Today, we are learning about 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person, obviously.
Second person is probably the one you see the least. It is when the narrator uses "you" etc. Pretty much the only books I have read using 2nd person are the Choose Your Own Adventure books. I've read very few of them. I remember my grandparents had one (I can't remember which one it was; maybe The Forbidden Castle?) and I didn't like it very much. I always died in different, horrible ways. Anyways, in Choose Your Own Adventure books, they always say something like: If you decide to go with the hunter, go to page 37. If you decide to continue on your own, turn to page 80. This is second person.
There are two to three-ish types of third person: third person limited, third person omniscient, and third person multiple viewpoint. Let's start with third person limited.
Third person limited is where an outside narrator tells the story, but only knows the thoughts of one character. This is very hard to find. It's kind of like first person, because the narrator only tells you one character's thoughts (so, if the character jumps to a conclusion about someone they are talking to, you don't know whether or not the conclusion is true), but it uses "he/she" instead of "I."
Third person omniscient is where an outside narrator tells the story, but knows, and shares, at his/her discretion, the thoughts of all the characters. Using the earlier example, in this case, the narrator might tell you the conclusion the character jumped to, and then what the actual conclusion is. This is also pretty hard to find.Third person multiple viewpoint is where an outside narrator tells the story, and uses different viewpoints (who's thoughts we are hearing), at different times. This is most common among third person. Examples of this would be: The Harry Potter series, The Lunar Chronicles, and many more. Also, you could make an argument that third person multiple viewpoint is a subset of third person omniscient.
Okay, this all sounds really complicated, but here's how you can remember the differences between the main three: 1st person uses I, which looks like a 1, 2nd uses you, and 3rd uses he/she.
The differences between the 3rd person ones are:
Limited has two ones in it,
Meaning the thoughts shared with you are from one head.
Omniscient is efficient,
And knows all things, at all times, like a god.
Multiple Viewpoint uses two or more sets of eyes
Meaning you know the thoughts of many characters, but at different times.
I hope you enjoy putting this in your mental library!
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