Great stories written in the 2nd person POV

Secrets to writing great stories in the 2^nd person Point of View (POV)

You want to write a story that is different, that is edgy, and that is the only reason you want to write in the 2^nd person POV? Yeah, don’t read the rest of this blog.

If you need to write a story in the 2^nd person POV, if you need the reader to experience the story as the protagonist, then you need to read this blog. Read on, there are some secrets to writing great stories in the 2^nd person POV.

First, let’s look at what 2^nd person POV is. Then, let’s look at whether you should write your story in the 2^nd person POV? Finally, let’s look at the Fictionary secrets on how to write great stories in the 2^nd person POV.

Who is the protagonist? Who is the narrator?

There are many characters in a story, the protagonist is the main character whose life the reader follows. But also, there is always someone telling the story: the narrator.

The protagonist lives the story; the narrator tells the story.

What is Point of View (POV)?

When you—as the author—choose a Point of View, as Kristina Stanley explains, you are making a promise to your reader. When you write the Point of View from the 2^nd person, the promise to the reader is that they are the protagonist.

Kristina Stanley explains about POV and what it is in a story.

How to write the story well in the 2^nd person POV?

There are three levels to writing a story, no matter the POV: the Macro, the Midi, and the Micro.

Let’s look at the three levels of structure:

Macro—Is the story idea improved by using a 2^nd person POV?

Midi—Scene level, it is a truth universally acknowledged: – authors love to boss around their protagonist. Which is a major issue in the 2^nd person POV, as the reader is the protagonist.

Micro—In the 2^nd person POV, the author needs to be at the top of their sentence variety structure game. Otherwise, reading sentence after sentence in the 2^nd person POV feels like a life sentence.

You want 2^nd person POV but does the story need a 2^nd person POV?

You want the reader to be the protagonist, great stuff.

Why?

Macro Story Level: reasons for using a 2^nd person POV

Before we take pointers, let’s look at some reasons—and great reads—that use 2^nd person POV. Here are a few story ideas:

• Doctor speaking to someone with memory loss
• Teacher meeting a new student
• Narrator is the voice in your head
• Substance abuse—Jay McInerney: Bright Lights, Big City
• Dissociative disorder—Jennifer Egan: Black Box
• Computer giving orders, AI gone mad, the protagonist must survive in a terrifying new world order
• Boss and their PA, the power imbalance can be explored, uncovered
• Induction at a new job, an old hand explaining their old job to the new protagonist

As you can see, there are umpteen reasons to write in the 2^nd person POV, disorientation is a common theme, as is being in a new situation, but there are many reasons to write in the 2^nd person POV. You just must make sure your reason is rock solid, relevant.

Midi Story Level: editing at the scene level

In the 2^nd person POV, it is far too easy to write each scene where the protagonist does exactly what the plot needs them to do—without convincing the reader that this is the next logical step. The reader will put the book down because they don’t believe in the plot. Remember, the reader is the protagonist.

Fictionary helps with this belief.

Kristina Stanley talks about how external goals link to POV character goals. By focussing on external and character goals, the reader carries on reading, carries on believing they are the protagonist.

Micro Story Level: word order at the sentence level

2^nd person POV is unforgiving. Sloppy sentences standout, and the reader stumbles over them.

Why is that? Invoking the imperative

Another issue with the 2^nd person POV is that the grammar sounds controlling. This is called the imperative, and when you add you to an imperative then this adds emphasis.

When the reader reads your sentences, and they all start with a “you” pronoun, followed by a verb, they can feel bossed about:

You + Verb = Possible command

And the reader squirms under all this being ordered about—sentence after sentence.

Readers read for enjoyment, and is being ordered about enjoyable? This is the top issue with writing in the 2^nd person POV.

Look at how these extracts work:

Example 1 You walk into the candlelit room, and you see three glass goblets on the table. You wonder who else is here? You stagger as the room shakes, the liquid in glasses moves funnily. The red liquid looks too thick to be wine, but you cannot be sure. Your hope is that it’s tomato juice. You are vegan, after all. You feel fearful. ————————————- Filtering: “you wonder”, “you feel”, the reader’s kept at a distance Predominant sentence structure: pronoun (You) + Verb = dull repetition Telling emotion: “fearful” No internal voice: John Gardner’s Psychic Distance.

Example 2 The room is lit with too few candles, and the table has one too many glass goblets on it. Who’s the third glass for? The room shakes; the table shakes; the glasses shake; you shake. Being a vegan most of your adult life, this red liquid sloshing about doesn’t look like red wine or tomato juice. What are you about to drink? ————————————- No filtering: the reader is in the thick of the action Variety of sentence structures Showing emotion: 3rd sentence, repetition of “shakes” Internal voice: asking questions, having opinions

Simple to write

The 2^nd person POV is very simple to write. All you need is:

• stellar story ideas
• stellar editing software
• stellar sentence writing skills

Stellar story ideas are sorted, you have oodles of them. The protagonist must be the reader, that rawness is important to your art. With Fictionary as one of your writing tools, you are not only looking at your POV at a scene level but also with over 38 other editing questions, you’ll edit your story to super star status. And at the sentence level, there are loads of books out there. Barbara Baig’s Spellbinding Sentences is great, also there’s the phenomenal Virginia Tufte’s Artful Sentences: Syntax as Style.

Now you can write great stories in the 2^nd person.

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