how it can involve you, letting you see, feel, and experience stories in a new way.

How words on a page can transport you into the heart of a story, making you feel like an active participant in the narrative?

Think of opening a book and it’s feeling as if the author’s words meant only for you. It feels like he knows your thoughts, making you an integral part of the narrative. This is the magic of writing in the second person.

In this article, we will discover the depths of the narrative approach of writing in the second person, what it is, how it functions, and why authors use this point of view (POV). If you’ve ever thought about how an author can transport you into different realms, get ready to uncover many amazing details.

Table of Contents

What is the second-person point of view?

A story that feels like the author is talking to the reader is because of the use of a second person. In this kind of write-up, a writer uses words like “you” and “your.” Using this perspective, authors can make their write-up more exciting and make a reader feel connected with it.

For instance, many adventure books often use the second-person point of view. These stories give you a feeling that you are in the moment and experiencing the adventure happening to the character.

That’s why the second-person point of view is a unique way of narrating a story and building a connection with the readers. Despite having various writing methods, writers mostly use the second-person point of view to captivate readers and provide them with an exciting storytelling experience.

Comparison with other narrative perspectives (First person, third person)

There are different ways to tell a story; the method decides how a reader feels about it. Like in a movie – the camera angle can change what you see, right? In writing, there are three main points: first person, third person, and second person.

Literary examples of second-person writing

Now, let’s travel back in time and explore some famous examples of second-person writing.

1. “Choose your own adventure” books:

These were popular in the 1980s and 1990s. They let you make choices that affect the story’s outcome. For example, “You are a brave explorer. If you want to enter the cave, turn to page 23. If you’d rather climb the mountain, turn to page 42.”

2. “If on a winter’s Night a traveler” by Italo Calvino:

This novel has uniquely used the second person. It’s like the author is talking to the readers about their experience of reading the book. It’s an extraordinary example of how the second person can create a connection between the author and the reader.

3. “Bright lights, big City” by Jay McInerney:

This novel tells the story of a person’s life in the second person. The author is telling the character’s story to “you.” This creates a personal and emotional connection between the reader and the character’s experiences.

4. Song Lyrics and Poetry:

Sometimes, songs and poems use the second person to make the listener or reader feel more involved. For example, “When you smile, the world stops and stares for a while.” It makes the words feel like they’re directed right at you.

Second person in poetry: The power of “you.”

Poetry is like a magical land where words dance, and emotions come alive. And guess what? The second-person point of view – that “you” perspective we’ve been talking about – is a tool poets use to create an even stronger connection with their readers.

Effect of the second person in poetry:

1. emotional connection:.

When a poem uses “you,” it’s like you’re feeling the emotions alongside the poet. You become a part of the poem’s feelings, like joy or sadness.

2. Immersion:

Just like a movie can make you forget where you are, second-person poetry does that, too. You’re not just reading words; you’re in the poet’s world.

3. Empathy:

If a poet says, “You walk in the rain,” you can almost feel the raindrops. The second person helps you understand someone else’s experiences.

4. Personal Reflection:

Second-person poems might remind you of your life. When the poet talks about “you,” you might think of your memories.

Examples of the second person in poetry:

1. “do not go gentle into that good night” by dylan thomas:.

In this famous poem, the poet encourages someone to fight against the end of life. He uses the second person to address that person, making the plea feel personal and urgent.

2. “A Dream Within a Dream” by Edgar Allan Poe:

Poe’s poem questions the nature of reality and dreams. Using the second person, he invites readers to ponder the same questions and doubt the boundaries between dream and reality.

3. “When You Are Old” by W.B. Yeats:

This poem speaks to a person about growing old and remembering their past. The second-person perspective makes it feel like Yeats speaks directly to the reader, inviting them to reflect on their own life.

So, next time you read a poem that uses “you,” remember that the poet invites you to step into their world, feel their emotions, and maybe even discover something about yourself along the way.

Practical applications of second-person writing: Bringing words to life

Guess what? Second-person writing isn’t just a point-of-view – it’s a versatile tool that authors use to make their words really pop and grab your attention. Let’s explore some everyday situations where the second person comes in handy.

1. Instructions and how-to guides:

Have you ever read a recipe that says, “You take two cups of flour”? It’s like the instructions are helping you step by step. Much better than a boring list.

2. Interactive fiction and video games:

Have you ever played a video game where you make choices, and they change the story? The second person is a superhero in these games. It’s like you’re the hero making decisions that shape the adventure. The story feels like it’s happening to you, and that’s super exciting.

3. Choose-your-own-adventure stories:

Remember those books where you choose what happens? The second person shines here. It’s like you’re part of the story.

4. Persuasive writing and advertising:

Have you seen ads that say things like, “You deserve the best”? They use the second person to connect you to their message. It’s like they tell you their product is just for you.

Disadvantages of writing in the second person:

While second-person writing is awesome, it can be challenging. There are some challenges and things to think about.

• It can sound strange.
• It’s not a fit for every story.
• Consistency is key
• Respecting the reader
• Finding balance
• Avoiding manipulation

1. It can sound strange:

Using “you” all the time can sound a bit weird or forced. Imagine reading a story where every sentence starts with “you.” It can start to feel repetitive.

2. Not a fit for every story:

Some stories just don’t click with the second person. If a story needs a lot of characters’ viewpoints or focuses on a big, wide world, the second person might feel cramped.

3. Consistency is key:

When writing in the second person, keeping the tone and style consistent is essential. Switching back and forth between “you” and other pronouns can confuse the reader.

4. Respecting the reader:

Not everyone likes feeling like they’re being told what to do or that they’re a character in the story. Some readers might find the second person a bit intrusive or off-putting.

5. Finding balance:

Authors need to balance the “you” perspective with the character’s unique voice and emotions. Too much focus on “you” might make the character feel less real and relatable.

6. Avoiding manipulation:

Using the second person to manipulate or force emotions on readers can be a challenge. It’s important to create a genuine connection rather than trying to control their feelings.

From game adventures to persuasive ads, the second person is a way to bring words to life and make them resonate with you.

But like any tool, it has its challenges. Writers need to use it wisely, keeping you engaged while respecting your autonomy as a reader. So, whether you’re playing the hero in a game or following a recipe, remember that the second person is the secret ingredient that makes words come alive.

Switching points of view in writing: Walking in different shoes

The point of view (POV) is like the cone that holds the ice cream together. And here’s the cool part – you can actually switch cones in the middle of your story. Let’s dive into the world of switching points of view and see how it adds a splash of creativity to your writing.

Changing perspectives: Why would you?

Imagine you’re telling a story from one character’s viewpoint, but suddenly, you want to show what another character is thinking. That’s when switching points of view comes in handy. It’s like peeking into someone else’s thoughts to see what’s going on in their world.

1. First person to third person:

If you’re writing a story using “I” or “we” (first person), you can switch to the third person (“he,” “she,” “they”) to give readers a broader view. You can share what other characters are doing, even if the main character isn’t around.

2. Third person to first person:

You can also flip the switch the other way around. Switching from the third to the first person can make a character’s experiences feel super personal. It’s like you’re letting readers inside their heads, hearing their thoughts firsthand.

3. Mixing it up: Multiple POVs:

Have you ever read a book where each chapter is from a different character’s perspective? That’s like a POV party. Using multiple points of view lets you explore different characters’ feelings and experiences. It’s like getting to know all the characters from the inside.

4. The why behind the switch:

Sometimes, you can switch POV to create suspense or reveal secrets. Imagine a mystery where you see things through the detective’s eyes, and then suddenly, you switch to the suspect’s view. It’s like putting together a puzzle, piece by piece.

While switching POVs can be a fun way to mix things up, it’s like cooking a new recipe – you must do it carefully. Too much switching can confuse readers, like changing the channel on TV too quickly. Make sure the switches are clear and serve a purpose in the story.

So, can you switch points of view in your writing? Absolutely! It’s like wearing different shoes for different occasions. Just remember, each switch should enhance your story and let readers see the world through different eyes.

How do you write in the second person?

Let us tell you some great tricks to involve your readers and create an exciting writeup. Here is how you can write in the second person;

1. Embrace the “You” perspective:

The key to writing in the second person is to use pronouns like “you,” “your,” and “yours.” It’s like you’re addressing the reader directly, inviting them to experience the story as if it’s happening to them.

2. Make the reader the star:

Remember, in the second person, the reader is the main character. Everything revolves around them. So, describe actions, thoughts, and feelings as if the reader is the one doing and experiencing them.

3. Create immersive descriptions:

Use vivid and detailed descriptions to help the reader feel like they’re right there in the story. Engage their senses – describe the sights, sounds, smells, and even the emotions they might be feeling.

4. Bring actions to life:

When describing actions, use active verbs to make the reader feel involved. Instead of saying “he walked,” you could say “you stroll” or “you race.”

5. Play with emotions:

Since the reader is the character, you want them to feel the emotions deeply. Describe how “your heart races,” “your stomach flutters,” or “you feel a knot of worry.”

6. Use “you” thoughtfully:

While “you” is the star of the second person, don’t overuse it. Mix in other sentence structures to keep the writing from sounding repetitive.

7. Stay consistent:

Consistency is key. Once you’ve chosen the second person, stick with it throughout the story. Switching back and forth between points of view can confuse your readers.

8. Keep the tone in mind:

The tone of your story matters. Whether it’s casual, formal, suspenseful, or funny, make sure the second-person perspective matches the mood you’re trying to create.

9. Experiment and edit:

Writing in the second person might feel a bit tricky at first. So, don’t be afraid to experiment and revise. Read your work aloud to see if it flows smoothly and engages the reader.

10. Learn from examples:

Reading stories, articles, and books written in the second person can give you a feel for how it’s done. Pay attention to how the authors use “you” to draw you into the narrative.

Unveiling the writer’s toolbox: Why do writers use the second person?

You’ve probably noticed that writers have many tricks up their sleeves to craft captivating stories. One of these tricks is using the second-person point of view. So, why do writers reach into their toolbox and pull out the “you” perspective? Let’s dive in and uncover the reason behind it.

1. Creating a personal connection:

Did a story make you feel like it was written just for you? That’s the power of the second person. By addressing the reader directly with words like “you” and “your,” writers create an instant bond. They’re whispering secrets into your ear, making the story feel personal.

2. Drawing readers

Imagine you’re at a party, and someone starts telling you an intriguing story. When writers use the second person, it’s like they’re saying, “Hey, come here, let me tell you something cool.” It’s an invitation that’s hard to resist.

3. Enhancing immersion:

You’re stepping into a new world when you read a book or a story. The second person takes that to the next level. It makes you not just an observer but a participant. You’re not just reading about the adventure – you’re living it.

4. Making readers feel:

Writers want you to feel what their characters feel. The second person makes that happen in a big way. Instead of just reading about a character’s excitement, you feel the excitement too. It’s like the writer is dialing up your emotions.

5. Fostering empathy:

Empathy is when you understand and share someone else’s feelings. Writers use the second person to supercharge empathy. It’s like they’re saying, “Imagine you’re in this situation,” and suddenly, you’re feeling what the character feels.

6. Engaging different senses:

When writers describe things in the second person, they engage your senses. It’s not just about what you’re seeing – it’s about what you’re hearing, smelling, and feeling. This makes the story vivid and real.

7. Creating a unique experience:

Let’s face it – stories can get predictable. But when writers switch to the second person, they’re giving you something different. It’s a fresh way to tell a tale, and it can make you see things in a whole new light.

8. Playing with perspective:

Writing is like being a painter, but instead of colors, you use words. The second person is like using a unique brushstroke. It lets writers play with perspective and experiment with storytelling techniques.

So, next time you find yourself in a story’s embrace, remember – it’s the magic of the second person at work, creating a connection that lasts long after you turn the final page.

As you continue your reading adventures, watch for writing in the second person. It’s a literary tool that bridges the gap between the written word and the reader, adding a layer of engagement and making your reading journey all the more immersive.

This writing style immerses you, the reader, into the heart of the story or conversation, creating a personal connection between the text and yourself.

Throughout this guide, we’ve uncovered the essence of this technique, its mechanics, and the reasons authors opt for it. So, when you come across “you” as the reader or main character in a piece of writing, you can appreciate how it enhances your involvement and makes the words on the page feel like a personalized experience.

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• Writing Tips

Writing Tips: When to Use the Second Person

5-minute read

• 18th June 2020

Of all the grammatical persons, second person may be the most underappreciated. But what is the second person exactly? And when should you use it in your writing ? In this blog post, we offer some suggestions.

What Is the Second Person?

In basic terms, grammatical person is how we tell the difference between the person speaking (i.e., the first person), the person being spoken to (i.e., the second person), and everything else (i.e., the third person). We can see this in the types of personal pronouns someone uses in their writing:

First Person: I am going home.

Second Person: You are going home.

Third Person: She is going home.

As shown above, the second person uses pronouns like “you” and “yours.” You can thus use it to address the listener or reader directly.

The second person is quite rare in formal and creative writing, where the first person and third person are far more common. But there are some cases where using it can enhance your writing, as we will discuss below.

Instructions and Recipes

If you are writing directions or instructions for something, the second person will help ensure clarity. This is particularly true when listing steps in a process. For instance, you might see it used in a recipe:

To make our apple and cinnamon cake:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350°F (200°C).
• Line a cake tin and grease the bottom.
• Melt the butter in a large pan.
• Beat the egg until it is frothy.
• Mix in the caster sugar…

Here, we offer simple, concise instructions addressed directly to the reader. Note that the “you” above is implicit (i.e., we are addressing the reader in the imperative , but we do not use the word “you”).

If we were to rewrite this in the third person, though, it would say:

• The oven should be pre-heated to 350°F (200°C).
• A cake tin should be lined and the bottom greased.
• The butter should be melted in a large pan.
• The egg should be beaten until it is frothy.
• The caster sugar should be mixed in…

In this case, we do not address the reader directly, focusing instead on the what needs to be done to the equipment and ingredients. But the result is longer and less clear, so you can see why most recipes don’t do this!

Advertising and Copy Writing

You will also see the second person used a lot in copy writing and advertising. This is because addressing the reader helps to create a personal connection. We do this in our blog posts, as you may have noticed!

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This is important in advertising as it helps brands connect with customers. We see this in slogans that encourage readers to act or think in a certain way, such as “Have It Your Way” (Burger King) or “Think Different” (Apple).

Some adverts also pose questions in the second person:

Do you want to lose weight fast and make £££ from home?

The aim is to project a personal relationship with customers: i.e., to address each reader as an individual whose needs your company can meet.

Persuasive Writing and Speeches

The second person is also common in persuasive writing and speeches, especially when the aim is to directly convince the audience of something.

As with advertising, this is because the second person helps to create a connection with an audience: e.g., I’m not just talking about how recycling is good for the environment; I’m talking about how you can make a difference.

However, there are two provisos to note here:

• The second person can seem accusatory (e.g., if we were talking about some negative behavior, such as a prejudice, saying “you” too much could seem like we’re accusing our reader of the behavior in question).
• Using “you” too much can create a divide between the author/speaker and the audience, which may seem like you are speaking down to them.

Thus, the plural first person (e.g., we , us ) is a better choice in some cases.

Lyrics and Literature

Finally, we should look at the second person in creative writing. It is quite common in poetry and song lyrics , for instance, which are often addressed to a “you” (either the reader themselves or an imagined interlocutor).

The second person is also useful for creative works in which the reader is the protagonist, such as text-based video games or choose-your-own-adventure stories, where the “you” is the player.

More rarely, authors will write part of or even an entire novel in the second person . The aim here is to create a strong connection between the narrator and the reader (i.e., to make it as if they are reading about themselves). However, it is a challenging technique and not suitable for every story.

Whatever you’re writing though, don’t forget to have it proofread !

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Why You Should Try Writing in Second Person

by Melissa Tydell | 175 comments

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Fiction writers tend to depend on first person or third person point of view —you’ve been there, done that. But what about writing in second person ? It may seem strange, unconventional, or confining, but playing with point of view is one way to transform a story.

Point of view affects a story in that it offers readers a very specific perspective of the story events. Second person narration is no different. In this post, let's define second person point of view and then talk about three reasons why you should try writing in second person.

What is second person point of view?

Second person point of view is when you tell the story from the perspective of someone else– the reader. It's like being a fly on the wall as someone else experiences something. You're not in their head, but rather observing and narrating their actions and feelings from outside of them.

It can be a bit tricky to write in because it requires that you take on a different narrative voice and be conscious of the words that you use. It assumes a sense of intimacy as you direct the reader.

Questions about point of view? Check out our full guide here .

How do you know something is written in second person POV?

It will use second person pronouns to capture the action: you, your, yours. It projects the action and thoughts of the reader in an immersive experience.

Here's an fiction example from Margaret Atwood's short story “Bread”:

Imagine a piece of bread. You don't have to imagine it, it's right here in the kitchen, on the breadboard, in its plastic bag, lying beside the bread knife. The bread knife is an old one you picked up at an auction; it has the word BREAD carved into the wooden handle. You open the bag, pull back the wrapper, cut yourself a slice.

Notice how the Atwood tells you the reader what you see and how you're acting. She puts you inside the story as the second person narrator.

Why try writing in second person?

Here are three reasons:

1. Second person pulls the reader into the action.

Especially if you write in the present tense, second person allows the reader to experience the story as if it’s their own. To avoid a “choose your own adventure story” feel or an aggressive tone, mix up sentence structure and add in description and dialogue. Using the second person pronoun “you” and describing action as it happens supplies a personal sense of immediacy or urgency, propelling the story—and the reader—forward.

Example: You’re late. Heart pounding, you race up the stairs as the train enters the station. With a deep breath, you weave around the slow-moving people milling on the platform and dash towards the train, throwing your body through the doorway with only a moment to spare.

Notice how the sensory experience is heightened here for the reader because the narrative perspective projects the action on you.

2. Second person gets personal.

One way to experiment with second person is to write as if the story is a letter from the narrator to “you,” reflecting on past events and current feelings, asking questions. (It doesn’t have to be in an actual letter form; the idea of a letter is simply a way to describe the intimate tone.)

This technique isn't necessarily “pure” second person POV, as it pairs “you” with the narrator’s first-person point of view, but it allows you to dip a toe in the second-person perspective. At the same time, it gives readers a peek into a relationship, a memory, and a character’s emotions.

Example: You told me to meet you at the bar. Things hadn’t been going well, but I couldn’t put my finger on what exactly was wrong. Did you plan on breaking my heart that night? We locked eyes as I walked through the entrance, and I knew things were coming to an end.

3. Second person stretches your skills and surprises readers.

Because it’s not often used, the second person point of view can feel fresh to readers. And for writers, it means a new way of telling a story, a different way of revealing character. In this way, it offers a new perspective for writers and readers alike.

Second person might not be the right fit for every story. (And there are always readers who don't love second person for fiction writing!) But it's worth the time to play with the voice and urgency that second person narratives require, if for no other reason than to expand your writing prowess.

Second person writing and your choice of perspective

Choosing your viewpoint character matters because it dictates how your reader will experience the story. A second person POV story blurs the lines between story and personal experience in a way that can be interesting and maybe uncomfortable.

But if you are after an engaging experience, and you can carefully curate the second person voice in a way that resonates with readers, a second person narrative voice may be a choice that transforms your next story. Give it a try and let us know how it goes!

Need help deciding on your point-of-view? Unsure about the differences between first-person, third person limited and third person omniscient perspectives? Read our full article on Point of View and download our handy POV cheatsheet here . 

Have you written a story in the second person point of view? Tell us how it went in the comments . 

Write for fifteen minutes in the second person point of view.

When you’re finished, please share your practice in the Pro Practice Workshop . And if you post, please respond to some of the other comments too!

Melissa Tydell

Melissa Tydell is a freelance writer, content consultant, and blogger who enjoys sharing her love of the written word with others. You can connect with Melissa through her website , blog , or Twitter .

• Melissa Tydell https://thewritepractice.com/author/melissatydell/ July 29, 2013 What I’ve Learned from Writing for The Write Practice
• Melissa Tydell https://thewritepractice.com/author/melissatydell/ July 15, 2013 How to Write about a Time of Anticipation
• Melissa Tydell https://thewritepractice.com/author/melissatydell/ July 1, 2013 How to Integrate Travel into a Story
• Melissa Tydell https://thewritepractice.com/author/melissatydell/ June 3, 2013 What is the Most Satisfying Part of Writing?

175 Comments

For a few poems I wrote lately, I used both the pure 2nd person narration and the one described in #2. I’m submitting one of them to my school newspaper, since I already used the other one for a school assignment.

Very cool! Glad to hear you’re already experimenting with this POV.

The beginning of a memoir, of which an agent said 120 pages in the second person was too much. I’m still torn on whether to take the advice into account. If you like it theres more here- theransomletters.wordpress.com

Anyone who has ever had their heart shit on, enjoyed needle drugs, or rotted away in sub-Saharan Africa just might have witnessed things, and could have something worthwhile to say. Worth what I haven’t the faintest idea. This is a story, it could be mine or it could be yours. In all reality it is of little significance, the Africa part, because you and I both know a new town is a discovery and a new place in which to repeat old habits, like placating unchecked impulse, living beyond your means, or spending other peoples’ money.

This could be you if you have a penchant for travel. If you have ever reveled in foreign lands during sunsets with him or her around your arm. If you have ever lusted over others’ lives for alternative endings than festering in this hot room. If you have ever fucked around with someone else’s significant other to this end. So you have fucked someone over too. No doubt you have promised yourself you would never do it again, ambling home at sun-up, when the heartbreaking purity of birds chirping made you feel like dirt. This is you if you are going through a midlife crisis at 30. Don’t fret; you’ll only make it to 60.

You are a filthy traveler. Whichever came first, the road or the dirt, is of little importance- low standards can get you further in life than you would imagine. Further, because you wish to lose yourself in the ways of other countries, and translate your thoughts into numerous languages until you no longer understand them. You, traveler without a choice, you are not one for a guide book or youth hostels. No, guide books are like coloring books for experience, and for hostels, well all the flag flapping makes it hard to get any forgetting done. What’s more, it is unworkable to smoke exotic drugs without alerting several bunk mates with conservative tendencies.

You travel with a knife. You travel for life because of a fear of boredom. You don’t wish to go home because you can’t write letters there. You drink too much in certain cultures but you avoid those places. Yet you have been there; In some other Himalayas and meditating. It was just another experience in life, one of the infinite choices that made it impossible to choose ONE, like a kid in a candy shop. You see, this could be you.

Oscillating desires pave dead end roads. I’ll meet you at the end of any given one at any given time. Perhaps you are my age and possibly you are not. What proceeds is a tale of an ageless idiot, or God’s divine creation, it is incumbent on how you look at it. You be the judge of God’s divine creation…

Nice work. I found it quite rich, in the sense of having a lot packed into a relatively small number of words – that’s a great thing in a small piece like a short story, less so in a longer piece. I wonder if that is inherent in the 2nd person approach, it will always be more intense just because it is so personal? FWIW, I tend to agree with your agent – keeping this up for too long is very hard work.

I love the third paragraph here. You made a point there that I think is hard to make in writing “low standards can get you further in life than you would imagine” What a thing to say. Well done!

Not exactly “If on a Winter’s Night…” but here goes:

You’ve been out. Nowhere special, just some routine errands. A trip to the shops to get food for tonight’s dinner, maybe. Or perhaps you had a very important letter to post, and had to go to the Post Office to buy a stamp before dropping the letter in the box outside. It could even be that it was something more important, like a visit to the doctor to receive some test results that you have been worrying about for the last week.

Whatever. It’s done now, and you have come back home. You got your key from the place where you keep it, put it in the lock, and let yourself in. There is the familiar and yet still irritatingly urgent beeping of the burglar alarm, you have just thirty seconds to enter the correct code before all hell lets loose. You don’t want that to happen, not today at any rate, so you punch the right buttons and the system gives a little chirrup to let you know that all is well.

You shut the front door and there, stuck in the letter box, is today’s post. You take it out, and the spring on the flap does its thing and closes up the gap with a snap. No fingers caught today, happily. You examine the post, it doesn’t look very exciting. There is a flyer for a pizza delivery service, and from someone who seems to be very keen to clean your carpets. This looks like a bill, it can go in the pile with all the others. Another one is from a charity, you gave them some money once when your uncle died because it was his charity, now they won’t leave you alone. But no real post, nobody writes letters anymore.

Once upon a time people did write letters. You can remember getting them from your parents if you were visiting somewhere, maybe staying with a distant aunt for the summer so that you could get a change of scenery and they could get a rest. You also recall having to write “thank you” letters whenever you received a gift. But no longer.

Today people write emails, perhaps you will have better luck there. So you take off your coat and hang it on the hook, which really looks like it will fall off the wall any day now, you really ought to get round to mending that. You go into your office, where the computer is, and switch it on.

As it starts, there is a big swoosh of air as the fans start up, almost as if it is clearing its lungs before having to say something very important. Then, after a little longer, the screen bursts into life and the little coloured icons appear. One of them is for your email program, so you click that. For some reason you’ve never understood you have to click it twice – why is that, why once for some things and twice for others? You think they make this deliberately difficult, to keep ordinary people like you out of this special place.

You have mail! Not too much spam today, that’s a good thing. But no personal messages either, just the electronic equivalent of the circulars that you’ve just had through your letter box. Ah, what’s this, a message from The Write Practice? An invitation to write a piece in the second person? What a silly idea, you’d never dream of doing such a thing.

Nicely done! I felt like I was stepping through your morning with you, or were you stepping through mine? The “you” perspective really shakes it up!

Well, this is just brilliant. I love the feeling of this piece, the observations of everyday life. And the ending is perfect, of course.

Very clever. I loved how you brought the minutia of life into brilliant focus. Great job.

Wahaha, I loved the end of your story! What a clever little twist. 🙂 I really like all the little details you put in to make it seem like an average day, I’m a huge fan of details – I think they can make a good story a really great one.

Ha! This kind of irritated with life person who expects little things to go wrong it well appreciated by this reader. I like the part where the computer takes a breath before busting to life. Fun read thanks.

For a great example of how this can be executed without coming off as cheesy, check out chapter 10 (“out of body”) of Jennifer Egan’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, A Visit From the Goon Squad.

It’s weird that you posted this today because I’ve been toying with this very concept. A few panels I’ve attended lately have said this can’t be done effectively (except for Bright Lights, Big City and role play books) so I took it as a challenge. I’ve had an idea that I’ve been exploring, just to prove them wrong, but I keep sneaking in an occasional “I” every now and then. Once it’s polished, though, I plan on submitting it somewhere. I am concerned, though, that it won’t be well received just because it’s a second person POV. The panels suggest that some people won’t even read second person POV stories. Have you found that to be true?

Perhaps someone else can chime in re: submissions, but I think using second person is a challenge so when it’s done well, it’s spectacular. There are plenty who say to avoid it, but hey, it’s there to play with — might as well get creative!

Thanks. I am trying one now. It’s challenging, but kind of fun.

I just read the short essay “Welcome to Holland” by Emily Perl Kingsley for the first time, yesterday. I can’t stop thinking about it, and now I know why. It’s written in the 2nd person!

At midnight, when you are filled with manicotti and yellow cake, you will vow to diet tomorrow. You will feel the dimpled flesh of your thighs, as spongy as your Tempurpedic mattress, and feel shame. Remember the summer you wore the blue bikini? Remember the way your hair, even tied in a high pony tail, fell past your shoulders? Remember the boys who gathered round you, their eyes drinking you in? You’ll want to feel that way again. The thighs, I’m sorry to tell you, are keeping you from it.

There are three heart-shaped boxes in your pantry, each rummaged through, the caramels now gone, the strawberry creams bitten once and shoved back into their fluted wrappers. By nine on the following morning you’ll be eyeing those boxes, the Valentine candy you bought for yourself, even though it’s still January.

By ten, you will have eaten every last piece. It would make sense to cry here, but you won’t. Instead, you will rise, walk to your Viking stove that’s the same blue as your old bikini. You will pull butter from the refrigerator, and mushrooms and Asiago cheese. You’ll grab the bottle of cooking sherry and two T-bone steaks wrapped in white paper.

The flame on the Viking will also glow blue, and you will stare into it, your cast iron skillet in your hand, so heavy you almost drop it. You’ll let the skillet grow hot on the flame, then add a stick of butter. The mushrooms, you’ll rinse them once and then throw them in whole, and they’ll sizzle in the browning butter, the sound like thunder on this quiet morning. By the time the steaks go in, you’ll be an artist, using food as your paint. The blue Viking is your canvas, the sky, the color of the night Grady took you to his bed, his hands quick, his breathing sharp.

The apron you’ll wear has the image of a fifties housewife on the front. She is holding a cupcake. The caption reads: It Ain’t Gonna Lick Itself. You bought it on a whim, feeling frisky, but Grady didn’t like it. He said it was cheap, like your dyed red hair, so you put it away.

But he is gone now, isn’t he? You can imagine him, his arm around that heartbreakingly thin girl he met at work. Take heart. She has problems of her own. The kind that will make your dimpled thighs seem like a Sunday school picnic. And when he thinks of you, it is always the way you looked on that first night, your breasts like full moons, your shoulders pale as the white sheets as he lowered himself to you, like a man giving into the sea.

Very cool to see the use of second person with future tense, especially as it’s contrasted with the memories of the past — an effective way to get that sense of nostalgia and regret across.

I agree! Excellent job working the tenses, Marla. Always a struggle for me. Plus, you made me wish I had mushrooms in the house.

Thanks so much.

Marla, even though I’m a guy, I could resonate with so much of your story. You had my attention with your first sentence. I make those vows nightly in between burps. I loved your description of the Valentine candy. I thought I was the only one who ate the caramels first and left the strawberry creme until I was truly desperate. The whole story felt so real and full of regret. Great job!

Thank you Tom. Glad we agree on chocolates!

Great writing as usual Marla. I have a bikini in mine too. Well great minds and all that ; ).

I promise your mind was much greater than mine today! I love your story.

I love this piece. Quite a few of the lines are really very poetic.

Sad and sumptuous all at once. I like it.

I can imagine the imagery that came to you as you wrote this. What a delicious discovery! I like the Viking blue, and the retro 50’s picture. I also like the humor and poignancy of this: (She has problems of her own. The kind that will make your dimpled thighs seem like a Sunday school picnic.) Great practice!

Wow. Sadly, this piece makes me wish I had chocolate in the house.

Very well done!

This is awesome! I love it.

Wow… this is quite beautiful, you explore such an interesting subject and the style in the piece really just draws the reader in.

Marla, this is fantastic. It’s ferocious and mixes action with daydream, that sense of recall – the last lines, “And when he thinks of you, it is always the way you looked…” felled me. Thank you for sharing. LOVE it.

The cold morning air scratches your throat with each labored breath. It is as if you are swallowing a handful of thumb tacks or maybe a really strong and bad shot of tequila with each gasp. This is not the thick coastal air you are used to breathing. This is the least of your problems though…

The ridge looms ahead and above you taunting you with every glance. Already you are at 12,000 feet in elevation, the ridge is another 1,000 feet of elevation gain and appears to be perfectly vertical. Doubts flood your mind – you will not make it, your body is strong enough, why didn’t you choose the Caribbean vacation instead? Not only is your mind working against you, your head throbs with each beat of your heart. Your lungs cannot be satisfied with normal breaths. Your thighs and calves are throbbing and seem to be in perpetual cramps. And to top it all off, the three blisters on each foot have popped and have now become open wounds. Your options are this: you can quit and go back down to the comfort of the Holiday Inn, you can lay down and die, or you can trudge on.

You trudge on. One painful, ascending step after another.

After an hour of struggle you come to the top of the ridge that connects Bard Peak and Sliver Plume Mountain. You are so stunned at what you see that your physical ailments become a memory! On the far eastern horizon are Mount Evans and Mount Bierstadt, connected by the ominous Sawtooth Ridge. As you pan to the south and west the twin peaks of Grays and Torreys appear so close that perhaps you could walk to them in fifteen minutes. Farther to south and west are the peaks of the Tenmile and Mosquito Ranges. Farther still to the south and west are the northern peaks of the Sawatch Range forming the right side of your panorama. Vast, beautiful, overwhelming – all three understating what you see and feel. Every gasp, throb, ache, blister, and hardship seem an inconsequential price to pay for standing at this place.

That’s great, David. I was exhausted after the first paragraph. I recalled how my wife and i climb squaw peak in Phoenix. It’s only a mile and a half up, but it wears me out. Thanks for helping me imagine climbing a real mountain without actually having to do it.

That as lovely. It reminds me of why people enjoy mountain climbing.

You captured this perfectly!

If you drove past the red roofed barn where daylight shutters through the wooden planks, you would never guess what lies in the forest glade. If you stopped your car beside the field of wild daisies, just past the crumbling silo, you would notice the cow path that leads into the woods. But unless you got out of your car and walked along the hoof-pocked path, you would never know about the small clearing in the woods. You would never know that bones lay on the moss beside the dry creek bed in the field of ferns.

But if you arrived at the right moment, and hid behind the outcrop of rocks, you would see Carl kneeling in the field of ferns, severing the leg off of the wounded cat. You would see him wrapping it in the burlap sack, tying it behind the saddle, and galloping away on his horse.

If you happened to run into Carl at the Thirsty Cow on a Friday night, you might hear his stories about scooping up the road kill. The job no one wants. The job you don’t even know exists until there is a deer carcass sprawled feet from your front door. You don’t know there is someone to call for this until the turkey vultures are circling and perching and tearing maggoty flesh from the deer’s bones.

You could move it yourself, but you’re worried about disease, Lyme, parasites, and the smell. The smell becomes a constant presence in your home, it lives in your teeth because it doesn’t matter if you try not to breathe through your nose. You still smell it inside your mouth. It coats everything, and you start cleaning even though it won’t help.

Nothing will help until Carl comes and scoops the carcass into his wooden paneled truck. Only then does the stench slowly recede from your doorstep. You don’t think about where it goes after this. You can’t imagine the place where it goes, bone upon bone, scavengers of the sky and soil desecrating what’s left of that life, the white tail once bobbing over fences.

But this is his job, and if you saw Carl on a usual day, tossing a dear carcass, you would know this cat is different. You would hear him cry and whisper “Annie” into the wind.

That one’s going to haunt me for a while. Poor Carl! Great job.

Very powerful! I can still smell the rotting carcass. The last sentence is very moving. Great job!

Wow!!! That was amazing. I like the words “hood pocked” at the beginning. What is up with the cat though. Why is he crying and whispering to “Annie” at the end if he cut the legs off of a wounded (I assume it’s not dead because you said wounded) cat. It’s either very creepy if he’s some kind of cat torturer or very sad if Annie was a pet and when you wrote wounded you also meant that she was dead.

I agree with Marianne, I was a little confused with the cat as well. But this is a great piece Plum 🙂 It creeped me out a little, that line about the smell living in your (my) teeth…ugh!! Great practice!!

Unfortunately, a deer died behind my house after coyotes attacked it. It took a long time to find the source of the smell, and even longer for the turkey vultures to finally leave.

Oh my God, that’s horrible. No wonder the images were so vivid, you lived it.

Thanks for your comments Marianne! There’s more to the cat story, but I should have left it out for the purposes of the practice, or developed it more. I appreciate the feedback.

That goes to show how just a sentence or two can make a big difference in a readers perception of a character.

Fantastic! You used 2nd person perspective very naturally. I was there.

Wow! I love the line about the smell getting in your teeth. Carl is a great character.

I love the ‘if’ on top of ‘if’ construction that draws you in. Good stuff.

Thanks so much everyone! I’ve been tossing Carl around for awhile, but never really thought of second person. It was fun to see him differently.

I guess that’s why I like the book “Fight Club” so much. Really puts you in the moment, makes you feel connected to the writer. It’s also why I liked “Choose Your Own Adventure” books back in the day. lol

You walk among the half-naked children who surround you begging for money and food. Your soft eyes sparkle in comparison to their dark eyes of want. Your mouth quivers an uncomfortable smile as you contemplate your next move. You know if you reach your hand into your bag, a dozen more slum kids will surge towards you, creating a tidal wave of desperation. You have more than you can ever use, so it only makes sense to pay it forward to these innocents of poverty and heartache.

You look up and notice your tour group seeking respite on the bus. The stench and the flies are just too much. Your once-compassionate eyes begin to glare in disgust and panic as one-by-one your tour mates step into the air conditioned coach, leaving you with an ever expanding mob. Your breathing accelerates as your heart begins to pound. It feels as if it might explode. You see the doors of the tour bus begin to close and you yell out in terror.

“Wait! Stop,” you scream out over the clamor.

Shooing the kids from your personal space, you make your way to the bus. You hear the children crying and you don’t even turn to wave goodbye.

I think that was one of the best things I’ve read by you Tom. It was very immediate. I was there. Well done.

Great transformation here, Tom. Good writing.

You would feel like the little you could give would never be enough. I get it. Convicting and thought provoking.

I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. I think you’ve convinced me to take the leap.

Awesome — you should definitely go for it!

Sorry for the few cuss words at the end but she said them, not me.

You’re walking the boardwalk in a pink bikini. Your toenails are painted lavender. You have a killer tan. Everybody’s watching you except the blind and maybe they are getting some kind of idea of how totally cool you are.

It’s a good day; breezy and not packed tight with tourists. There’s a problem though. It’s that old Greek you worked for. He said that you’re “a criminal”, says you have a “bad mind”. But there’s nothing wrong with your brain. You’ve always been sexy and guys like to buy stuff for you like dinner, and records and jewelry and rides on the roller cooster. What’s wrong with that?

You hear Joe Cocker singing from a loudspeaker. That means you’re near the Beach Club where you worked for that stupid Greek. You need to pee and your feet are getting hot from walking barefoot. The Beach Club has a bathroom. The Greek said he’d call the cops if you came back in the club. He says you stole money from the register. Prove it man, you think.

Inside it’s dark and chilly. You take off your shades to find the bathroom. It’s dirty, with a wet floor, a pine sol smell, and no toilet paper. There’s some cool graffiti though, coolest grafitti at the beach. You started it with “psychedelic drugs sold here” in smooth, even handwriting. It’s hard to write on a metal door with a can opener but you got it right. Some of the other girls used lipstick, but not you. You made a permanent impression. People don’t forget you.

You get to the cocktail bar without running into the Greek. You don’t care if he sees you or not. What’s he going to do anyway?

You see a surfer dude at the bar so you move in. He smells good, like coconut suntan lotion. You bump into him and say “Oh sorry.”

He smiles, so you kind of look at the bar, like you might be thinking about a beer. He doesn’t offer to buy, so you bend over the bar, grab a glass, hold it under the spigot, and hit the Bud lever. It’s hard to do that from the outside of the bar but you’re a great bartender, freaky fast. The real bartender sees you and tells you to pay. You say you forgot your purse and look at the surfer. He pays for the beer and says he’s going to the bathroom. He doesn’t come back. You figure he must be a queer.

Then the Greek shows up, calls you a bum and asks you to leave. You want to say he’s a stupid son of a bitch, but you just chug your beer and head out. There’s another bar in the next block and your feet have cooled down. You shouldn’t have lowered yourself to work there anyway. There are classier places to work but you felt sorry for the Greek and took the job at his crappy club.

He took advantage of you for sure. That’s how people are. You do them favors and they give you back nothing but a bunch of shit.

Wow, Marianne! That poor girl appears to be stuck in her own world of denial and self-sabotage. I felt the angst of her frustration and pitiful coping skills, yet there was still something about her that made her likable and caused me to root for her. Great job!

Thanks Tom. I might use her again. She seems to have made an impression. I hate characters like this in a way though because I just don’t see her getting better but you can never tell what will happen once you start writing.

My gosh, Marianne. This is so good! I love this line. “Everybody’s watching you except the blind and maybe they are getting some kind of idea of how totally cool you are.”

I felt like I was right there with this girl. What a great character. Love, love, love this.

Thanks Marla. I kind of like her. She reminds me of some of the people I waitressed with at the beach when I was young.

This is a perfect use of second person, Marianne! It gets you into the skin of a character that you might otherwise despise, but since you *are* her you feel a little empathy. Fantastic work.

I agree Abigail, instead of thinking this character was a real pill, I kind felt more like she was making excuses for her behaviour, and I can sympathize with that.

I agree about her making excuses.

Thanks it was kind of an accusatory way to write. Weird.

Second person was great here, can’t resist sympathising with character while at the same time being informed of her less-than-noble thoughts. Reminded my of the chapter on character Tralala (a bratty prostitute) in Last Exit to Brooklyn.

Wow that’s quite a compliment. I haven’t read “Last Exit to Brooklyn” but did read “Requiem for a Dream”. It was so sad I couldn’t finish it but the characters although very different from anyone in my life were well done in an unusual way. I wonder if it’s the second person that makes us sympathetic. It’s like someone it telling the reader what happened and most people are inclined to be sympathetic (at first anyway) to other people’s problems. You gave me a lot to think of here. Thank you.

This young lady surely has it all figured out. I love that about beach bums. I like the description of the salty bathroom. Second person works here because we’ve all known someone like this. Good characterization here. I liked it.

Thank you for reading and commenting.

So good, Marianne!

Thanks Juliana

You didn’t want to talk to me, was that it? Were you angry? Did your love run out?Why were you so exhausted? I can keep your secrets. I kept your smoking from daddy because we both knew how every 5 second drag would hurt him. It crushes him seeing you so blue. Do you even realize that? You were suppose to spend the rest of your lives together. You were suppose to die for each other. Why are you hurting him? Unless it was a dream. This could be a dream right? You would never do anything like that. I know you couldn’t. You only kept your smoking from daddy so he wouldn’t be upset and you only didn’t tell him about that one time you kissed Uncle Robert in the car so he wouldn’t leave us. You did that for us. I know you did. You’re not evil. You’re just pretending. I know you are, but I don’t wanna play anymore, mommy. This game is lonely. Please come back. You’re not a bad mommy. You’re just pretending.

Wow! Powerful writing. I like the excuses that keep coming up here.

Thank you so much!

Oh, this is so sad. It sounds like a a little kid talking. Great writing.

Yes! You picked up on it. Thank you so much for that!

You’re welcome. Thank you for bringing the child’s perceptive to light. Children so rarely have voices.

This is a good idea and well written. It would be better without the last few lines if it were part of a longer piece. I can see that you need to include that here because we are not going to read further but I can see this narrator as one of multiple narrators in a novel (of even a short story although I know it’s sacrilege to consider multiple narrators in a short story).

Wow. I had to read this twice. Very insightful. Of course, little children lead us. Good job.

Thank you very much!

I haven’t read anything quite as entertaining or helpful. Great real examples and a good set of practice. I haven’t written a second person story before – but look to add it to one of my daily practice sessions.

Yes, these exercises are fun. One of my very favorite stories is written in second person–How to Talk to a Hunter by Pam Houston. I highly recommend checking it out!

“You are a bad lover.”

You’re half-asleep next to my Robert when you hear this. It wakes you up because even though it’s a whisper, it’s also really loud. This detail freaks you out, and you’re already pretty damn freaked out by a mystery voice insulting you at four in the morning – not to mention the fact that it seems to know quite a lot about your sexual skills. The weird thing is, this voice sounds kind of familiar to you. You’ve been hearing it every night for the last month and yet you still can’t quite place it. And every night there’s a new insult. Yesterday you were a fat queen. Last week, you were a second-rate squash player, a premature ejaculator and the worst cook in the whole world. You take a deep breath and tell yourself that you’ve been working too hard, that you should start yoga again, that you should take a trip to the lake cabin with him this weekend. You close your eyes and try to go back to sleep but you can’t.

In the morning you leave him sleeping and get in the shower. You’re soaping up your pot belly and humming some irritating song, trying to shake the sleepless night. But suddenly you get the feeling that someone’s watching you. So you grab the shower curtain and pull it around you but you do this so fast that you trip and fall out of the shower. Again you hear that whispering voice that’s also inexplicably loud. You think it says, “Loser” but you’re not sure because you’ve just banged your head on your expensive sink.

Then you drive too fast and you look in the rear-view mirror too often. You are sweaty. You turn left before the Jones’ farm and head up the back track through the woods until you reach that cluster of trees and park behind them, out of sight. You pull on your boots, grab your spade and stomp angrily or impatiently or nervously through the woods. Soon you see the pile of stones and push through the bushes into the clearing. You walk past the oak tree and start digging.

You’re getting angrier and redder with every spade of dirt shovelled. And your designer jeans are getting dirtier. But the bottom never comes and you don’t understand. So you jump down into the pit and start digging with your bare fingers. Then you see it. You stop breathing for an instant. Your eyes are even more blood-shoot than normal and your mouth is pinched tight. You pick up the damp, muddy piece of paper and you read: HE’LL ALWAYS BE MY BOYFRIEND. You throw yourself down on the ground. You cry, you laugh, you cry again. You rub your face in the soil. You slam your hands into the earth and kick your legs. You’re finally coming undone. Then you hear that loud whisper again. Except this time it doesn’t say anything, it just laughs.

This is a very interesting piece. Thanks for sharing!

So very good!

Thanks for the comments! First time I’ve posted so good to get some feedback. Will be back again.

Very haunting and mysterious.

This sounds like a really psychotic person thinking. Interesting and the writing is solid.

Really well-written and interesting (not to mention freaky! haha)

It’s hard to talk to you. You never really hear what I have to say. You listen patiently, but you don’t hear. I know you are only concerned, worried about me. If I’m sad, healthy, happy, if everything is okay. You don’t really believe me when I say I do. Or accept my point of view as just as valid as yours. You make me feel like all my choices are wrong. Your worry suffocates me. I get overwhelmed with your fears, your thoughts invading mine. You silence my own emotions, because without meaning to, you make me carry your worries. I cannot bear them. It hurts, always saying I need space and your incomprehension of that need; you take that need and twist into something I never intended. Something I wasn’t saying at all.

And now you’re upset because I won’t talk to you at all. But I don’t know what to say. Or how to say it. So it’s easier to remain silent. You say you know me so well, implying with your dismissal of my own efforts at communicating my thoughts and needs, that I don’t know myself as well as you know me. It angers me, this presumption that you can know what is in my soul. You scoff at such declarations as being dramatic. So over the years, I’ve fallen silent. Silence hurts less than the talking we do.

You asked why I don’t talk to you anymore, and that’s why Mom. Because it’s hard.

Wow. All mom’s should read this. The part about thinking you know someone better than they know themselves is poignant. I will try to keep this in mind when I talk to my daughter.

Glad it resonated. I wrote for all the daughters out there. And all the mothers too. I know it’s hard to be either person in that relationship.

As soon as I got to “your worry suffocates me,” I knew this had to be from the child’s pov. Nice job!

Oh gosh, I knew you were talking about your Mom! A universal interpersonal dilemna!

Funny how we all have the same Mom problems! Let’s not tell my Mom okay?

Don’t worry. Even my Mom wouldn’t mind this. She is where I get my honesty. I will hold your confidence.

You come into the book cafe and order a cafe latte. Malachi an acquittance and a fellow peruser of the used book aisle from last week; hands you a book. It’s ‘If on a winter’s night a traveler’ by Italo Calvino.

Immediately you crack the book open, the unique writing style seems somewhat strange, alien, but refreshing. You read on and think, there’s something quite odd about this book. You think, could it be the fact that it was translated from Italian to English. Though a bit confusing at first you continue to push and read on. Suddenly you discover that the character in the story seems to parallel your own thoughts and feelings as you question the authors unique voice and style. The character has similar questions and concerns as you do. Then you have an Aha experience! Of course! That’s it; it is written in the second person point of view. And Calvino has a wonderful genius of taking you on a journey while aligning your thoughts and ideas with the main character; though it’s of a dissimilar subject. You read on….

I think that writing in second person helps the writer discover things they may not have known about themselves. Interesting how it works that way.

You swallow hard, looking at the number flashing on the screen register screen. It’s bigger than you had expected – you’d only come into the store for bananas and paper towels, after all. The number runs into the higher double digits and some odd change and for a moment you stare down the conveyor belt at all the groceries stacked on the other side, waiting to be bagged. The low fat milk, the plastic onion keeper for all those onion halves you always wrap in foil then forget about, the container of Greek yogurt, the dish towels in assorted bright colors, the case of Diet Coke and the stack of frozen dinners in different varieties – chicken, pork and steak. As if any of them taste any different from the others. As if they would ever give you steak in a meal that costs .99c, or .45 when on sale.

“Is that it?” You jerk as the boy – no older than 19 – drawls and leans backwards, cracking his bony fingers one at a time. He smirks. You shudder inwardly – you hate that noise. Hurriedly swiping your VISA, you punch in your PIN and wait for the beep of confirmation. The blue screen flashes “AUTHORIZING” at you. You want to say, the Diet Coke isn’t for me, it’s for a friend who’s visiting this Friday. The frozen dinners are for when you’re too tired to cook after a long day at work. You think it’s ridiculous you have to explain yourself to the kid behind the register, who probably smokes pot behind his school and will eventually drop out to play bass in some failing band, or maybe go to jail. He has tattoos up and down his left, skulls and spikes and other unpleasant things.

“Paper or plastic?” The boy behind the register couldn’t be less interested in your silent judgment, his eyes flitting to the girl in the other checkstand and at the clock on the wall and down to where his manager is standing, chatting with people in expensive suits. Everywhere but at you. That’s why he doesn’t notice you slip the small pack of gum into your pocket, fresh mint, your favorite flavor. You take a deep breath, the gum burning a hole in your side, weighing you down so much you’re sure that you’re tilting to the right. Any second now, that manager a few checkstands down will come over and ask you to please empty your pockets and come this way, security will escort you out. Your cheeks flame at the thought.

“Plastic,” You smile back at him as the register whirs and spits out a receipt as long as your arm. The boy rips it off and stuffs it into a bag along with your milk and yogurt, then hands it to you. For a second, you brush hands and you expect to burst into flames, or for him to suddenly realize you’re a thief, a bloody thief, but he simply waits for you to take your bag with that flat, sullen look.

“Have a good day,” you say politely and smile, but he is already on to the next customer.

Oh, very cool. I liked this one.

Really like how the details in the basket lull us into a sense of normalcy before we realize the secret. I first assumed this was a woman, but just read it again, and realize not necessarily!

It almost seems like she is getting back at him for cracking his knuckles. It’s interesting to think that might be a reason for shop-lifting.

A little justice for the crazy high prices of groceries?! Fun piece. I can picture the whole scene.

How to Be the Beta Chi Slut

First, rifle through your hardwood dresser in search of clothes that don’t just say “come hither,” but scream, “hit this now.” The search will be brief.

In the spirit of the spring semester, choose a mini skirt with an embroidered daisy on the back pocket. The sorority girls who hang around the frat house like to show as much skin as you, but instead of denim and $5.99 wife beaters, their waif-like bodies are typically done up in Versace sundresses.

For a moment, wonder over why they call it a wife beater—then slip the article of clothing on in four seconds flat (your clothing removal record is even shorter).

Heels, glossy and razor-sharp, are a must. Losing the bra before going out gets you extra points, too.

Keep your girlfriends (hopefully you haven’t been a bitch to all of them?) around for when you pre-game, pre-game, pre-game. Lounge on your lofted bed, shot glass in hand.

“Do you think Nate will be at the party?” a girl from your marketing class will ask, a smile trembling to her berry lips.

“Well, he is a Beta Chi brother,” you’ll respond, trying to remember if Nate is the blonde with the Tasmanian devil boxers or the tall guy with a thing for multi-colored condoms. You never were good at names, but if you’re going to be the Beta Chi slut, you should try to get them all straight. Wouldn’t want to embarrass yourself later on tonight, right?

To keep up appearances, stick with this gaggle of girls for when you initially storm the frat house. But make sure to shake the tramps off soon after. They’ll only weigh you down, or steal all the good ones (and the bad ones, for that matter).

Grab a beer and prowl.

The makeshift bar will be cluttered with Busch Light boxes and Bacardi rum bottles—and manned by the Tasmanian blonde. He’ll offer you a Peppermint Patty. A girly drink, he’ll clarify as he shakes his blonde bangs from his face.

Tilt your head back and open wide. He’ll pretend he needs to support your neck as he pours mint-flavored liquor and chocolate into your mouth. The pressure of his palm under your loose hair would be sweet if he wasn’t trying to find your bra strap at the same time.

“It’s good, right?” he’ll ask encouragingly.

You’ll agree; it’s cute that he thinks it’s your first time trying it. “Thanks, Nate.”

“Thanks…Nick?” That’s a common enough name, right?

“Sure thing, Caroline,” Nick will grin.

Slip away from the bar soon after. Doing the dirty with Nick/Nate again wouldn’t be any sort of conquest, anyway. Scope out the dark room, pulsing with music and dance. Peer through the flashes of strobe lights a Beta Chi brother set up. They’ll blind you for a moment.

The real Nate will be DJ’ing the party. Stop by his table for a little flirting, just to remind him what he’s missing out on.

But again, think feline and stalk through the crowd of barely conscious, undulating bodies. Make your way to a preppy-looking brother wearing a sleek white shirt. Introduce yourself. Aren’t you in my Italian class? you’ll ask, though both of you know he’s not. I might be, he’ll respond playfully; I’m Nick, by the way.

Try really hard not to roll your eyes.

Some time during the conversation, you’ll realize Nick’s even more drunk than you anticipated. You’re on your third beer yourself and feeling kind of tipsy. Let him tug on your hand. “Let’s dance,” he’ll say.

The music playing isn’t dance music; it’s Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing,” but Nick doesn’t mind. Personally, you think it’s a little trashy to try grinding to ballads, but you go with it. All the while, Nick belts out the lyrics, sloshing beer on the people around you.

Courtship on the dance floor is your specialty. Left arm around his neck (the other hand holds a Solo cup); bodies foreign to one another, too close for comfort and too comfortable being so close; and the grinding. Smile up expectantly at him. As his hands and arms slide around your hips to the daisy on your skirt, you’ll think to yourself that he’s kind of gross and sweaty. When some subtle song like “Kiss Me Through the Phone” starts playing, the make-out session should commence. It’ll come naturally to you; the whole scenario will.

But there’s calculation in how you do it now.

By the end of the hour, you should be wasted, easy, and on a kiss-and-tell basis with about half of Beta Chi. You’ll save the other half for tomorrow night.

The final guy of the evening isn’t named Nick or Nate. No, on this special night, the chosen one is Charlie. Charlie is the doe-eyed Beta Chi president. You’re now ready for an encounter that, like all the others, is brief, fun, and sharp as nails.

Charlie has striped blue bed sheets that smell of women’s perfume. You might freeze at that, as Charlie drunkenly hovers over you, lids half closed.

“What?” he’ll ask impatiently.

“I…n-nothing.” You’ll continue.

So what if you came into college thinking the first guy you slept with would hand you a sparkling promise ring? So what if, after the first relationship/one-night stand, you just kept going through the motions with one boy after another, sure that one of them would be “the one?”

You’re not the self-searching type, but you know you like the power that comes from conquering the Nicks and Charlies of the world. The choices you’ve made, they’re better for you in a way. This way is best.

The rest of the evening is a blur––or so you can coyly tell people the morning after. All the while, make it blatantly clear that you had a wild(ly inappropriate) night.

You can add that there’s talk of the boys hauling you off to Miami with them for Spring Break. You’ve never been outside the state, and you think of the vacation with a genuine smile.

One last thing: the walk of shame from the frat house to your dorm.

Hold your head up high, smile, and act like you’ve just been awarded the Purple Heart.

Even better, you should think to yourself. You are now the Beta Chi Slut for Spring 2011.

Congratulations.

Wow, this packs a punch! You used the second person and tense well to pull the reader in. It makes it very immediate,personal, and uncomfortable, but very powerful.

I really like how you matched a ‘how to’ instruction manual style with a subject you wouldn’t expect for that. works really well to get the emptiness of the whole experience across.

I think you capture the voice of this piece well in this one line: bodies foreign to one another, too close for comfort and too comfortable being so close;

Such great choices with the details, felt like they added richness and reality and never bogged the writing down. Making out in a man’s bed that smells like woman’s perfume, just that says so much.

You are thirty-five years old and you have just hung up the phone after a very long and stressful call from your soon-to-be-ex wife explaining to you that she is never coming back. Her clothes are still hanging in the closet. That is her toothbrush next to yours in the small porcelain dish on the bathroom counter. That is her daughter asleep in the tiny twin bed you bought just last week.

As you sit in the chair beside your daughter’s bed and stroke her hair you can’t begin to think about what drove your wife away, because you realize, in your daughter’s quiet breaths, that there is no possible excuse. How are you supposed to raise this little girl alone? What do you tell her tomorrow? Should you wait? Is Margaret really never coming back? If she doesn’t come back, who will show this little wonder how to be a woman? Some proxy you meet at a company picnic a year or three or five from now? Will she never fully understand herself, because she only has you to tell her about the deep parts? The passed-down psychoses? The hereditary madness?

You lean back in your chair and rest your hands on your knees with a sigh. Will she grow up to be an introvert? And how much of it will be your fault? You want to believe that it will all be Margaret’s fault. Margaret who left, but then that is weak thinking. You know there must be something you can do to mend this wound now, before it festers and lives on in her, but you are only so much carbon and free will. You don’t have any of the answers right now, and maybe some day you will, but when will that day come? And will she already be crippled by then? Will she forever be the girl-without-a-mom? How do you make this okay?

You can’t. Nothing can make this okay. This is a pain that you will only ever be able to bandage. And everything is ruined.

I like the feel of this, like a camera panning over the scene in the first paragraph and then settling on the 2nd person pov. My favorite part is the “carbon and free will” line.

Thanks Plum, that was one of my favorite lines to write as well 🙂

I forgot I was even reading in second person with this one.

Hahaha, awesome Marianne, that’s good to hear 🙂

I like the opening and how it shifts from belongings to a little girl. And I agree, the “carbon and free will” phrase is great. Great read!

Thanks Puja! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

I like that the man is wiling to take responsibility here. That he will do all that he can to make things okay. I love the compassion. I like the almost admittance that he may have had a part in Margaret’s leaving. I like the use of the word, ‘proxy’…very appropro,

Thanks Susan! I’m glad that you liked it 🙂

Wow – this is different for you Jeff and so very good! Indeed everyone has done really well with this exercise – who knew 2nd person could work so well!

Thanks Juliana! I think that writing in second person is a very helpful exercise for learning to write in the other perspectives. It has…something, haha. I suppose as a writer I should be able to find the words to describe what I am thinking, but I am drawing a blank at the moment.

Very moving. Loved the description of the dad as “only so much carbon and free will.”

Thanks Wendy! I’m glad it moved you 🙂

HI Jeff Bet, you’ve forgotten about this piece but its WONDERFUL. It’s telling me things can be written in 2nd person and beautifully so. So there!

Very moving, I loved reading this Jeff!

You stare at the couch, at the piano, at the door. Anything but the phone. Your stomach was fine five minutes ago, but now hard little hands have taken hold of it and are twisting in opposite directions.

“It’s no problem,” you say. “I’ll just pick up the phone, dial the number, and talk. I like to talk. This won’t be a problem.” Deep inside your head you say something else. “I’m terrible on phones. Always have been. I’ll stutter, I’ll sound weak, I’ll get my words mixed up somehow and he’ll know I’m just a stupid kid.”

You double over in pain as your stomach squeezes and you think you’re going to be sick. The little white telephone seems innocent enough, but when you pick it up your palms are slick with sweat. Desperate, you throw down the phone and run into your bedroom, switching on the light and hunting for something underneath piles of debris. Finally it’s in your hands–the magazine.

Sweaty fingers flipping over the pages, you discover the photo you had in mind–a half-starved child from the streets of Accra. Right beside it is a collection of Haitian children, smiling and waving at you. “This is for them. I have to make the call for them.” You look a little longer at the photos, and only when you put them down do you feel that your stomach has untangled itself, and the hard little hands are no longer twisting.

I like that your piece is leading. I like the the picture of hands wringing a heart. I’m not sure about the end sentence. Does he or she make the call, or bail out? I’m thinking that it took courage to make the call. A certain kind of resolve, that settled the anxiety. Am I correct on this?Again, I like your practice.

Thank you, Susan! This is how I really felt on the morning I wrote this. The ending is a bit enigmatic, come to think of it. I meant that you do indeed make the call, emboldened by the reason for doing so.

Late in coming on this writing prompt, but here goes:

Are you an optimist or pessimist? Do you see the glass 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? What about if you sit somewhere in the middle? Would that be 1/4 or 3/4? A middlin’?. Anyway, you seem to dwell on the reality of the situation. Sometimes that calls for a silver lining, sometimes, an ominous gray cloud, heavy with problems. The silver lining is the ribbon of solution, stripping away the facade, to let the rain fall wear it may, flooding some areas, and watering the daffodils of spring. I tap my pencil on my notepad and peer over my eyeglasses, evaluating your stubbornness, your honesty. I think I have a new label for your condition. Maybe I will be like Freud, or Jung, or Maslow, I don’t know. I’ll have my conclusions printed up in some official journal. (Oh, the joy of being a published author! Wouldn’t that be wonderful?!)

Because you seem to muddle in the middle of puddles, you get all muddy and messy. So, I will call you neither pessimist nor optimist. You are a bit of both. You know, like, “It’s complicated?!” You are a Messymist. Please don’t fret over this. It is good to be self-aware. God deals with messy, quite well. He cleans it up. His grace can handle your mess. So chin up and chin down. It is going to be Okay.

I think this is a hopeful message overall. The tone is kind of subdued relative to the others here and I think that’s appropriate to the theme.

Thank you for that, Marrianne. It was fun practice.

This was very hard! I have taken a few days to think about it!

You stare down at the ruin of your body. Your eyes are open but do not see, a dark stain pools behind your head. You look away from the dress rucked up over your hips. The man who did this to you is down by the river, washing his hands. He returns and pulls down your skirt, fills your pockets with heavy river stones and begins to drag you toward the water.

You look away and see her, small, wild-eyed, clutching your shawl. You want to envelope her in your arms, protect her, and shelter her from his evil. But you can’t, you know you can’t. There is a splash behind you but you do not feel the water rising over your head. She must hide you think. She is staring at you and you beckon her to follow you toward the mountain. You want her to hide in one of the caves, the fissures in the rock. She wraps your shawl around herself and crawls into a low dark space.

He is calling her but she keeps silent and you watch him willing him away from her – your life’s treasure if only you had understood. The little one creeps further into the darkness where she will be safe. And you? Will the darkness ahead of you be safe?

Wow Juliana how sad and frightening. This is beautiful! Thanks

Remember after the scuba trip you came over to my place to help me balance my checkbook thinking it would be easy-peasy with your double math/physics major, not realizing I hadn’t recorded a single purchase for six months. You combed through my bank statements while I made popcorn and winked at my roommates while they left for the mall.

And Holy Hell, you managed to balance my life.

I tossed oversized throw pillows onto the floor and popped in a VHS ofCasablanca, the black and white version not the color-enhanced crap. You wrapped your arm around my shoulders, kissing me, and I barely felt the rug burn.

But when Ilsa flew off into the fog, I said, “This is dumb. What are your plans, anyway?”

Your eyebrow arced at my question, but you knew my rationale. The miles between ‘Virginia Me’ and ‘Georgia You’ made us becoming an US after this chance trip meeting highly unlikely.

“My plans,” your blue sinking into my hazel, “are to come up and see you as much as possible.”

The pillows became clouds and I began to reach for them.

A car whizzed through the roadside puddles beyond my door.

“Would you dance with me in the street?”

You looked out the window then back at me. “Even in the rain.”

But, we never did.

After the news I walked for hours and hours, numb.

Life’s a f****ed up thing. Just when you finally feel like your’re getting the hang of it, it pulls the rug from underneath your feet.

Of the things and ways in this weird world, you begin to come to terms with who you are and whats important. . . .Then, Bam! you get the horrible news. You feel there’s no way to deal with this. There’s no one you can talk too. No one can really understand and you know you’ll just get some mediocre response from them. They love you and care for you and still, they offer nothing of any value or help.

You are really all alone, its an emptiness, a dull emptiness. Why even put up a fight, its futile? But how could you not fight with all your might, all your will. You fight in your head to try and understand, try to justify, try to accept and find hope where there is none. Helpless and hopeless is the final defeat. As if the world stopped spinning and became mute.

And but for the few who count on you, the few who love you; how could you let them down. How could you become dead while still alive; in their eyes? How could you just give up? Anger and rage seem the only cure to feel again; at least you’ll feel something, anything; temporarily anyway. You owe it to them to lie; your faithful family, your optimistic friends. You must lie. Maybe lying is a good thing. Maybe its the only thing you have. And you lie to them and to yourself; you must because the mirror of truth that reflects your skull & bones is too unbearable.

The only way to rid yourself of the rage and fear is to dilute it, drown it, and wash it away – in whatever way you can, with whatever means is at your disposal. And when that fails to sustain you, you flee and jump ship, into a sea of anxiety.

And you don’t possess the courage to acknowledge the truth, the hard cold truth. So you run and you keep running. You hide like a child who hears a noise at night and draws the covers over his eyes. Searching for some sense of security.

so basically homestuck

It wasn’t that easy.

Especially when you loved someone so dearly, and nothing can replace the memories you’ve had, the experiences you’ve been on, and what you have become because of that person. And you were having a really good time—heck, you didn’t want it to end. Not wanting it was an understatement, and even though this person had been a constant headache in your life, you still want this person back. Back, when everything wasn’t dull, and everything was bright and cheery—and everything was working the way it should be. Back, back in your arms and claim this person yours because it has always been like that in the first place. In the first place, when everything was happy. In the first place, when you two were together.

It wasn’t that easy to forget, and forgetting means erasing these memories from your brain and pretending that it never happened. And you can do that, if you really try. If you really try not to visit social networking sites just to stalk that person; if you really try to ignore such group messages by him or her that were sent your way and not think about it too much. You can do that. But the problem is, you didn’t want to.

And it wasn’t that easy to move on, because being with that person meant everything to you. That person can be considered as your first love, your first kiss, your first date, your first sitting-on-a-slow-moving-carousel-and-be-touchy-feely-with-each-other-kind-of-date, your first everything. You didn’t want to forget.

But you have to.

Because everything went downhill, and it’s just…over. You have to move on, and you need it for your life.

It’s been a long time since you’ve left me. How piteous that sentence seems when spoken to a young man of 21. I know you’re probably smirking and chortling at my inherent worry. Maybe that is to be expected. But as your mother, it is warranted. I shudder when I think of the long journey ahead of you, full of sun soaked beaches and monsoon filled jungles. Be smart my son.

Those are your feet my fearsome boy, those are your little travelling machines. You remember that don’t you? Oh how you used to laugh at that as a child. Maybe you still do. Let us hope that they bring you to your hopes and dreams, the blazing sunsets that set every fiber of the sky ablaze, the soft trickle of an ocean breeze on your skin. I pray they steer you in the right direction.

You once told me of your European adventure, of that awful fall from a cliff. Do take care to avoid any repeats for I will still hurt. The weather was awful that day wasn’t it? I shiver thinking of it. No homely warmth in your bones out there my sweet. There is a poetic justice to this some would say. A fearless boy leaving his insular mother in order to see the world and its marvels. It makes you stronger some would say.

When you read this it is my dream that your façade slips. Even if just momentarily. This steely “I can do anything” character is not you my boy. I was not the mother you needed, nor the parent a child deserves. But my presence was always there, and yours is no longer. But could you reach into the recesses of your past and find a way to forgive? I hope so, it is never too late.

That rainy August morning that you left was earth shattering. Clutching at the moth bitten curtains screaming your name was my moment of truth. Failing you was unforgivable, but necessary in order to redeem myself. Telling the neighbors that your sudden spur of the moment decision to travel the world was academically related is a lie like no other. You had to learn to be loved, as I had not taught you.

Think of that cliff you slipped from as a metaphor. It was cold and wet when you fell into the raging and angry sea. But when everything was against you you climbed back up and triumphed. You ventured into the water again. You have forgiven it, knowing that it’s anger was only momentary and that it would soon beckon you to it’s warm and calming embrace. I am the ocean my sweet, find me once more.

Your heart beats reading this, a childhood pain splitting through once more. You will ask yourself why I tried to hurt you so many times. Was it intentional, did I set out to be a bad mother? You know the answer.

I lie here now, not at peace as of yet. You travel the four corners of the earth, knowing that it will lead you back to me. It will not lead you to the little terraced house we called home. But a short journey from there. The walk will test those little feet of yours, through those murky forests you will tread until you find me.

I know you are shocked now, re-reading this letter, this goodbye. Those pesky solicitors will not have been able to reach you. As my granite encored name confronts you, you will know that I loved and do love you, even in death.

That night when you fell off the cliff, I was sure that you were dead. But now as you’re walking up to me, I can see that you lived the fall into freezing water. Then as you’re getting closer I can see the scars that the sharp rocks left on your face. I can still see in my mind as I’m pushing you off, I see in your eyes that look of pure, absolute hatred all of which I’m sure was directed towards me. Your tough, calloused hands scrabbling for something to grab on to, just to save yourself, save myself from the agony of watching you die and reliving it everytime I fall asleep.

I wrote a story in second person and posted it here on Wattpad: http://www.wattpad.com/65226764-stop-the-madness

I’m working on a short story right now where I’m attempting the first-person narration with bits of the “letter from narrator to you” approach woven in. Like you said, it’s not an actual letter, but more the narrator’s thoughts directed toward another character who is present in the scene. I really like how it’s coming together, but have been feeling like I’m breaking some rule… I feel like I’ve just been given permission. Thanks!

this is incredibly common in fanfiction, more specifically in fanfiction from the Homestuck fandom. It’s fun, it’s engaging, but it doesn’t engage YOU as a reader being literally you, but it engages YOU as being the character that this person chose. For example, a character from the comic, Gamzee Makara: “Your name is Gamzee Makara and you are certain this is a rather stupid decision. You are leaning against the cold brick wall of an old building, trying to focus on anything else but your thumping heart. You try to focus of the heavy rain that falls on your hair and runs down your face, try to focus on the splashes of water that are soaking your pants and shoes as the cars rush by, try to focus on cold air that is chilling your bones to the point that you are trying not to shiver…”

probably because homestuck is written itself in second person . . . it’d just be weird to read fanfiction in first or third

Alone by the lake, you toss rocks from a pyramid of golf-balled sized stones, crumbling its temporary structure. They splash in, splashing your flip-flopped feet that splashed along carelessly in the water that morning. You grasp at the sand, pulling some into your palm, and then adding the scoops to the pot of water. Your shoulders slouch more and more after each throw, but you continue until it feels as if you would need a crane to reach anymore. Looking out at the small waves, you can’t even tell how much anger and regret you hurled into the reflecting lake; it just seems to cope with the new sand and rocks. It makes you want to fling the whole beach in, just in spite.

What should you do, now that it’s all out? You don’t want to go back, but you don’t want to stay. Here, there are memories upon memories. Back there, though, there are things. Many things. Many things with memories tied to them, or words tied to them.

Go back. The white shirts with collars. The periodic table posters. The homemade pencil holders, filled to excess. The souvenir bottle. The empty picture frames. The yellow sticky note pad. The coil scribblers, filled to excess.

Stay here. Long walks at midnight. Desperate naps just after midnight. Words spoken to the water. Sandy papers dusted off. Forgotten books on benches. Useless information chanted, chanted, chanted.

You rise up and brush the sand off your shorts. If you stay looking at the water, you can almost forget the years of memories. All you can see is the calming flash of light from the buoys far out from the shore. Not even the road carved into the side of the mountain is illuminated. But if you turn, it’s all there. The streetlights, the late night convenience store, the hotel, the campground, and the beach’s parking lot. Bright, like your future should have been. Bright, like you were told it should have been. Bright, like they were still expecting it to be. But you were done. Time to settle for the small town life in a small town, with small town friends and a small town job. You were no longer an escape hatch to the big cities and the big countries. Close your mind, shield your eyes, and pay no attention to the outside.

At this point, your only goal for the day is to make it through the day.

An entire 24 hours on that single Honeybun you devoured like most white girls wish they could scarf down a desert-like cake for breakfast, but go to Starbucks instead. That was THE last honeybun…that your mom gave you…on the last trip you made home when you were a starving, broke college kid. Yep, you still are one of those.

You’re also still reminiscently rubbing your belly with that way-too-satisfied grin on your face, so let’s go ahead and stop that immediately. This is the moment when one of two things will ensue: on a good day, where you possess that thing people are constantly advising you to get…what’s it called?…oh yeah, self control! So, in the (highly unlikely) event it’s one of ‘those’ days, you’ll refuse to allow yourself the torturous pleasure of daydreaming about the myriad of snacks you would buy if your wallet weren’t even emptier than your stomach. You won’t even go there, you’d let it alone, and maybe even eat a vegetable. Stop laughing. It could happen, one day the taste of broccoli could change… The reality of the situation is your textbooks are screaming to be opened and you avoid looking at them directly, as if averting your eyes will somehow undo the noticing of them in the first place. Similarly to the way you pretended that cute dad didn’t see you checking out his ass at Walmart. That’s just another tally on the Things-You-Ought-To-Be-Doing-But-Aren’t board…he wasn’t even wearing a ring! Soon you’ll quit telling yourself you can’t write because ___ *insert excuse here*____, and you’ll be able to afford more Honeybuns. (Well, either that, or you’ll be HoneyBunz down at the strip club that’s sandwiched in-between a K-Mart and the Family Dollar in a strip mall. Classy…) I think that’s motivation enough.

The slight breeze of yet another chilly summer’s night pulls you’re hair from your face. You’re standing under a lone street lamp, leaning against your old black Saturn. Your gaze is trained on a girl across the street. She stumbles out of the small group of people and cackles. Her blonde hair messy, clothing askew, you can only imagine what she must have been up to. You’re thought’s are confirmed when another individual emerges from the club’s entrance and laces his arm around her waist, burying his face into her neck. “Kaya!” You call to her, digging your hands into the pockets of you’re favorite jacket. Her head snaps up and she sees you’re form in the short distance. Even from where you are you can tell her face is troubled. You watch as she pushes from the guys grip and slowly makes her way over towards you. She grips the front of your coat, pulling you closer. “Jackson.” She breaths heavily, alcohol burning your nose. You push her off and walk around the front of the Saturn. “Get in. I’m taking you home.” You answer in a commanding, yet indifferent tone. She always does this. Leaving you to clean up her mistakes. “Please don’t tell mom and dad.” She whines, slipping ungracefully into the passenger side’s seat. You glance at her in the small mirror before looking into your own blue eyes. You’re dark chestnut brown hair is windswept and the bags under your eyes are dark and purple. When did this become you’re life? When did you stop taking care of yourself? You avert your eyes to the car’s clock radio. 4:17 am. “I won’t.” You sigh, pulling the seat belt across your body and starting up the vehicle. It’s quiet in the car, only the low rumble of the engine and the soft breathing of you’re younger sister. It was hard to believe she was only 16. You look at her peaceful sleeping form and frown. Why couldn’t you control her? A loud noise caused you to jump in your seat, head whipping around to the driver side mirror, just in time to see the blinding white light. You’re heart beats fast as you slam on the breaks, to slow to stop the impact.

I love this form. My words flow so smoothly. For years I tried third and first person, neither of them felt right. They just came off a corny or it just didn’t sound good. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this before? I have multiple blank stories. I am going to use this on them too. Thank you for the help.

You are wake in a room. What should be an ordinary experience is strange. As you get out of bed, you notice this isn’t your bedroom. Nor is it a room from your house. Alarmed, you take in the room as fast as possible. Your clear, pain free head indicates this isn’t due to alcohol. Your next thought is that this is a dream. You have had odder dreams before. However, this seems too detailed to be a dream. You get up from the bed. The room is small and relatively bare. You cross to the door. You turn it. It’s locked. You stare at the door for a minute, thinking. Then you try the other door. It’s locked as well. You realize your breathing is ragged, and you cross back to the bed to calm down.

You decide to survey the room more closely. The walls are a plain grey. You crouch down and look under the bed. There is no dust. There is only a small stuffed rabbit. You grab it and set it down on the bed. The rabbit has a collar that reads O. Rabbit. You head over to the other furniture, a drawer. It has three cabinets. One is empty. The other 2 contain keys. One is an ornate silver key that shines in the dim light. The other key is plain copper. The silver key doesn’t open either of the doors. The copper key fails to open the first door. Your hand shakes as you put the key in the second door. It works.

The door is clearly not an exit. Now you are in a room slightly smaller than the one you woke up in. The walls are a bright white instead of dull grey. There is a skylight above, sending the sunlight down. This cheers you up and brings optimism to the forefront. The only decoration is a small chest pushed up in a corner. You ready the other key. The small key is an obvious fit for the little chest. Surprisingly, the chest isn’t locked. Inside the chest, is, nothing. You stare at the chest blankly. What does this mean? You are stuck. There is no way out.

You head despondently back into the main room. You close the door a little harder than necessary. The stuffed rabbit is still crouched on the bed. You pick it up and hug it. You suppose you shall never find out why you are here. “No…” And then you sleep.

It’s just a little something I attempted to write for my creative writing class. It’s my first time really writing in second person, and actually completely a story, so I’m sorry if it doesn’t appeal to you.

You follow the echo, tiptoeing through the forest, navigating through the narrow path between the billowing trees. You push through the branches and leaves that fan around you. Push through them until you can finally see the clearing to the lake. you slowly made your way down the sandy path, inching closer to the glimmering waters of the lake. you could almost feel his presence. As you gets closer to his heartbeat, the tug on you gets stronger, dragging you down, weighing down on you every step. Whatever rope holding you back, didn’t want you to meet him either. But you kept walking, walking until your legs were moving like rusted gears. Just as you reached the clearing, and heard him call your name one more time, a thought flashed through your head. The sound of laughter. “We’ll always love you.” The rope won you over, tugging you back until you tumbled through the trees. Your hands shot out, clawing desperately at the dirt scattered about you. “We’ll come back for you we promise.” The warmth reminiscent of a kiss blossomed upon your cheek. You clung more tightly to the ground, yearning to reach him. You needed to find him. You heard him calling your name, and your heart thundered in your chest. You struggled against the rope, aspiring to be free. The poignant reminder of the privation you would face if the rope took away all you conquered to get here, encouraged you to pull away harder. You dug your fingers into the ground and pulled yourself forward. You must reach him. You didn’t want to look back anymore. He was all you desired.

You lifted herself onto a tree branch, far away from the rope, and looked out. You peered through the bits of space that the leaves forgot to cover up, and wondered why he didn’t come to you instead. You remembered the days, where all you did was cry over how unfair life was. He had been there to comfort you. You use to think of his voice in your head on days when you really didn’t want to wake up. You thought of him on the nights where you lay awake thinking of the future that you ruined for herself. He was there when those people took away your dignity. The simple act of him saying your name had tore you away from the dark moments. When your parents found out that you wanted to go see him, they vowed to keep you away. They punished you and made sure to never leave your side. You felt so trapped and engulfed in a life you didn’t want. When you snapped out of your thoughts, you felt the light tug of the rope on you and you squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t wanna go back. He’s my only escape. He’ll make me feel happy.” You assured herself. The rope withdrew and you lowered yourself off the branch and dropped to the crisp grass and moist dirt below you. You took a breath and proceeded towards the lake.

With each step you took, flashes of memory sprang back and forth in your mind. It’s either him, or the life you knew before. The distance between you and the lake seemed to stretch on for miles. Glancing up at the luminous ribbons of silver etched across the sky, you felt less frightened. The moonlight streamed down, directing a path towards him. The harmonious tweets of birds filled the air every once in awhile. All these little things made you feel like you had chosen the right thing to do. You felt peace in your mind for once in a million years. It was like the war going on in your head had finally ended. Just as you thought that, you felt something wrap around you. You tumbled to the ground. “Please don’t say those things. We care about you. It’s the reason we’re here for you.” You yelled out in agony as his voice seemed to be left behind. There was a barely audible whisper of your name being called. You heard him one more time before you got yanked out of the forest. As you hastily tried to unbind yourself from the rope, it wounded around you more tightly and your breath caught in your throat. “Stop it. Don’t leave us for him.” You panicked and urged yourself to break free. You kicked and screamed, willing the rope to let you go.

After hours of struggle, you finally broke free. You wandered into the darkness and shelter of the trees once again. Finally being free, the sound of his voice calling for you was loud and clear. Your heart was beating erratically. You felt so close to finally getting everything that you wanted. It was in that moment, you realized that turning away from everything you once knew was completely worth it. You tore through the aged trees, crinkled bushes, jagged rocks, and every other obstacle in your path. From where you were, you could hear the soft rippling of the water. He was there at the lake waiting for you. You have never felt such a surge of vitality. As you reached the opening of the trees, your eyes lingered on the lake, a black void, with the light of the moon beaming off of it. Your heart continued to thrash in your chest. The smile on your face widened. Tears began to blotch your cheeks. You were so close to him after all this time. You flew the rest of the way down to the lake. A rush of feeling filled your chest. Your lungs squeezed with something you have never felt before. Suddenly, the beating of your heart slowed down to a stop. A flash of colors blinded you. When you mustered up the courage to open your eyes, you saw him. You knew you had finally succeeded. You made your way towards him. You stared into the dark abyss beyond him. He stood there with open arms. A glint of something malicious flickered over his eyes. He gave you a welcoming smile. The devil was he…

This was a challenge, but once I got into the groove, I felt a little more comfortable. I don’t know if I could write something much longer than this entirely in second person though.

You pull the door shut behind you, locking it even though you’ll only be gone a half hour. You shove your already cold hands into your gloves as you bounce down the stairs, preparing for the first run of winter.

The glass door to your apartment is foggy and radiating cold into the lobby. You adjust your hat to make sure your ears are covered. Then, you pull the scarf around your neck up to cover your mouth and nose.

It’s been two months since you’ve been running. The cold set in and so did you, but you promised yourself you wouldn’t quit. The cold won’t be that bad. Your layers will be enough to keep the cold out. You know these are lies, but they motivate you anyways.

You push the door open. The cold burns through your gloves. A burst of wind hits the only visible skin around your eyes, but you continue outside and march into the parking lot. The dim light from the porch illuminates the falling snow, which muffles all the sound. You look up, and watch the snow appear out of the black sky and fall lazily to the already covered ground. You are suddenly warm and content here. Outside isn’t so bad.

The wind picks up and hits you sideways. The calm feeling from before is gone. “Screw this!” you say out loud and accomplish the only running you’ll do tonight, back inside.

Little by little the train slowed down. You fly through the sky, oblivious to the debris in the air around you. You have one mission. Destroy the enemy. In an air base far away a clock ticked and an alarm sounded. A sound explodes in your ears, and you grab your head, trying to make it stop. A giant force throws you toward the ground. You are falling, falling…

Beep, beep, beep! You roll over in bed and turn the alarm off. You lay in bed, then, shoot! You remember that you had a job interview today in the city. At 8:00. It’s 7:15 and rush hour. You get up in a hurry and throw some clothes on, brush your hair, and look the best you can for running late. On the way, you go through the busy drive-through at Breakfast Stop for some coffee, but the line is too long. You’ll have to skip the coffee. The highway drive is monotonous, and you have some time to think about your dream.

Where were you? You don’t remember the setting. It was a strange dream. You do know that there was a train. And a time bomb. Was that what it was? It definitely exploded, and along with the ticking, it could have very well been a time bomb. Why was there debris in the air? And why were you trying to destroy the enemy? Who was the enemy? Was the time bomb a sonic bomb? That would explain the force that threw you to the ground. Why was the bomb in an air base? And how on earth did it reach you so far away?

After the interview you decide that you need answers. As soon as you get home, you google the name Ellen Stone.

Ellen Jean Stone was born on December 7, 1941, and died on November 6, 2005. Stone was an acclaimed astrophysicist and won three Nobel Prizes for her work. She was also rumored to be involved in fortune-telling and witchcraft, although it has never been proven. Her husband, Dr. Dan C. Stone, is CEO for Aluminum Professionals, LLC.

You open a new tab in your browser, and search Dan Stone. An article about Stone appears, but the link underneath catches your eye.

Dr. Dan C. Stone – Aluminum Professionals, LLC. – 563.735.7298 [email protected] – 2849 Weyton Square Indianapolis, Indiana, 02574.

Just what you need. Maybe Stone will know something about his wife’s work.

The next morning you head for Aluminum Professionals, LLC., seeking out Dr. Dan C. Stone. You print out the address, and drive to Indianapolis.

You walk into the lobby. It was a spotless, sleek facility, and the heels of your shoes tap in the white tile floor. You approach the lady at the counter. You ask for Dr. Stone.

“Do you have an appointment?” she asks.

“No,” you say.

“Then I’m sorry, you’ll have to come back another time.”

“Please, ma’am, it’s urgent.”

“What is your business with Mr. Stone?”

“I’m afraid it’s confidential,” you say. Maybe she’ll stop asking questions.

The woman picks up the phone.

“Mr. Stone, someone’s here to see you. They claim it’s confidential.” She pauses, then nods at you. She writes down the office number on a slip of paper, then points toward the elevator. You head upstairs.

On the elevator you notice that there is no 13th floor. Maybe that has something to do with his wife’s superstitions, you think.

You woke up in the complete darkness. You can’t even hear your heart beating, even though you remember vaguely falling over and pain racing through your body. Far overhead, you hear a light scratching noise. You try to yell and pound on—it feels like fresh wood, strange. You touch your body and feel fresh clothes, but you can’t smell anything. You start pounding on the wood, but your hands can’t move too far, maybe a few inches. You grunt and keep pounding until you hear the wood start to crack. You then start pulling at the wood, causing your mouth to fill with dirt and your body to become covered in cool dirt. You continue clawing through the dirt. Strange, you haven’t felt the need to breathe. But you feel a bit, well, thirsty. You continue clawing upwards, until you feel a single hand poke out of the dirt into the open air. You pull yourself out, and see a pair of people walking off into the distance. Overhead, you see a full moon with dark clouds floating across it. You can feel the hunger race through you, demanding to be filled. Your eyes lock onto the people and you race towards them. They seem to be nearly standing still as you slash at them with your bony hands. They drop and you clomp your mouth onto their bodies and slurp up their warm blood. Instants later, you feel the hunger pain subside, but look down and see two people you once knew, now ripped into pieces scattered around you. You try to weep, but no tears come. Then, you hear a voice “The first is always the most intense. You are mine. Look at me.” Your entire body goes rigid, except your neck slowly cranes to see your new master. She is dressed in a slinky dress, has the palest skin you’ve ever seen, and a cool predatory look in her pure white eyes. “Let’s go.”

I tried this exercise for the first time today writing a short story. It felt weird at first but I became more comfortable writing in second person. I may try this out more often.

My little sunflower. I watch, as you stretch your tiny limbs, reaching for me. I am your sun. I, who have always been cold as death, am now the warmth that gives you life. Your face, just a moment ago a tight, angry red ball is now smooth, white and pure like mother’s milk. I touch you in wonder. It is a softness like I have never felt before, a softness that soothes my callused fingertip as I draw it gently across your rosy, baby cheek.

You stare up at me, the wonder in your squinty eyes mirroring my own. They are still adjusting to the world around…but even at this early stage, I know you know me. Clear green eyes so unlike mine, sparkling like the ripples of a stream in the sunshine. I lose myself in you.

I watch, seeing my pain in your eyes as your face turns red once more and then blue, and your eyes lose their sparkle as they dull and glaze over. You no longer know me.

And yet you reach out blindly, fingers stretched towards me, even as I strangle you to your death.

This piece was inspired by a recent tragic incident of a young mother killing her new born baby, while still in the hospital. She was diagnosed with some form of mental instability. Nothing is known beyond that. I tried to keep this sort of “motivelessness” and detachment within the story, thinking it would make for a more powerful piece. Hope I succeeded!

Is the second person really that rare? Maybe it’s different if you’re writing nonfiction. Most (if not all) of my writing is in the second person. I like to talk directly to my readers, asking questions and that sort of stuff. Maybe, I should try first and third instead.

Instead of fighting, you obeyed. Somehow even that was defiant. Your chin was raised high as you told me that you’d rather I didn’t kill you. Yoh smirked as you asked who I’d hire to do the job or if I’d just think it and make it happen. We were talking about how I knew what you were doing from across the world because I could feel you. You thought that was a load, but didn’t fight even as I insulted you. You just smiled, obeyed and twinkled your eye.

Great article and I am polishing up a novel now from the intimate 2nd person narrative and it was in reading pieces like this that I solidified my decision. I was a bit concerned that my character would be speaking to me through this lens at first, but from word one t felt right and has throughout the entire manuscript. Even the sceptics in my writing group who were advising me to reconsider when the idea first started spilling out on the page have taken a new viewpoint saying it definitely works in this particular story!

Beautiful technique. I love it. You never wanted to cross the wild path. Still, in silence something happening in your mind. You wanted to cross and hug him to keep him entirely in your life. …

“Caroline, today is a very important day,” Mother gives you a pained smile and bends down to your level. Her honey brown hair swings in front of your face before you see her hazelnut eyes close to yours. She leans in and gives you a kiss on the forehead. As she pulls away you catch the smell of her ocean shampoo. You turn you head to the side while questions run through you head as tears stream down Mom’s face. She pulls up her purse and wipes away her tears. “Let’s go visit Daddy’s place.” Before you ask any questions she picks you up and heads to the front door.

“Where are we going Mommy?” You ask, fear creeping into your voice. Moms never cries like this, why is she sad? You tighten your arms around her neck as she turns off the hallway lights and opens the front door. She gives you a quick smile as she closes the door and carries you to the car. She slowly straps you into the car and gets into her seat. You decide to ask again, “Mommy, where are we going? Why are you crying?” You struggle under the carseat buckles, but you are no use against them.

Your mother wipes away another tear and hides a sob as she turns around to face you, “We are just going to hi to Daddy,” She smiles and wipes away other tears. The engine of the car roars to life. As she backs the car out of the parking space you open your mouth to speak but she cuts you off, “Don’t you remember last year? In the nice green park,” She turns the car around and drives out of the apartment buildings parking lot. You try to remember such an instance from the previous year, but your mind is blank. Who is Daddy?

“Here we are,” Mommy says as we pull up to a big grassy field. In the background you can hear birds chirping. Still you have no memory of such a place. She shrugges as she unstrapes you from your confindment. “I don’t expect you to remember, you were pretty young last year.” She smiles, but it quickly fades as she turned towards the field.

“Why are we here?” You ask, concern still lining you voice as wind almost drowns out your question. Your mom smiles at you and starts to cry again. She collapes down on the grass and you jump out to comfort her. You can’t figure out why she is crying so much. Does she have allergies again? “Mommy, who is Daddy?” you ask. It seems like Daddy is the reason you are here, where is he?

“Daddy is the most wonderful person,” Mommy says and looks up at you with a smile. “He had to go away for a long time on a journey, but he will return, whether it be in my lifetime or not,” your mom’s gaze drifted off into the trees and she smiles. You can’t understand why she is sad then happy, but it made you happy that she was.

You ask you last question again, you feel the need to have it answered, “Who is Daddy?” You look at your mom with anticipation and wait as she turns your head towards you.

“He was Olyuss, the magician of my life,” She smiles and gives you a hug.

its crazy how everything happens.Just as when you were little and everything was blurry. You remember your mom walking you to school in a hurry. When you started growing and understanding that alot of things you were doing were bad. Maybe something affected you wen you realized the world is cold and sad. Its crazy how also the bad things that happened in your life time can change you in so many ways. But only you got to realize it miles away. The seasons start changing friends became strangers. Sometimes you get stuck mentally seems like your in danger.No were to run to.No one to talk to. In the room stuck between four walls, theres life out there but you must have forgot. You feel alone and misunderstood. That no one knows the struggle you go through. But only if you really knew that my Lord the savior heard your crying, he’s got you. Still in your disbelief that there wasn’t anyone to save you. You let yourself go, not trusting your stuggle. Drank, smoked went home empty. From were you last left off sitting in the dark you always thought where is the ending? You thought this was it. That there was no way out of escaping but there is… Trust in God, get on your knees and pray. I guarantee you tomorrow be a better day. I tell you no lies because there was a moment in life I went through something like this “Once Upon A Time”

That example is still first person point of view. It has “I” in it, so the “I” is still the one behind the story, not the other person, the “you”.

your not gonna lie anymore more.you didnt even know your own language. the whole time right in in your face. its no point in blaming anymore. fuck. its sorta funny when you find the man your yelling at is yourself. didnt say i didnt tell you but i know you suck at writing. wanna bump? go

You woke up at 8:30 a.m. and just remembered your brother left you to travel home all alone. This was the first time traveling out of state by yourself, with no help. You can still hear the warnings of your grandparents from the night before, “Don’t travel at night and don’t pick up any strangers!” You tell yourself, “There’s nothing to be afraid of. You’ve got this.” But you never made it back home.

I write exclusively in second person. I have on occasion switched to 1st person and swapped perspectives between character and very much enjoy this style. The second person seems to be the most effective when you want to focus more on the story vs the actual characters. Like if you want to be vague and not reveal a lot second is great. First is great if you want to do perspective and focus on emotions and motivation.I dont think I really write in third that often.

This is a passage I lifted from a short story i wrote, when i tried to use second person as the lead figure suffers a panic attack in the middle of the action, Now you’re drifting…..

Now this is starting to get to you, you heart’s pounding, your mind’s racing, The cabin’s spinning all around you, You’re flushed, choking and trembling, What if you have a heart attack! What if you never leave here? Now you’re sweating, it’s sliding down your face, dripping off you. You want help, don’t you? What if you breakdown and scream? They’ll have gotten to you, They’ll twist you, torment you, break you, and drive you mad. You can’t get your beads, they’re in the corner, You can’t bend, you can’t reach, you can’t move, can you? You’re frozen with fear, But you’re all alone, What if you die here? God help you.

You look in the mirror at your self perceived, distorted appearance. You look at your popped out shoulder blades, your curved in sides. You run your hand over your arm, looking down at the scars you’ve inflicted on yourself. Each one having a definite shape. Each one having a different story.

Your mother pulls into the all to familiar circular parking lot of your family church. Pulling up to the curb she puts the car in park and turns to you.

“Are you ready.” She smiles at you hopeful.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.” Is your response. You don’t waste anytime exiting the car, quick to shut the door. You knows she’s staring at you as you make your to the glass double doors.

Just like many days before, you find your yourself looking up to the sky. Why are you doing this? You watch the clouds moving across the vast expanse of ocean blue background. You take a moment, thinking if going to this is worth your time. Another boring therapy session plays across your mind.

A honk fills your ear drums, breaking your daze. You glance over your shoulder, your mother waves for you to move through the passenger side window. You nod your head and wait for her to leave. The sound of an engine slowly fades away before you force yourself into the building.

The tiny, four corner room smells of hopelessness and stale coffee. To you that’s exactly what this is; hopeless. In a moments thought you stretch your sleeve over your hand, gripping it tight in your fist, covering the evidence from the night before. Dr. Jenkins collects your files, then looks up at you.

“Rose, how are you?” He addresses you with the same joyful tone as always.

You shrug your shoulders.

“I see.” He looks down, making a note on your sheet. “And have you been taking your medicine. ”

You suppress a laugh. “You know, it’s not really my thing.” He stares at you under his black trimmed, oval glasses.

“Rose.” He rubs his forehead.

“Dr. Jenkins.” You respond, peeking at the bowl of skittles in your peripheral vision.

“You need to take it.” This is not far from anything you’ve heard before.

You grab a handful of skittles, plopping one into your mouth. “It doesn’t do anything.” You know the words he’s about to speak before he even opens his mouth.

“You haven’t been taking them long enough.” There it is.

“A year, Dr. Jenkins.” You sit up, throwing your hands in the air. “A year I’ve been taking this medication. Now I don’t know about you, but that seems pretty damn ‘long enough.’”

He clasps his hands together. You don’t want to be here anymore. “Just a little longer and if it doesn’t work, then we’ll stop. Okay?”

You know you’re about to lie. “Okay.”

Why can’t you just tell him the truth?

Yea this point of view i never do. Mostly seen in selfhelp nonfiction types, recently I’m concerned: in dialogues what if not sure which party is the ‘you’ referring to? Especially in a story with many people. (I’m an author i don’t want to lose this skill)

Here’s an extract from a dystopian short story that I am writing for year 12 🙂

You try to read the letter again, with shaking hands and foggy glasses. Your lips can’t find the motion to speak, and the words can’t find the way out of your mouth.    “We regret to inform you that you are the person that has been randomly chosen to make the sacrifice for the preservation,” you murmur, through trembling lips. You remain frozen on the couch, with your wife laying on top of you, sobbing. The tears from your whole family is sufficient enough to fill a swimming pool. As you embrace your dear children, you notice a black government car outside, with tinted windows. You know that it’s time to go. You know you have to go. As you step outside, Emily grabs hold of your leg and doesn’t let go, whilst progressively crying harder and louder. You pull her off. It hurts so much inside, but you know that you have to do it. You give them each one last hug, and try to pull a funny face at the kids to try and stop them from crying. It doesn’t work. As the car pulls away, you see your wife, running back inside the house, with her head in her hands.

In the car, you just sit there. You don’t know what to think. You don’t know what to do. You’re frozen, and nothing seems to enter or leave your mind.

The silence endures.

what if you have a story involving more than one character? You can’t simply make it personal in more than one body, because it’d be ridiculously hard to notify the reader which character they’re now embodying, it’s unrealistic therefore and it’s no longer personal if you’re not even that one person who you can identify with. This is why, unless you’re writing a story only in one person’s point of view (which is just as limiting as first person, if not more so, so hardly useful) that 2nd person is incredibly limiting. It should only be used for speeches, ads etc. when you’re applying your message to everyone and CAN apply that to everyone and anyone

3rd person arguably reigns supreme again therefore, because you can embody the reader in as many characters as possible, and if written well you can show the different perspective of each character’s stimuli and how their nurture and nature affects their experience of the stimuli, such as with life: you may understand why someone did x, but you may never know what experiences brought them there or made them act that way in the first place, neither can you realistically in 2nd person, unless if the reader’s character is a ghost who can possess people… 3rd person you can do so realistically, because the reader is like a god, you’re more or less omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient, limited only to the scope of the story. It’s less personal you say? Not if you write the story properly, if the story isn’t personal and the reader’s don’t find the characters relatable in any style of story, irrelevant of what type of person you’re referring to, then you’ve failed perhaps the most basic part of creative writing and your story would be awful

1st person uses ‘I’ anyway, so not much less personal or different than ‘you’ and just as limiting

wait, I understand why it’s useful to learn how to write as compacting and therefore nuanced as possible, but why does it have to be 100 words on the dot? That doesn’t really prove anything and is overly stifling for anyone. Good story nonetheless

Nah, second person holds the person at arms length. It’s not good enough if you want the persons emotional connection.

Hi this is the opening paragraph of story i’m working on called, “You and me” its a soulmate story can i have your opinion. You’ve never been particularly interested in the concept of soulmates. It had always befuddled you why every girl in your class from seemed to be obsessed with who their soulmate would be and what they would look like. It’s not that you never thought about soulmates, the timer on your wrist made sure of that, but you tended to spend your time focusing on more practical things like your classes and the after school theater program you’ve been a part of since middle school. As months turn into years and you graduate high school you continue to ignore the clock on your wrist ticking down to the day you will meet the person who will be your forever. You move for college attending the same college as your best friend, a university in Boston with a great theater program, and move in together. You easily fall into a rhythm of classes, work and studying not thinking about the seconds ticking down on your wrist as the days flow into one another. Your first few semesters are more boring then you wish as you try to knock out the required classes for your freshman year before winter break. You expect to spend winter break alone in the apartment you ‘Share’ with your best friend. Ever since she meet her soulmate she has been scarce and you don’t doubt the same will be true for winter break. You don’t mind being alone, you quite enjoy the quiet. It allows you to get work done and to collect your thoughts. You were perfectly content to spend winter break alone when you receive a call from you mother offering to buy you two way ticket to see her for the holidays. You haven’t seen your mother in over a year and even if that wasn’t the case who are you to refuse a free ticket to see her. You aren’t one to look a gift horse in the mouth so you go to see her. What you don’t see is the timer on your wrist, now hidden behind a black leather cuff, go from 2190:D 23:H 14:M 23:S to 10:D 23:H 14:M 23:S the moment you step off the plane.

Your article that suggests writing in the second person is especially helpful. Particularly the examples you included. I thought about an earlier unrelated writing prompt and then a newspaper incident discussed in an interview though highly unlikely, that actually happened. It got me started on the exercise and now I feel there’s a short story in it. I think one of your best points is don’t let writing in 2nd person hem you in. Figure out how to vary it as much as possible and still remain in that voice.

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Mastering Second Person Point of View: Techniques and Examples

Understanding second person point of view, defining second person, when to use second person, advantages and disadvantages, techniques for mastering second person, use direct address, create an interactive experience, choose your narrator wisely, examples of second person narrative, bright lights, big city by jay mcinerney, if on a winter's night a traveler by italo calvino, the reluctant fundamentalist by mohsin hamid, experimenting with second person, writing prompts, short stories, joining writing groups.

Mastering the second person point of view in writing can be a game-changer for your storytelling. It allows you to directly engage with your readers, offering a unique and immersive experience. In this blog, we'll explore the ins and outs of the second person point of view and provide you with techniques and examples to help you harness its power in your own writing.

Before we dive into techniques and examples, it's important to have a clear understanding of what second person point of view is, when to use it, and its advantages and disadvantages.

Second person point of view refers to using the pronouns you, your, yours, yourself, and yourselves in your writing. This perspective directly addresses the reader, making them feel as if they are part of the story or being spoken to by the narrator. Unlike first person, which uses I, me, and my, or third person, which uses he, she, it, and they, second person creates a unique connection between the reader and the narrative.

Second person point of view is less commonly used than first or third person, but it can be incredibly effective in certain types of writing. Some ideal situations for using second person include:

• Instructional or educational materials, such as how-to guides or recipes
• Interactive fiction or choose-your-own-adventure stories
• Stories that aim to create a strong connection between the reader and the narrator
• Experimental or unconventional writing styles

As with any writing technique, there are pros and cons to using the second person point of view. Some of the advantages include:

• Creating an intimate and engaging experience for the reader
• Offering a unique perspective that stands out from more traditional points of view
• Challenging the writer to think creatively and push narrative boundaries

However, there are also some potential drawbacks:

• It can be difficult to maintain a consistent and believable voice throughout the story
• Some readers may find the direct address off-putting or intrusive
• It may not be suitable for all types of stories or genres

Considering these factors will help you determine whether second person point of view is the right choice for your writing project.

Now that you have a solid understanding of second person point of view, let's explore some techniques to help you master this unique perspective in your writing.

One of the key features of second person point of view is its direct address to the reader. By using "you" and other related pronouns, you create a sense of conversation and intimacy with your audience. Make sure to maintain a consistent and engaging voice that speaks directly to your reader. For example:

"You walk into the room and notice the smell of freshly baked cookies. Your mouth waters as you spot the tray on the counter."

Second person point of view allows you to create an interactive experience for your reader, making them feel like they are part of the story. To achieve this, consider incorporating choices or decisions within your narrative. This can be especially effective in interactive fiction or choose-your-own-adventure stories. For example:

"You come to a fork in the road. If you want to go left, turn to page 10. If you want to go right, turn to page 12."

While second person point of view involves addressing the reader directly, it doesn't mean that the narrator must be completely removed or neutral. Choosing a narrator with a distinct voice and personality can add depth and intrigue to your story. However, be cautious not to let the narrator's voice overshadow the reader's experience. Strive for balance between the two. For example:

"You can't help but feel a twinge of guilt as you lie to your friend. It's not like you, but desperate times call for desperate measures."

Let's take a look at some real-world examples of second person point of view in literature. These works showcase the versatility and unique potential of this perspective.

This novel is a prime example of second person point of view, as it directly addresses the reader and immerses them in the life of a young man navigating the excesses of 1980s New York City. The second person perspective adds depth to the protagonist's internal struggles and creates a unique connection between the reader and the story.

Calvino's experimental novel is another excellent example of second person narrative. The book alternates between chapters written in second person, in which the reader is addressed as the protagonist, and chapters that tell the stories of various fictional books. This unique structure highlights the power of second person point of view to engage readers and draw them into the narrative.

Hamid's novel employs a second person narrative to tell the story of a Pakistani man who recounts his experiences in America to an unnamed American listener. This use of second person point of view creates a sense of intimacy and tension, as the reader is placed in the role of the listener, making the story feel more immediate and personal.

Ready to try your hand at writing in second person point of view? Here are some ideas to help you get started:

Begin with some writing prompts that specifically call for second person perspective. This will help you practice engaging the reader and honing your voice in this unique point of view.

Write a short story in second person to explore how this perspective can create a unique narrative voice and build a strong connection with the reader. Experiment with different genres and themes to see how second person point of view can enhance various types of stories.

Consider joining a writing group or workshop that focuses on experimenting with point of view, including second person narrative. Collaborating with other writers and receiving feedback on your work can help you refine your skills and gain confidence in using second person point of view.

By understanding the nuances of second person point of view and practicing the techniques outlined in this blog, you can unlock the potential of this unique perspective in your writing. Whether you're crafting a short story, an interactive narrative, or experimenting with unconventional storytelling, mastering second person point of view can elevate your work and engage your readers like never before.

Examining examples of second person narrative can provide valuable insights into how this unique perspective can be used effectively in storytelling. Let's take a look at some notable works that showcase the power and versatility of second person point of view.

Jay McInerney's novel is a prime example of second person narrative, as it directly addresses the reader and immerses them in the life of a young man navigating the excesses of 1980s New York City. The second person perspective adds depth to the protagonist's internal struggles and creates a unique connection between the reader and the story.

Italo Calvino's experimental novel is another excellent example of second person narrative. The book alternates between chapters written in second person, in which the reader is addressed as the protagonist, and chapters that tell the stories of various fictional books. This unique structure highlights the power of second person point of view to engage readers and draw them into the narrative.

Mohsin Hamid's novel employs a second person narrative to tell the story of a Pakistani man who recounts his experiences in America to an unnamed American listener. This use of second person point of view creates a sense of intimacy and tension, as the reader is placed in the role of the listener, making the story feel more immediate and personal.

Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tom Robbins

Tom Robbins' novel is a quirky example of second person narrative that follows the story of a stockbroker during a weekend of self-discovery. The use of second person point of view helps to create a sense of immediacy and involvement for the reader, as they are drawn into the protagonist's unconventional journey.

You by Caroline Kepnes

In this psychological thriller, Caroline Kepnes uses second person point of view to tell the story of a bookstore employee who becomes obsessed with a customer. The second person perspective adds to the chilling narrative by placing the reader in the role of the object of the protagonist's obsession, creating a deeply unsettling and engaging experience.

These examples illustrate how second person point of view can be used effectively in a variety of genres and styles. By studying these works and experimenting with second person narrative in your own writing, you can harness the power of this unique perspective to create engaging and immersive stories for your readers.

Ready to give second person point of view a try? Here are some practical ways for you to experiment with this narrative style and find your own unique voice. Remember, practice makes perfect, so don't be afraid to dive in and explore the world of second person narrative.

One effective way to practice second person point of view is by using writing prompts. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Write a letter to your younger self, giving advice and reflecting on past experiences.
• Describe a day in the life of an animal, addressing the reader as the animal.
• Write a "choose your own adventure" story, where the reader's choices dictate the outcome.
• Create a how-to guide or tutorial, instructing the reader on a specific task or skill.

These prompts can help you explore different ways to use second person point of view and discover which styles resonate with you.

Short stories are a great way to experiment with second person narrative. By focusing on a smaller, self-contained narrative, you can concentrate on honing your skills and developing your voice in second person. Plus, short stories provide an opportunity to explore a variety of themes, characters, and settings, allowing you to practice using second person in different contexts.

Writing groups can be a valuable resource for writers looking to experiment with second person point of view. By sharing your work with others, you can receive feedback and suggestions to help improve your writing. Additionally, participating in writing groups can introduce you to other writers who have experience with second person narrative, providing opportunities for collaboration and learning from others' experiences.

As you explore and experiment with second person point of view, remember that finding your unique voice takes time and practice. Don't be afraid to make mistakes or try new things—embracing the process of learning and growing as a writer will help you become more comfortable with second person narrative and ultimately create engaging, immersive stories for your readers.

If you enjoyed this blog post and want to dive deeper into the world of perspective, don't miss the workshop ' A New Perspective on Perspective ' by Roberto Bernal. This workshop will provide you with unique insights and techniques to enhance your understanding and application of perspective in your creative projects.

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The Do’s and Don’ts of Writing in the Second Person

Point of view is one of the first decisions that a writer makes when crafting a piece. Often, they turn to either first person (I/me/we) or third person (he/she/they) points of view when it comes to fiction writing. But lately, I’m beginning to see second person point of view sneaking into the world of fiction. While I always give points for experimentation and thinking outside the box, I can’t say that they typically pull it off. Below are my do’s and don’ts for writing in the second person.

Do: Use it to hook a reader

Beginnings are a tough and important section of a piece of writing. All writers have a bag of tricks that they utilize when starting a piece, and second person POV can be a helpful tool to get over this rough spot. This is especially true in memoirs, essays, and articles. Asking the reader to put themselves in your shoes or into a scenario that you’re trying to portray is an effective way to draw them in.

Ex. “Imagine that you’ve just won $100 million in the lottery.”

This gets the reader thinking about what you’re saying and how they would react to the situation that you have created for them. It’s a great connective bridge between the writer and reader. The tricky part, though, is organically detaching from that perspective into the version that will continue throughout the piece. Following up “Imagine that you’ve just won $100 million dollars in the lottery” with “Well, that’s what happened to me” is too quick of a transition. Ease into it with less of a whiplash-inducing sequence.

Ex. “Imagine that you’ve just won $100 million in the lottery. A river of spending ideas floods your mind: the houses you’re going to buy, the debts you’re going to pay off, the vacations you’re going to take. But it doesn’t all go the way you think. At least it didn’t for me.”

I personally tend to get too wordy. So, be sure not to make it too long of an opening. It’s also a good idea to refer back to that opening at the end of the piece and return to that “you” scenario to show how the story or information that you provided has changed the reader’s ideas, biases, or beliefs. But the meat of your writing needs to be written in a more standard point of view. Otherwise, it’s going to become really distracting really fast.

Don’t…use it in fiction

Whether it’s an attempt to make your piece unique or experimental, if you’re writing fiction, do not use second person point of view. I’ve read many story drafts lately where the writer wrote in the second person, and it just doesn’t work for fiction unless it’s a Choose Your Own Adventure Tale . And that only works because of its intentional gimmicky nature.

Second person makes the reader feel like a puppet being strung along as if possessed by the main character. My mind tends to wander, thinking I’d never do or say those things. There is nothing wrong with following on the shoulder or in the mind of a fictional character or omniscient narrator. So, don’t fix what isn’t broken.

The only exception I’d make is when the writing is strong enough that the narrator can address the reader directly. If the piece is written as a diary that’s meant to be found by someone after the fact or even a Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events scenario where the narrator acts as an oral storyteller whose audience is in front of him, it’s okay to break the fourth wall in order to make the reader feel included in the story. But it really has to work for the story, tone, and voice.

Do…use it in poetry

As a rule of thumb, when reading poetry it’s important not to think of the narrator as the writer but as the “speaker.” Because of that, it’s also important not to think of “you” as the reader but instead as another character related to the speaker. The speaker does this by relaying specific details, dialogue, or memories that don’t pertain to you as the reader. Instead, it’s like you’re stumbling across an old letter or eavesdropping on a conversation.

Because poems are more stylistic and rely heavily on language, every word that a poet selects has to count. Where it doesn’t work for me is in the melodramatic tone of a breakup situation or in a moment of irrational anger. I don’t really want to read about one side of a fight, but a one-sided ode to the “you” or longing for someone who is no longer there works fine.

Don’t…use it to control your readers

Writing can be especially appealing to writers because it gives them a feeling of control and release. We can invent and alter a completely fictional world, vent our feelings in a piece of non-fiction or poetry, or inform the public about a favorite or important topic in an essay or article.

But it’s not on us to control the readers. As I said before, readers don’t want to be the writer’s puppet. They want to be the audience who takes in the information, either critically, informationally, or for entertainment. But their mind is still their own.

Readers will catch on if they feel like they are being manipulated, judged, or persuaded. And the use of second person point of view will be the tip off to that unwanted controlled feeling.

Do… use it in articles

Second person can easily work in a magazine, blog, or newspaper article. Even the titles of these articles make use of this perspective to draw in a reader with a question or statement that addresses them directly.

Ex. “10 Haircuts to Make You Look Younger” Ex. “What Dangerous Prescriptions are Sitting in Your Medicine Cabinet?”

Using “you” or “your” in the title then gives you permission to continue to use it throughout the piece, making it more conversational. Since articles are more informational, it’s okay to keep your reader dwelling on the questions and scenarios that the “you” brings up throughout the piece.

Don’t…use it in a cryptic sense

When you write in the second person, you need to have a clear idea of who you’re talking to. Know your audience and what will draw them into your piece. Make sure the finger is pointed at the right people. Use a writing style that fits that group (formal, conversational, humorous, etc.) as well as the message or information that you’re trying to convey.

If you’re using it in poetry, make sure that the reader has a good sense of who the “you” is (a parent, a spouse, a friend, etc.). Do this through showing rather than telling, but don’t be so cryptic or specific that the reader doesn’t get it, especially if it’s antagonistic. Then, it might come across as a rant against society rather than a specific person. And if it is a rant against society, make sure that’s clear and that the reader is picking up on the substitutions and the larger ideas at work.

Do…use it in an advertising sense

Look at any commercial, infomercial, magazine spread, or billboard, and you’ll see that you’re being addressed directly as a potential buyer most of the time. Advertising sticks when it bluntly singles you out. It can be equally effective as a marketing tool for writers.

Ex. “Check out my latest article at Magazine.com, and learn about how you can travel the world on a tight budget!”

Bloggers use it to promote their blog posts on social media.

Ex. “Need ideas for recipes to bring to your in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner?”

Store owners use it to draw in customers.

Ex. “Looking for 25 percent off your next pair of glasses?”

It works because being addressed directly captures our attention, and if we’re in the market for what they’re offering, it will hold our attention. This isn’t about trickery as much as it is about relatability and the give-and-take relationship between writer and reader.

Don’t…use it to try to be unique

Finally, you’re not going to create a movement by writing your novel or memoir in second person perspective. Use your individuality in the writing itself, not in your mechanics.

Gimmicks are distracting, and language is a make or break element of a piece of writing. It’s a fine line to walk, and if you’re going to take risks, do it with your content, not your technique. Keep we the readers out of your fiction or life story, and let us be the attentive audience, not an active participant.

When do you most like to use second person narration? When has it been most effective for you? Leave your answers in the comments below!

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So helpful!! Thank you!

Thanks for sharing all of these tips. I love the idea of using second person to hook a reader in. Kelle – http://www.itskellesspace.com

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Readable grammar 101 – writing in the second person

You may or may not know what it means to write in the second person, but do you know its advantages? We’ll break down what the second person is and how it could make your writing more effective.

What does writing in second person mean .

The second person refers to the person you’re addressing. The perspective of the second person is “you”. 

In fiction, the second person is relatively rare, but it’s common in content and copywriting. For businesses, the second person is a powerful point of view for connecting with the customer. 

"For businesses, the second person is a powerful point of view for connecting with the customer." 

What are the rules for writing in second person? 

The second person rules are pretty simple. You must use the pronouns ‘you’, ‘your’ and ‘yours’. 

In contrast, the first person requires you to refer to yourself - ‘I’, ‘my’ and ‘mine’. The third person refers to others, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’ or ‘they’.

Examples of writing in the second person

Although it’s true that the second person is a rare point of view in fiction, it does crop up occasionally to achieve a specific effect or mood. It’s been used very effectively in recent TV screenplays.  

For example, in Netflix’s production ‘YOU’, the screenplay has Joe’s narrative voice address his victims in the second person as an interior monologue. Because this positions the viewer as Beck, the forced perspective creates an unnerving effect.

In Sam Esmail’s Mr Robot, the hacker protagonist Elliot breaks the fourth wall by addressing us, the audience - this is jarring because it makes us aware that he knows we’re privy to his actions and decisions. 

But the second-person doesn’t always disturb us. More often than not, it can make us feel addressed, recognized and included. 

Just think of the numerous instances of the second-person point of view in advertising slogans. Here are some examples: 

• “Aren't You Hungry for Burger King now?” — Burger King
• “Everywhere you want to be.” — Visa
• “Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.” — M&Ms
• “Once you go Mac, you'll never go back.” — Apple

You get the idea. 

What are the benefits of writing in second person? 

From a business perspective, the advertiser can address the consumer directly. 

According to research, ‘second-person pronouns should work to enhance consumer involvement and brand attitude as a result of increasing the extent that consumers engage in self-referencing’. ( Source )

"Second-person pronouns should work to enhance consumer involvement"

This backs up what we’ve mentioned about the inclusivity of using the second person. By not saying ‘we’ or ‘ours’ but instead using more ‘you’ and ‘yours’, a business can avoid sounding too distant and impersonal. This improves their brand image. 

Here’s a tip: Readable’s tone detector can tell you if you’re using the second-person enough in your business writing. It’s called the personal/impersonal scale . Using the second person more in your writing will create a more personal tone. 

Another advantage of writing in the second person is that it builds a relationship and inspires trust. By addressing the consumer, you’re introducing yourself to them. You’re directly - and hopefully concisely - introducing yourself, your values and your value to them. 

Give it a try

Now you’re equipped with the knowledge of how this could help you connect to your audience, why not give it a try? Take a piece of content about your company and look for where you could address your reader more. Is your content personal enough ? 

Grammar     business writing     grammar     laura kelly     spelling and grammar

Laura Kelly

Laura is a freelance writer and worked at Readable for a number of years. Laura is well-versed in optimising content for readability and Readable's suite of tools. She aims to write guides that help you make the most out of Readable.

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First, Second, and Third Person: Definition and Examples

Home » The Writer’s Dictionary » First, Second, and Third Person: Definition and Examples

Point of view definition: First, second, and third person are categories of grammar to classify pronouns and verb forms.

• First person definition: first person indicates the speaker.
• Second person definition: second person indicates the addressee .
• Third person definition: third person indicates a third party individual other than the speaker.

What is the difference Between First Person, Second Person, and Third Person?

First, second, and third person refer to pronouns and their verb forms.

What is First Person?

First Person Example:      

• I prefer coffee to hot cocoa.

In this example, “I” am the speaker. This is first person.

What is Second Person?

Second person point of view: Second person refers to the addressee. It uses the subject pronoun “you.”

Second Person Example:  

• You prefer coffee to hot cocoa.

In this example “you” is the addressee. The speaker is addressing “you.” This is second person.

What is Third Person?

Third Person Example:

• He prefers coffee to hot cocoa.

In this example “he” is the third party. The speaker is referring to him as the addressee. He prefers coffee to hot cocoa.

When using the different points of view, verbs need to be conjugated appropriately to fit the pronoun use.

Note: Pronouns are only used in English when an antecedent has been clearly identified.

What Are First Person Pronouns?

First person pronouns always refer to the speaker himself. These pronouns are only used when the speaker is making a statement about himself or herself.

First Person Pronoun List:

Here is a list with examples of the first person words we use in writing and speech.

• I prefer coffee to hot cocoa. (First person singular)
• We prefer burgers to pasta. (First person plural)
• Jacob embarrassed me.
• Jacob embarrassed us.
• The hat is mine.
• The hat is ours.
• That is my hat.
• That is our hat.

What Are Second Person Pronouns?

When you are writing, a good way to think about the second person’s point of view is that it addresses the reader (as I just did in that sentence).

Second person pronouns are only used when the speaker is making a statement to the addressee, i.e., to someone.

Second Person Pronoun List:

Here is a list with examples of the second person words we use in writing and speech.

• Jacob embarrassed you.
• The hat is yours.
• That is your hat.

Note: In each of these examples, “you” can be an individual (singular) or multiple people (plural).

What Are Third Person Pronouns?

Third person pronouns always refer to a third party. These pronouns are used when the speaker is making a statement about a third party.

Third Person Pronoun List:

Here is a list with examples of the third person words we use in writing and speech.

• He prefers coffee to hot cocoa. (Third person singular)
• They prefer tea to coffee. (Third person plural)
• Jacob embarrassed her.
• The hat is theirs.
• That is their hat.

First, Second, and Third Person in Writing

Writing in first person: Literature in the first person point of view is written from the speaker’s perspective. This point of view uses first person pronouns to identify the speaker/narrator. First person point of view is generally limited in that the audience only experiences what the speaker/narrator himself experiences.

Writing in third person: Literature in third person point of view is written from an “outside” perspective. This point of view uses third person pronouns to identify characters. In third person writing, the narrator is not a character in the text. Because of this, he can usually “see” what happens to all of the characters.

Writing in second person: In non-fiction writing, a speaker will often switch between pronouns. Writers do this only for effect. For example, if a speaker wants to be clear and “get through” to the audience, he might say “you” (second person) throughout the text even if the text is mostly in third person. Again, this is strictly for rhetorical effect. Experienced writers use this as a literary tool.

Common Questions and First, Second, and Third Person

Here, I want to go quickly through a few questions I get about first, second, and third person pronouns.

Questions About the First Person

Is our first person? Yes, our is one of the first person pronouns.

• Are you coming to our wedding?

Is you first person? No, you is a second person pronoun.

• You are a great friend.

Is we first person? Yes, we is a first person pronoun.

• We are great friends.
• We polled this group of political observers and activists each week prior to the Iowa caucuses to produce the USA TODAY GOP Power Rankings and went back to them this week to ask who is the best choice for Trump’s running mate. – USA Today

Is my first person? Yes, my is a first person pronoun.

• My glasses are broken.

Is they first person? No, they is a third person pronoun.

• They can’t find parking.
• For frugal travelers, there are some smart alternatives if they are willing to do a bit of homework. – The New York Times

Is us first person? Yes, us is one of the first person pronouns.

• The president congratulated us.

Questions About the Second Person

• You are causing a scene.

Is they second person? No, they is a one of the third person pronouns.

• They are our neighbors.

Is we second person? No, we is one of the first person pronouns.

• We are going to get groceries.

Questions About the Third Person

Is their third person? Yes, their is a third person pronoun.

• Their hat is over there.

Is we third person? No, we is a first person pronoun.

• We are going to the beach.

Is our third person? No, our is a first person pronoun.

• This is our cake.

Is you third person? No, you is a second person pronoun.

• You are a nice person.

Is they third person? Yes, they is a third person pronoun.

• They are nice people.

Is he third person? Yes, he is one of the third person pronouns.

• He is a great man.
• Last week, he restated that he believes he deserves a maximum contract. – The Washington Post

Trick to Remember the Difference

Here are a few helpful memory tricks that always help me.

In the first person writing, I am talking about myself.

• I enjoy singing.

In the second person writing, I am talking to someone.

• You enjoy singing.

In the third person writing, I am talking about someone.

• He enjoys singing.

Summary: What is the First, Second, and Third Person Perspective?

Define first person: The definition of first person is the grammatical category of forms that designate a speaker referring to himself or herself. First person pronouns are I, we, me, us, etc.

Define second person: The definition of second person is the grammatical category of forms that designates the person being addressed. Second person pronouns are you, your, and yours.

Define third person: The definition of third person is the grammatical category of forms designating someone other than the speaker. The pronouns used are he, she, it, they, them, etc.

If this article helped you understand the differences between the three main English points of view, you might find our other article on English grammar terms helpful.

You can see our full list of English grammar terms on our grammar dictionary .

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How to Write in Third Person

Last Updated: March 27, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Alicia Cook . Alicia Cook is a Professional Writer based in Newark, New Jersey. With over 12 years of experience, Alicia specializes in poetry and uses her platform to advocate for families affected by addiction and to fight for breaking the stigma against addiction and mental illness. She holds a BA in English and Journalism from Georgian Court University and an MBA from Saint Peter’s University. Alicia is a bestselling poet with Andrews McMeel Publishing and her work has been featured in numerous media outlets including the NY Post, CNN, USA Today, the HuffPost, the LA Times, American Songwriter Magazine, and Bustle. She was named by Teen Vogue as one of the 10 social media poets to know and her poetry mixtape, “Stuff I’ve Been Feeling Lately” was a finalist in the 2016 Goodreads Choice Awards. There are 7 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 1,135,372 times.

Writing in third person can be a simple task, with a little practice. For academic purposes, third person writing means that the writer must avoid using subjective pronouns like “I” or “you.” For creative writing purposes, there are differences between third person omniscient, limited, objective, and episodically limited points of view. Choose which one fits your writing project.

Writing in Third Person Academically

• Third person helps the writing stay focused on facts and evidence instead of personal opinion.

• Third person pronouns include: he, she, it; his, her, its; him, her, it; himself, herself, itself; they; them; their; themselves.
• Names of other people are also considered appropriate for third person use.
• Example: “ Smith believes differently. According to his research, earlier claims on the subject are incorrect.”

• First person pronouns include: I, me, my, mine, myself, we, us, our, ours, ourselves. [3] X Research source
• The problem with first person is that, academically speaking, it sounds too personalized and too subjective. In other words, it may be difficult to convince the reader that the views and ideas being expressed are unbiased and untainted by personal feelings. Many times, when using first person in academic writing, people use phrases like "I think," "I believe," or "in my opinion."
• Incorrect example: “Even though Smith thinks this way, I think his argument is incorrect.”
• Correct example: “Even though Smith thinks this way, others in the field disagree.”

• Second person pronouns include: you, your, yours, yourself. [4] X Research source
• One main problem with second person is that it can sound accusatory. It runs to risk of placing too much responsibility on the shoulders of the reader specifically and presently reading the work.
• Incorrect example: “If you still disagree nowadays, then you must be ignorant of the facts.”
• Correct example: “Someone who still disagrees nowadays must be ignorant of the facts.”

• Indefinite third person nouns common to academic writing include: the writer, the reader, individuals, students, a student, an instructor, people, a person, a woman, a man, a child, researchers, scientists, writers, experts.
• Example: “In spite of the challenges involved, researchers still persist in their claims.”
• Indefinite third person pronouns include: one, anyone, everyone, someone, no one, another, any, each, either, everybody, neither, nobody, other, anybody, somebody, everything, someone.
• Incorrect example: "You might be tempted to agree without all the facts."
• Correct example: “ One might be tempted to agree without all the facts.”
• This is usually done in an attempt to avoid the gender-specific “he” and “she” pronouns. The mistake here would be to use the “they” pronoun with singular conjugation. [5] X Research source
• Incorrect example: “The witness wanted to offer anonymous testimony. They was afraid of getting hurt if their name was spread.”
• Correct example: “The witness wanted to offer anonymous testimony. They were afraid of getting hurt if their name was spread.”

Writing in Third Person Omniscient

• For instance, a story may include four major characters: William, Bob, Erika, and Samantha. At various points throughout the story, the thoughts and actions of each character should be portrayed. These thoughts can occur within the same chapter or block of narration.
• Writers of omniscient narratives should be conscious of “head-hopping” — that is, shifting character perspectives within a scene. While this does not technically break the rules of Third Person Omniscience, it is widely considered a hallmark of narrative laziness.

• In a sense, the writer of a third person omniscient story is somewhat like the “god” of that story. The writer can observe the external actions of any character at any time, but unlike a limited human observer, the writer can also peek into the inner workings of that character at will, as well.
• Know when to hold back. Even though a writer can reveal any information they choose to reveal, it may be more beneficial to reveal some things gradually. For instance, if one character is supposed to have a mysterious aura, it would be wise to limit access to that character's inner feelings for a while before revealing his or her true motives.

• Do not use first person and second person points of view in the narrative or descriptive portions of the text.
• Correct example: Bob said to Erika, “I think this is creepy. What do you think?”
• Incorrect example: I thought this was creepy, and Bob and Erika thought so, too. What do you think?

Writing in Third Person Limited

• The thoughts and feelings of other characters remain an unknown for the writer throughout the duration of the text. There should be no switching back and forth between characters for this specific type of narrative viewpoint.
• Unlike first person, where the narrator and protagonist are the same, third person limited puts a critical sliver of distance between protagonist and narrator. The writer has the choice to describe one main character’s nasty habit — something they wouldn’t readily reveal if the narration were left entirely to them.

• In other words, do not use first person pronouns like “I,” “me,” “my,” “we,” or “our” outside of dialog. The main character's thoughts and feelings are transparent to the writer, but that character should not double as a narrator.
• Correct example: “Tiffany felt awful after the argument with her boyfriend.”
• Correct example: “Tiffany thought, “I feel awful after that argument with my boyfriend.”
• Incorrect example: “I felt awful after the argument with my boyfriend.”

• Note that the writer can offer insight or guesses regarding the thoughts of other characters, but those guesses must be presented through the perspective of the main character.
• Correct example: “Tiffany felt awful, but judging by the expression on Carl's face, she imagined that he felt just as bad if not worse.”
• Incorrect example: “Tiffany felt awful. What she didn't know was that Carl felt even worse.”

• Correct example: “Tiffany watched from the window as Carl walked up to her house and rang the doorbell.”
• Incorrect example: “As soon as Tiffany left the room, Carl let out a sigh of relief.”

Writing in Episodically Limited Third Person

• Limit the amount of pov characters you include. You don't want to have too many characters that confuse your reader or serve no purpose. Each pov character should have a specific purpose for having a unique point of view. Ask yourself what each pov character contributes to the story.
• For instance, in a romance story following two main characters, Kevin and Felicia, the writer may opt to explain the inner workings of both characters at different moments in the story.
• One character may receive more attention than any other, but all main characters being followed should receive attention at some point in the story.

• Multiple perspectives should not appear within the same narrative space. When one character's perspective ends, another character's can begin. The two perspectives should not be intermixed within the same space.
• Incorrect example: “Kevin felt completely enamored of Felicia from the moment he met her. Felicia, on the other hand, had difficulty trusting Kevin.”

• In a novel-length work, a good time to switch perspective is at the start of a new chapter or at a chapter break.
• The writer should also identify the character whose perspective is being followed at the start of the section, preferably in the first sentence. Otherwise, the reader may waste too much energy guessing.
• Correct example: “Felicia hated to admit it, but the roses Kevin left on her doorstep were a pleasant surprise.”
• Incorrect example: “The roses left on the doorstep seemed like a nice touch.”

• For instance, if Kevin had a talk with Felicia's best friend about Felicia's feelings for him, Felicia herself would have no way of knowing what was said unless she witnessed the conversation or heard about it from either Kevin or her friend.

Writing in Third Person Objective

• There does not need to be a single main character to focus on. The writer can switch between characters, following different characters throughout the course of the narrative, as often as needed.
• Stay away from first person terms like “I” and second person terms like “you” in the narrative, though. Only use first and second person within dialog.

• Imagine that you are an invisible bystander observing the actions and dialog of the characters in your story. You are not omniscient, so you do not have access to any character's inner thoughts and feelings. You only have access to each character's actions.
• Correct example: “After class, Graham hurriedly left the room and rushed back to his dorm room.”
• Incorrect example: “After class, Graham raced from the room and rushed back to his dorm room. The lecture had made him so angry that he felt as though he might snap at the next person he met.”

• Correct example: “When no one else was watching her, Isabelle began to cry.”
• Incorrect example: “Isabelle was too prideful to cry in front of other people, but she felt completely broken-hearted and began crying once she was alone.”

• Let the reader draw his or her own conclusions. Present the actions of the character without analyzing them or explaining how those actions should be viewed.
• Correct example: “Yolanda looked over her shoulder three times before sitting down.”
• Incorrect example: “It might seem like a strange action, but Yolanda looked over her shoulder three times before sitting down. This compulsive habit is an indication of her paranoid state of mind.”

Examples of Third Person POV

Expert Q&A

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://stlcc.edu/student-support/academic-success-and-tutoring/writing-center/writing-resources/point-of-view-in-academic-writing.aspx
• ↑ http://studysupportresources.port.ac.uk/Writing%20in%20the%20third%20peson.pdf
• ↑ http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/third_person.htm
• ↑ https://www.grammarly.com/blog/use-the-singular-they/
• ↑ Alicia Cook. Professional Writer. Expert Interview. 11 December 2020.
• ↑ https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/point-of-view-first-second-third-person-difference
• ↑ https://ojs.library.dal.ca/YAHS/article/viewFile/7236/6278

About This Article

To write in third person, refer to people or characters by name or use third person pronouns like he, she, it; his, her, its; him, her, it; himself, herself, itself; they; them; their; and themselves. Avoid first and second person pronouns completely. For academic writing, focus on a general viewpoint rather than a specific person's to keep things in third person. In other types of writing, you can write in third person by shifting your focus from character to character or by focusing on a single character. To learn more from our Literary Studies Ph.D., like the differences between third person omniscient and third person limited writing, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Table of Contents

Ai, ethics & human agency, collaboration, information literacy, writing process, using first person in an academic essay: when is it okay.

• CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 by Jenna Pack Sheffield

Related Concepts: Academic Writing – How to Write for the Academic Community ; First-Person Point of View ; Rhetorical Analysis; Rhetorical Stance ; The First Person ; Voice

In order to determine whether or not you can speak or write from the first-person point of view, you need to engage in rhetorical analysis. You need to question whether your audience values and accepts the first person as a legitimate rhetorical stance. Source:Many times, high school students are told not to use first person (“I,” “we,” “my,” “us,” and so forth) in their essays. As a college student, you should realize that this is a rule that can and should be broken—at the right time, of course.

By now, you’ve probably written a personal essay, memoir, or narrative that used first person. After all, how could you write a personal essay about yourself, for instance, without using the dreaded “I” word?

However, academic essays differ from personal essays; they are typically researched and use a formal tone . Because of these differences, when students write an academic essay, they quickly shy away from first person because of what they have been told in high school or because they believe that first person feels too informal for an intellectual, researched text. While first person can definitely be overused in academic essays (which is likely why your teachers tell you not to use it), there are moments in a paper when it is not only appropriate, but also more effective and/or persuasive to use first person. The following are a few instances in which it is appropriate to use first person in an academic essay:

• Including a personal anecdote: You have more than likely been told that you need a strong “hook” to draw your readers in during an introduction. Sometimes, the best hook is a personal anecdote, or a short amusing story about yourself. In this situation, it would seem unnatural not to use first-person pronouns such as “I” and “myself.” Your readers will appreciate the personal touch and will want to keep reading! (For more information about incorporating personal anecdotes into your writing, see “ Employing Narrative in an Essay .”)
• Establishing your credibility ( ethos ): Ethos is a term stemming back to Ancient Greece that essentially means “character” in the sense of trustworthiness or credibility. A writer can establish her ethos by convincing the reader that she is trustworthy source. Oftentimes, the best way to do that is to get personal—tell the reader a little bit about yourself. (For more information about ethos, see “ Ethos .”)For instance, let’s say you are writing an essay arguing that dance is a sport. Using the occasional personal pronoun to let your audience know that you, in fact, are a classically trained dancer—and have the muscles and scars to prove it—goes a long way in establishing your credibility and proving your argument. And this use of first person will not distract or annoy your readers because it is purposeful.
• Clarifying passive constructions : Often, when writers try to avoid using first person in essays, they end up creating confusing, passive sentences . For instance, let’s say I am writing an essay about different word processing technologies, and I want to make the point that I am using Microsoft Word to write this essay. If I tried to avoid first-person pronouns, my sentence might read: “Right now, this essay is being written in Microsoft Word.” While this sentence is not wrong, it is what we call passive—the subject of the sentence is being acted upon because there is no one performing the action. To most people, this sentence sounds better: “Right now, I am writing this essay in Microsoft Word.” Do you see the difference? In this case, using first person makes your writing clearer.
• Stating your position in relation to others: Sometimes, especially in an argumentative essay, it is necessary to state your opinion on the topic . Readers want to know where you stand, and it is sometimes helpful to assert yourself by putting your own opinions into the essay. You can imagine the passive sentences (see above) that might occur if you try to state your argument without using the word “I.” The key here is to use first person sparingly. Use personal pronouns enough to get your point across clearly without inundating your readers with this language.

Now, the above list is certainly not exhaustive. The best thing to do is to use your good judgment, and you can always check with your instructor if you are unsure of his or her perspective on the issue. Ultimately, if you feel that using first person has a purpose or will have a strategic effect on your audience, then it is probably fine to use first-person pronouns. Just be sure not to overuse this language, at the risk of sounding narcissistic, self-centered, or unaware of others’ opinions on a topic.

Recommended Readings:

• A Synthesis of Professor Perspectives on Using First and Third Person in Academic Writing
• Finding the Bunny: How to Make a Personal Connection to Your Writing
• First-Person Point of View

Brevity – Say More with Less

Clarity (in Speech and Writing)

Coherence – How to Achieve Coherence in Writing

Flow – How to Create Flow in Writing

Inclusivity – Inclusive Language

The Elements of Style – The DNA of Powerful Writing

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Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades

The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. These results are similar to where the pay gap stood in 2002, when women earned 80% as much as men.

As has long been the case, the wage gap is smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same age group – an 8-cent gap. By comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages that year was 18 cents.

While the gender pay gap has not changed much in the last two decades, it has narrowed considerably when looking at the longer term, both among all workers ages 16 and older and among those ages 25 to 34. The estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2022 was down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8-cent gap among workers ages 25 to 34 in 2022 was down from a 26-cent gap four decades earlier.

The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women who work full or part time in the United States. Pew Research Center’s estimate of the pay gap is based on an analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly outgoing rotation group files ( IPUMS ) from January 1982 to December 2022, combined to create annual files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, read our 2013 post, “How Pew Research Center measured the gender pay gap.”

The COVID-19 outbreak affected data collection efforts by the U.S. government in its surveys, especially in 2020 and 2021, limiting in-person data collection and affecting response rates. It is possible that some measures of economic outcomes and how they vary across demographic groups are affected by these changes in data collection.

In addition to findings about the gender wage gap, this analysis includes information from a Pew Research Center survey about the perceived reasons for the pay gap, as well as the pressures and career goals of U.S. men and women. The survey was conducted among 5,098 adults and includes a subset of questions asked only for 2,048 adults who are employed part time or full time, from Oct. 10-16, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

The  U.S. Census Bureau has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its analysis looks only at full-time workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2021, full-time, year-round working women earned 84% of what their male counterparts earned, on average, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis.

Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions.

Related: The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap

Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay.

Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy.

Perceived reasons for the gender wage gap

When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to women being treated differently by employers as a major reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%).

There are some notable differences between men and women in views of what’s behind the gender wage gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say a major factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family, men are slightly less likely to hold that view (40% say this).

Parents with children younger than 18 in the household are more likely than those who don’t have young kids at home (48% vs. 40%) to say a major reason for the pay gap is the choices that women make about how to balance family and work. On this question, differences by parental status are evident among both men and women.

Views about reasons for the gender wage gap also differ by party. About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (68%) say a major factor behind wage differences is that employers treat women differently, but far fewer Republicans and Republican leaners (30%) say the same. Conversely, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say women’s choices about how to balance family and work (50% vs. 36%) and their tendency to work in jobs that pay less (39% vs. 30%) are major reasons why women earn less than men.

Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts in the same party to say a major reason for the gender wage gap is that employers treat women differently. About three-quarters of Democratic women (76%) say this, compared with 59% of Democratic men. And while 43% of Republican women say unequal treatment by employers is a major reason for the gender wage gap, just 18% of GOP men share that view.

Pressures facing working women and men

Family caregiving responsibilities bring different pressures for working women and men, and research has shown that being a mother can reduce women’s earnings , while fatherhood can increase men’s earnings .

Employed women and men are about equally likely to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially and to be successful in their jobs and careers, according to the Center’s October survey. But women, and particularly working mothers, are more likely than men to say they feel a great deal of pressure to focus on responsibilities at home.

About half of employed women (48%) report feeling a great deal of pressure to focus on their responsibilities at home, compared with 35% of employed men. Among working mothers with children younger than 18 in the household, two-thirds (67%) say the same, compared with 45% of working dads.

When it comes to supporting their family financially, similar shares of working moms and dads (57% vs. 62%) report they feel a great deal of pressure, but this is driven mainly by the large share of unmarried working mothers who say they feel a great deal of pressure in this regard (77%). Among those who are married, working dads are far more likely than working moms (60% vs. 43%) to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially. (There were not enough unmarried working fathers in the sample to analyze separately.)

About four-in-ten working parents say they feel a great deal of pressure to be successful at their job or career. These findings don’t differ by gender.

Gender differences in job roles, aspirations

Overall, a quarter of employed U.S. adults say they are currently the boss or one of the top managers where they work, according to the Center’s survey. Another 33% say they are not currently the boss but would like to be in the future, while 41% are not and do not aspire to be the boss or one of the top managers.

Men are more likely than women to be a boss or a top manager where they work (28% vs. 21%). This is especially the case among employed fathers, 35% of whom say they are the boss or one of the top managers where they work. (The varying attitudes between fathers and men without children at least partly reflect differences in marital status and educational attainment between the two groups.)

In addition to being less likely than men to say they are currently the boss or a top manager at work, women are also more likely to say they wouldn’t want to be in this type of position in the future. More than four-in-ten employed women (46%) say this, compared with 37% of men. Similar shares of men (35%) and women (31%) say they are not currently the boss but would like to be one day. These patterns are similar among parents.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Anna Brown and former Pew Research Center writer/editor Amanda Barroso contributed to an earlier version of this analysis. Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

What is the gender wage gap in your metropolitan area? Find out with our pay gap calculator

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Gig workers are writing essays for AI to learn from

• Companies are hiring highly educated gig workers to write training content for AI models .
• The shift toward more sophisticated trainers comes as tech giants scramble for new data sources.
• AI could run out of data to learn from by 2026, one research institute has warned. 

As artificial intelligence models run out of data to train themselves on, AI companies are increasingly turning to actual humans to write training content.

For years, companies have used gig workers to help train AI models on simple tasks like photo identification , data annotation, and labelling. But the rapidly advancing technology now requires more advanced people to train it.

Companies such as Scale AI and Surge AI are hiring part-timers with graduate degrees to write essays and creative prompts for the bots to gobble up, The New York Times reported . Scale AI, for example, posted a job last year looking for people with Master's degrees or PhDs, who are fluent in either English, Hindi, or Japanese and have professional writing experience in fields like poetry, journalism, and publishing.

Related stories

Their mission? To help AI bots "become better writers," Scale AI wrote in the posting.

And an army of workers are needed to do this kind of work. Scale AI has as many as tens of thousands of contractors working on its platform at a time, per the Times.

"What really makes the A.I. useful to its users is the human layer of data, and that really needs to be done by smart humans and skilled humans and humans with a particular degree of expertise and a creative bent," Willow Primack, the vice president of data operations at Scale AI, told the New York Times. "We have been focusing on contractors, particularly within North America, as a result."

The shift toward more sophisticated gig trainers comes as tech giants scramble to find new data to train their technology on. That's because the programs learn so incredibly fast that they're already running out of available resources to learn from. The vast trove of online information — everything from scientific papers to news articles to Wikipedia pages — is drying up.

Epoch, an AI research institute, has warned that AI could run out of data by 2026.

So, companies are finding more and more creative ways to make sure their systems never stop learning. Google has considered accessing its customers' data in Google Docs , Sheets, and Slides while Meta even thought about buying publishing house Simon & Schuster to harvest its book collection, Business Insider previously reported.

Watch: Nearly 50,000 tech workers have been laid off — but there's a hack to avoid layoffs

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Live updates, who is the self-described ‘investigative researcher’ max azzarello who set self on fire outside trump trial after spewing conspiracy theories.

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The Florida man who lit himself on fire outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial was unfolding Friday is a self-described “investigative researcher” who appeared to become more erratic over the last year and spewed conspiracy theories about the “elites” in a lengthy manifesto.

Max Azzarello, 37, of St. Augustine, Fla., tossed a stack of pamphlets into the air, which included links to a Substack newsletter apparently authored by the self-immolator called “The Ponzi Papers” moments before he doused himself in gasoline and set himself ablaze in Collect Pond Park.

At the top of the site is an article with the headline “I have set myself on fire outside of the Trump Trial,” followed by a rambling manifesto riddled with conspiracy theories on everything from cryptocurrency and Hollywood actors to COVID and former President Bill Clinton.

“My name is Max Azzarello , and I am an investigative researcher who has set himself on fire outside of the Trump trial in Manhattan,” the nearly 2,700-word posting begins.

“This extreme act of protest is to draw attention to an urgent and important discovery: We are victims of a totalitarian con, and our own government (along with many of their allies) is about to hit us with an apocalyptic fascist world coup.”

He also mentioned The Simpsons, the bank failures in 2023 and high-profile businessmen including Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk . 

He claimed both Republicans and Democrats have bombarded the public with different existential crises to present a doomsday scenario.

Azzarello claimed “elites” have peddled fear in a bid to “gobble up all the wealth they could and then yank the rug out from under us so they could pivot to a hellish fascist dystopia.”

Police said he made the trip up to the Big Apple sometime earlier this week, and his family had been unaware he had traveled to the city.

He was pictured outside the Lower Manhattan courthouse at 100 Centre St. just on Thursday, holding up a sign that said “Trump is with Biden and they’re about to fascist coup us.”

“Biggest scoop of your life or your money back!” he shouted at a group of reporters gathered there,  telling The New York Times  he had come over from Washington Square Park because he thought more people would be outside the courthouse due to the cold.

“Trump’s in on it,”Azzarello told the Times on Thursday, saying his beliefs were influenced by his digging into Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and big political donor. 

“It’s a secret kleptocracy, and it can only lead to an apocalyptic fascist coup.”

A 2017 blog post by the nonprofit Strong Towns, which has since been taken offline, features Max Azzarello and announces him as their new growth manager.

In his blurb, Azzarello alludes to his “childhood town” as a “charming, friendly, eclectic community in Long Island, New York.”

The civic engagement-focused organization says Azzarello’s “passions” include “chess, creative writing, and Medieval Scandinavian poetry.”

Azzarello appeared to host a podcast with another person dedicated to actress Laura Dern called “Dern After Reading Podcast” dating back to early 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic engulfed the United States.

His LinkedIn profile picture shows him posing with Bill Clinton, whom he sued last year along with 100 other influential defendants in a conspiracy theory-tinged case that was tossed out last October when he failed to follow up with required court filings.

Other defendants named in the 2023 suit in Manhattan federal court included Mark Cuban , Richard Branson, the country of Saudi Arabia, and Texas billionaire and 1992 Independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, who died in 2019. 

The meandering case — filed by Azzarello, without a lawyer — alleged “an elaborate network of Ponzi schemes” dating back to the 1990s and continuing through 2023.

At an NYPD press conference held shortly after Azzarello was stretchered into an ambulance, Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny called the incident “propaganda”-based. 

“We’re looking through his social media and what he did online prior and it does appear he posted something online prior to this incident,” Kenny said.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Kaz Daughtry added: “This wasn’t targeting any particular person, right now we’re labeling it as a conspiracy theorist, the investigation will continue.” 

Additional reporting by Priscilla DeGregory, Jennie Taer and David Propper

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NPR defends its journalism after senior editor says it has lost the public's trust

David Folkenflik

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

NPR is defending its journalism and integrity after a senior editor wrote an essay accusing it of losing the public's trust.

NPR's top news executive defended its journalism and its commitment to reflecting a diverse array of views on Tuesday after a senior NPR editor wrote a broad critique of how the network has covered some of the most important stories of the age.

"An open-minded spirit no longer exists within NPR, and now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America," writes Uri Berliner.

A strategic emphasis on diversity and inclusion on the basis of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation, promoted by NPR's former CEO, John Lansing, has fed "the absence of viewpoint diversity," Berliner writes.

NPR's chief news executive, Edith Chapin, wrote in a memo to staff Tuesday afternoon that she and the news leadership team strongly reject Berliner's assessment.

"We're proud to stand behind the exceptional work that our desks and shows do to cover a wide range of challenging stories," she wrote. "We believe that inclusion — among our staff, with our sourcing, and in our overall coverage — is critical to telling the nuanced stories of this country and our world."

NPR names tech executive Katherine Maher to lead in turbulent era

She added, "None of our work is above scrutiny or critique. We must have vigorous discussions in the newsroom about how we serve the public as a whole."

A spokesperson for NPR said Chapin, who also serves as the network's chief content officer, would have no further comment.

Praised by NPR's critics

Berliner is a senior editor on NPR's Business Desk. (Disclosure: I, too, am part of the Business Desk, and Berliner has edited many of my past stories. He did not see any version of this article or participate in its preparation before it was posted publicly.)

Berliner's essay , titled "I've Been at NPR for 25 years. Here's How We Lost America's Trust," was published by The Free Press, a website that has welcomed journalists who have concluded that mainstream news outlets have become reflexively liberal.

Berliner writes that as a Subaru-driving, Sarah Lawrence College graduate who "was raised by a lesbian peace activist mother ," he fits the mold of a loyal NPR fan.

Yet Berliner says NPR's news coverage has fallen short on some of the most controversial stories of recent years, from the question of whether former President Donald Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 election, to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19, to the significance and provenance of emails leaked from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden weeks before the 2020 election. In addition, he blasted NPR's coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict.

On each of these stories, Berliner asserts, NPR has suffered from groupthink due to too little diversity of viewpoints in the newsroom.

The essay ricocheted Tuesday around conservative media , with some labeling Berliner a whistleblower . Others picked it up on social media, including Elon Musk, who has lambasted NPR for leaving his social media site, X. (Musk emailed another NPR reporter a link to Berliner's article with a gibe that the reporter was a "quisling" — a World War II reference to someone who collaborates with the enemy.)

When asked for further comment late Tuesday, Berliner declined, saying the essay spoke for itself.

The arguments he raises — and counters — have percolated across U.S. newsrooms in recent years. The #MeToo sexual harassment scandals of 2016 and 2017 forced newsrooms to listen to and heed more junior colleagues. The social justice movement prompted by the killing of George Floyd in 2020 inspired a reckoning in many places. Newsroom leaders often appeared to stand on shaky ground.

Leaders at many newsrooms, including top editors at The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times , lost their jobs. Legendary Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron wrote in his memoir that he feared his bonds with the staff were "frayed beyond repair," especially over the degree of self-expression his journalists expected to exert on social media, before he decided to step down in early 2021.

Since then, Baron and others — including leaders of some of these newsrooms — have suggested that the pendulum has swung too far.

Author Interviews

Legendary editor marty baron describes his 'collision of power' with trump and bezos.

New York Times publisher A.G. Sulzberger warned last year against journalists embracing a stance of what he calls "one-side-ism": "where journalists are demonstrating that they're on the side of the righteous."

"I really think that that can create blind spots and echo chambers," he said.

Internal arguments at The Times over the strength of its reporting on accusations that Hamas engaged in sexual assaults as part of a strategy for its Oct. 7 attack on Israel erupted publicly . The paper conducted an investigation to determine the source of a leak over a planned episode of the paper's podcast The Daily on the subject, which months later has not been released. The newsroom guild accused the paper of "targeted interrogation" of journalists of Middle Eastern descent.

Heated pushback in NPR's newsroom

Given Berliner's account of private conversations, several NPR journalists question whether they can now trust him with unguarded assessments about stories in real time. Others express frustration that he had not sought out comment in advance of publication. Berliner acknowledged to me that for this story, he did not seek NPR's approval to publish the piece, nor did he give the network advance notice.

Some of Berliner's NPR colleagues are responding heatedly. Fernando Alfonso, a senior supervising editor for digital news, wrote that he wholeheartedly rejected Berliner's critique of the coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict, for which NPR's journalists, like their peers, periodically put themselves at risk.

Alfonso also took issue with Berliner's concern over the focus on diversity at NPR.

"As a person of color who has often worked in newsrooms with little to no people who look like me, the efforts NPR has made to diversify its workforce and its sources are unique and appropriate given the news industry's long-standing lack of diversity," Alfonso says. "These efforts should be celebrated and not denigrated as Uri has done."

After this story was first published, Berliner contested Alfonso's characterization, saying his criticism of NPR is about the lack of diversity of viewpoints, not its diversity itself.

"I never criticized NPR's priority of achieving a more diverse workforce in terms of race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I have not 'denigrated' NPR's newsroom diversity goals," Berliner said. "That's wrong."

Questions of diversity

Under former CEO John Lansing, NPR made increasing diversity, both of its staff and its audience, its "North Star" mission. Berliner says in the essay that NPR failed to consider broader diversity of viewpoint, noting, "In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans."

Berliner cited audience estimates that suggested a concurrent falloff in listening by Republicans. (The number of people listening to NPR broadcasts and terrestrial radio broadly has declined since the start of the pandemic.)

Former NPR vice president for news and ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin tweeted , "I know Uri. He's not wrong."

Others questioned Berliner's logic. "This probably gets causality somewhat backward," tweeted Semafor Washington editor Jordan Weissmann . "I'd guess that a lot of NPR listeners who voted for [Mitt] Romney have changed how they identify politically."

Similarly, Nieman Lab founder Joshua Benton suggested the rise of Trump alienated many NPR-appreciating Republicans from the GOP.

In recent years, NPR has greatly enhanced the percentage of people of color in its workforce and its executive ranks. Four out of 10 staffers are people of color; nearly half of NPR's leadership team identifies as Black, Asian or Latino.

"The philosophy is: Do you want to serve all of America and make sure it sounds like all of America, or not?" Lansing, who stepped down last month, says in response to Berliner's piece. "I'd welcome the argument against that."

"On radio, we were really lagging in our representation of an audience that makes us look like what America looks like today," Lansing says. The U.S. looks and sounds a lot different than it did in 1971, when NPR's first show was broadcast, Lansing says.

A network spokesperson says new NPR CEO Katherine Maher supports Chapin and her response to Berliner's critique.

The spokesperson says that Maher "believes that it's a healthy thing for a public service newsroom to engage in rigorous consideration of the needs of our audiences, including where we serve our mission well and where we can serve it better."

Disclosure: This story was reported and written by NPR Media Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Gerry Holmes. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no NPR corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

AI Index Report

Welcome to the seventh edition of the AI Index report. The 2024 Index is our most comprehensive to date and arrives at an important moment when AI’s influence on society has never been more pronounced. This year, we have broadened our scope to more extensively cover essential trends such as technical advancements in AI, public perceptions of the technology, and the geopolitical dynamics surrounding its development. Featuring more original data than ever before, this edition introduces new estimates on AI training costs, detailed analyses of the responsible AI landscape, and an entirely new chapter dedicated to AI’s impact on science and medicine.

Read the 2024 AI Index Report

The AI Index report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence (AI). Our mission is to provide unbiased, rigorously vetted, broadly sourced data in order for policymakers, researchers, executives, journalists, and the general public to develop a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the complex field of AI.

The AI Index is recognized globally as one of the most credible and authoritative sources for data and insights on artificial intelligence. Previous editions have been cited in major newspapers, including the The New York Times, Bloomberg, and The Guardian, have amassed hundreds of academic citations, and been referenced by high-level policymakers in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the European Union, among other places. This year’s edition surpasses all previous ones in size, scale, and scope, reflecting the growing significance that AI is coming to hold in all of our lives.

Steering Committee Co-Directors

Ray Perrault

Steering committee members.

Erik Brynjolfsson

John Etchemendy

Katrina Ligett

Terah Lyons

James Manyika

Juan Carlos Niebles

Vanessa Parli

Yoav Shoham

Russell Wald

Staff members.

Loredana Fattorini

Nestor Maslej

Letter from the co-directors.

A decade ago, the best AI systems in the world were unable to classify objects in images at a human level. AI struggled with language comprehension and could not solve math problems. Today, AI systems routinely exceed human performance on standard benchmarks.

Progress accelerated in 2023. New state-of-the-art systems like GPT-4, Gemini, and Claude 3 are impressively multimodal: They can generate fluent text in dozens of languages, process audio, and even explain memes. As AI has improved, it has increasingly forced its way into our lives. Companies are racing to build AI-based products, and AI is increasingly being used by the general public. But current AI technology still has significant problems. It cannot reliably deal with facts, perform complex reasoning, or explain its conclusions.

AI faces two interrelated futures. First, technology continues to improve and is increasingly used, having major consequences for productivity and employment. It can be put to both good and bad uses. In the second future, the adoption of AI is constrained by the limitations of the technology. Regardless of which future unfolds, governments are increasingly concerned. They are stepping in to encourage the upside, such as funding university R&D and incentivizing private investment. Governments are also aiming to manage the potential downsides, such as impacts on employment, privacy concerns, misinformation, and intellectual property rights.

As AI rapidly evolves, the AI Index aims to help the AI community, policymakers, business leaders, journalists, and the general public navigate this complex landscape. It provides ongoing, objective snapshots tracking several key areas: technical progress in AI capabilities, the community and investments driving AI development and deployment, public opinion on current and potential future impacts, and policy measures taken to stimulate AI innovation while managing its risks and challenges. By comprehensively monitoring the AI ecosystem, the Index serves as an important resource for understanding this transformative technological force.

On the technical front, this year’s AI Index reports that the number of new large language models released worldwide in 2023 doubled over the previous year. Two-thirds were open-source, but the highest-performing models came from industry players with closed systems. Gemini Ultra became the first LLM to reach human-level performance on the Massive Multitask Language Understanding (MMLU) benchmark; performance on the benchmark has improved by 15 percentage points since last year. Additionally, GPT-4 achieved an impressive 0.97 mean win rate score on the comprehensive Holistic Evaluation of Language Models (HELM) benchmark, which includes MMLU among other evaluations.

Although global private investment in AI decreased for the second consecutive year, investment in generative AI skyrocketed. More Fortune 500 earnings calls mentioned AI than ever before, and new studies show that AI tangibly boosts worker productivity. On the policymaking front, global mentions of AI in legislative proceedings have never been higher. U.S. regulators passed more AI-related regulations in 2023 than ever before. Still, many expressed concerns about AI’s ability to generate deepfakes and impact elections. The public became more aware of AI, and studies suggest that they responded with nervousness.

Ray Perrault Co-director, AI Index

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