The Big Question: First or Third

[Ander]

The people above have made fair points about either writing mode, but a weakness I find fairly irritating about first person is that it limits your use of language. You have to constantly speak using words, mannerisms, and emotions that the narrator uses and feels. And, while it can be used as a positive, I often find that first person narrative tends to color the perspective and opinion of everything, which forces you to accept things from a myopic point of view. If you happen to agree with the narrator, this is fine. If you can't relate to it at all, you'll turn off your audience. Using the Twilight example once more, if you're not a naive tween/teen girl or sexually repressed adult woman, you absolutely do not give a crap what Bella has to say because she's a masochistic moron. I cannot fathom for the life of me why the series has a male audience unless they're imagining themselves as Edward or Jacob. With third person, you can make up your own mind.