Yesterday I wrote a tweet about 2nd person POV. For some reason, I had been thinking about it. I've watched a few authortube videos about POVs, and they all skip over 2nd person. Wondering if it was just a big no-no to use that POV, I posed the question to the writing community on Twitter. And I got more than double the engagement I get on a good day. For reference, the tweet was as follows:
"Has anyone written anything in second person before? Or read a book written in it? Besides that Choose Your Own Adventure books, I haven't read any."
(Sidenote: I only just realized I made a typo in my tweet...)
Two books were mentioned more than once. The first being "The Fifth Season" by N.K. Jemisin, which I was gifted at Christmas last year and haven't gotten around to reading yet. The second was "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern, which I borrowed from the library and loved so much, I bought myself a copy. I guess I have some reading for research ahead of me. Well, maybe I was just looking for an excuse to read them ahead of the other books on the TBR list.
This POV is very strange. You have to make assumptions about the reader. I did a little experiment and wrote a few lines in 2nd person, and it was a bit of a struggle. Assumptions have to be made about the reader. Writing a romance probably wouldn't work because I wouldn't know the gender or sexual orientation of the reader. I wouldn't know the age or race or background of them either. Maybe that's just my inexperience showing.
Most of the examples I was given in response to my tweet said only part of the book was written in 2nd person. It might be a fun experiment to write more in this strange POV within something I'm writing, or even to do a short story. I probably wouldn't share that piece with anyone, but I believe that everything you write making you stronger.
So what are your thoughts? Have you ever read anything written in 2nd person? Have you ever written anything? Let me know!
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