Most romances are written in third person, alternating between the point of view of one person who falls in love and the other person who falls in love. (I’ve never read polyamorous romance and I imagine you usually get three or more points of view in those, although I can’t say for sure.) Mind you, flipping back and forth between one POV and the other frequently within a scene, or “head-hopping,” is frowned upon.
Occasionally in romance you might also have a couple of scenes in the POV of a villain, or a best friend who’s going to star in the next book in the series, or someone like that.
If I were a sensible author, I’d just think, “Okay, writing in third person is how it’s usually done in romance, so that’s how I’ll always do it.”
[AdSense-B]
But, no.
I wrote The Phoenix Codex in first person, and then later saw the error of my ways and rewrote the whole thing in third person. This meant that in the editing phase, I kept on finding misplaced I’s and my’s and our’s everywhere.
I wrote it in first person because I thought the heroine was kind of hilarious. The truth is, though, you can get most of that humor in third person as long as you’re in deep point of view and getting into the character’s internal monologue.
Here’s why I switched, and why I think writing in third person is the best choice for most romances. However, every book is different!
1. It’s easier for the reader to fall in love with both characters this way.
For my novella Wicked Garden, more than one beta reader noted where they really fell for the hero. It wasn’t in her point of view, when she initially meets him and she thinks he’s all handsome and charming and has it all together. It was in his point of view, when they realize that he has a big crush on her and that he’s struggled with a mental health issue.
It’s easier to make a connection with a character when you’re inside their head. And in The Phoenix Codex, my hero, Jonathan West, is scary and intimidating in the opening scene. By getting into his head in chapter two, I could show that he’s a good man who’s trying to do a hard job while dealing with grief.
2. You can achieve dramatic irony, which is delicious.
It’s really fun (and sometimes enjoyably maddening) for a reader to know things that the character doesn’t. To use a classic example from the genre, let’s say the heroine thinks the hero is cold, distant, even contemptuous. But in fact, since we were just in his head in the last chapter, we know that he’s obsessed with her and trying to fight his urges for some noble reason or other, so he’s just trying to keep her at arm’s length.
This is one of those things that keeps us reading. We want to get to the part where the character learns what we already know.
It’s possible for the reader to know more than the main character in a novel that’s in first person, but your readers may feel that she’s unobservant or naïve for not figuring things out. Then again, you might be able to create a truly lovable unobservant or naïve character.
3. You can make the reader feel adored.
One thing a lot of women readers love in M/F romance is the fantasy of the hero being absolutely crazy about the heroine.
People don’t say every single thing that they are thinking and feeling, and one might make the case that men are less socially conditioned to put their feelings into words (although of course it varies from person to person.) If you’re in the hero’s point of view, you have more chances to show how much he admires, wants, and adores the heroine, which can make the reader swoon.
Although I’m talking mostly about M/F romance for this point, I’m sure this principle carries over to other types of romance as well!
4. More people dislike first person than dislike third person.
I haven’t done a scientific study, but I’ve been involved in several conversations about this as a writer and a reader. Because people are so accustomed to third person, it has very few detractors.
All this being said, a first person point of view might be the right choice for your book. Even if you are writing in first person, this might help you think about things you need to get across in creative ways because of your choice. You may need to make your non-POV leading man or woman to be a real communicator, or you may need to take extra care to set up events that reveal his or her character.
How do you feel about first person versus third person? Are you writing a story in one or the other now? I’d love to hear about it in the comments! Thanks for reading, and happy writing!
Why didn’t you write this three years ago lol?? I just finished a SEVEN BOOK serial love story written in the first person!!! And I went through everything you talked about! It got so bad I would, like, gush when I read other ppl’s writing and it wasn’t 3PPOV. It was so hard.
I actually wrote my next book simply as an exercise to get into the third person, which turned out to be great, though, so maybe there was a point :o)
Tani — seven books! Well believe me, I wish I’d figured it out sooner, too. 🙂 But hey, it sounds like something great came out of it!
I agree with most of what you say here, Bryn. I don’t write romances per se, but my Little Mermaid retelling is a love story, and I wrote in third person for a lot of the reasons you mention. Neri knows things Edmund doesn’t and the dual POVs allow me to show that. I get to show Neri’s outsider view of humanity in one chapter, & Edmund’s self-deprecating humor in the next. Because I like a deep 3rd, you get many of the advantages of a first person narrator while still being flexible when I need that.
In my current WIP, a non-romance, YA fantasy, I stick with 1st person present tense. (Yeah, I know, some people hate it. Most of those people aren’t 16YO girls.) There’s an immediacy & intimacy in it that feels right for this story. Plus I get to have a lot of fun with voice, which is one of the true joys of writing YA.
Excellent point about what YA readers need.
Hi, Kimberly! Oh, yeah, for YA, first person is so popular! Somehow it really does seem to make sense with that genre.
I agree Kimberly. I started my YA in third person because I wanted to give the perspective of three different characters but it just didn’t feel right. I switched to first person and my “chapters” are titled with one of the three different characters’ names. It really opened up the story for me in ways third person wasn’t.
Wow, thanks for the tips! This has been very helpful, and I loan to use it next time I write romance.
Hi, Izzy! So glad it was helpful. Thank you for reading!
Love this post b/c it hits so close to home. I absolutely detest first person. I always write in third person and rarely, if ever read a book in first person. Not saying that I haven’t, but the author has to be someone like Linda Howard or Karen Marie Moning who are established authors, and know what they’re doing for me to do so. Even then, I have a difficult time enjoying that tense. As a judge of writing contests, I often find most “newbies” for some reason, want to start out writing in first person. My advice: Don’t do it! If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s one of the most difficult tenses to get right. There’s nothing more annoying than trying to judge an entry with tenses jumping all over the page, much worse than “head hopping”. I just judged entries in the short, short, adult fiction for the OWFI Writer’s Contest in Oklahoma this past year and about 80% of the entries were written in first person POV–new authors, terrible entries. So thank you very much for this post. You’re right on!
Connie, that is so interesting. I had no idea that was such a common choice for newer writers! I wonder why that is? It’s really great for the readers of this blog to know… thank you so much for commenting!
I always write my romances in deep 3PPOV for all of the reasons you’ve mentioned, but for me there’s one more. It helps me to understand my characters better, so I can create deeper, more realistic conflict between them. Of course, with that said, it also challenges me to come up with creative and logical ways to resolve the problem(s). So, in a nutshell, I’d say writing this way helps me become a better writer, and isn’t that what we all want to be?
Hi, Robin! Ah, that is a really good point about getting to know the characters better!
Good points, Bryn. I read and write most of my fiction in a third person, past tense point of view. I like how third person feels observable. First person is like witnessing testimony, when I’d rather just go along for the ride, but I’ll read a first person, present tense story if I’m immediately drawn to the characters. My romances include M/F, M/M, M/A, and a dedicated threesome. I’ll also read femslash, but haven’t published any.
I tend to read pairings. I fall in love with one character and then their love interest because I *feel* how they love the other person, too. Sometimes a single POV works for me. I prefer it if both lovers’ views are included, so I feel a connection to both and care about the outcome. It also helps when writing about miscommunication: The characters can be in the dark, but, in most cases, the reader shouldn’t be.
Adding a villain’s or secondary character’s view can be interesting. When I get ideas from different characters, I ask myself if I can rewrite the scene from the protagonist’s point of view, or if giving another character in-depth development would be a rewarding read.
DAFan, I love it that you know where your inspiration comes from… “feeling” how they love the other person. And I LOVE the principle you boldfaced… that’s exactly right, in my opinion. If you keep information from the reader, you need to have a very good reason! Thank you for commenting!
This post has me suddenly questioning everything I’ve ever written. I did a search and found that a dislike of first-person is really common, and not just for the romance genre. I almost always write in first-person, and lately it’s often first-person present tense, which I’ve heard is even more unpopular. Now I’m wondering if I need to completely re-write the current book I’m working on. It’s a mystery story, so for me, first person seemed to make the most sense. I don’t actually like third-person mysteries because, as a reader, I like to try to solve the mystery myself, and I don’t like having more information than the protagonist has. I especially hate seeing the murderer’s POV, particularly when it’s the first chapter of the story. As for the present-tense choice, again, it seems the most natural. My stories are dialogue-heavy, and dialogue is present tense, so it just makes sense to me that the narration would mirror this. I also like how, with present tense, it’s easy to separate flashbacks and other references to past events from the current plot. Anyway, I see that people really hate it, but I’m wondering just how many readers who aren’t also writers have a problem with it. My theory is that general readers don’t really think too much about narration as long as it’s consistent and not confusing. At least, I want to hope this is true. If I decide I have to, I can change my story to be past tense, but I don’t think I want to make it third person.
Hi, Ryan! Man, I would not doubt your instincts, if I were you… So much of those classic detective/hard-boiled mysteries were in the first person, like James Cain, Raymond Chandler, and Dashiell Hammett’s The Thin Man. I think Walter Mosley’s Devil in a Blue Dress was first person, too? And of course most of the Sherlock Holmes stories are in first person! I’m no expert on mystery, but it seems like a solid choice for the genre… probably for some of the reasons you’ve just said!
The present tense is probably the riskier choice. The only two books I’ve read in the past decade in the present tense were The Hunger Games and Fifty Shades of Grey (I confess I didn’t finish the latter.) But who knows… maybe it’s right for the story. You are probably right that writers have stronger feelings about 1st person/3rd person and past tense/present tense than other readers, in general!
I definitely prefer third person pov both when writing and reading. I’ll read first person, but often somewhat reluctantly. Third person can offer you a lot more in a sense, especially if you flip between a couple of protagonists while first person is so much more limited.
It feels to me as if more YA are written in first person. Also contemporary romance is more so than historical.
The most confusing be I’ve read lately was a contemporary written in first person, but from bot the H and h. Each chapter named the character, but it was the first time I’ve encountered it and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I suspect that I will always be a third person reader/writer at heart.
Hi, Emily! Yeah, I’ve seen alternating first person like that before… I don’t think I’ve read it enough to even know if I like it or not, haha. I think I am really a third person writer, too. Thank you for reading and for posting!
From the comments, it appears many agree with you about disliking first person. Personally, I don’t mind it if it’s done correctly. I don’t consciously ever choose first or third person (or any other POV). It just seems to happen automatically depending on the story. I would agree there are challenges for each POV choice, and with first person it is remembering to omit anything the POV character wouldn’t know (and keeping words like my/I straight), but I’m perfectly comfortable writing and reading it when appropriate. As you noted with Ryan, his instincts are to write first POV and to conceal details in a mystery that could be very effective. Just think of the movie The Sixth Sense. If that had been third person the story would never have worked nearly as well. In romance, it does sometimes frustrate the readers, not knowing for sure if the other person feels the same or not as the POV character, but it can also heighten the tension as they work to a resolution.
I’ve written in both tenses. My first mystery/romance novel was in 1st person. I had two distinct cases going on with two main characters/protagonists. Their cases, of course, eventually crossed. I did my best not to head hop and to make it clear, scene to scene, who’s head we were in. Only one reader said a word about the book being 1st person. She despised it and claimed she’d never read any other mystery that was not written in 3rd person, past tense.
I read in both on a regular basis, but I find that I am more comfortable writing in 3rd person. This has actually been an issue for me with my manuscript. I originally intended to write “Batter Days” in first person. I was getting nowhere. So I decided to write it in 3rd person. I’m about a third of the way through and have realized that my first instinct was the right one. My protagonists voice gets too lost in third person. So guess what I’ll be doing when the rough draft is over?
For my trilogy, which has elements of romance in it, I have written it in 3rd person. The first one has the pov of the main female and main male character. The 2nd one has the pov of those 2, plus the female character’s mentor. It will remain that way for the 3rd book. But for my Roman era romance, it is in 1st person. That is because there is a language barrier between the female and male. It will all be from the female’s POV. They manage to fall very deeply in love despite being unable to communicate. P.S. my hubby loves that story. He loves that it’s in 1st person as well. He really likes my trilogy, which he helped a lot with, but he finds my roman romance very spiritual.
I’m so glad you posted this. I’ve been struggling with a storyline that I couldn’t decide whether to have it in heroine first-person to keep something secret about the hero until the end, or to have the reader in on the big secret, wondering how the heroine will react when she finds out. Third it is! I’ve read a couple of first-person YA romances that worked really well, but the author had a lot of skill at still showing enough of the hero’s personality without being in his head. FWIW, I had no problem falling for your hero in the 1st person draft. He’s damn hot! 🙂
I love reading third person and only recently am getting into first person. I used to write in third person, then I changed to first person I can’t say why! I actually enjoy writing in first person it is much trickier because there are no other characters perspectives to use (I don’t enjoy head jumping) but I have noticed I have become a better write for it! This has given me a new perspective one of my storylines which involves a romance! Thanks for this article!
I, like you, have written my entire story in first person before realizing that it really needs to be in thrid person. I sent off my work with stars in my eyes and soon learned that my book needs a lot of work. I was waffling back and forth on whether or not to change the POV, but this article has made up my mind. (That, and some encouraging words from an editor.) Thank you for your articles. They help more than you will ever know.
Hmmm, interesting ideas here. I really enjoy writing in the 1st person point of view. My first romantic suspense book, Twin Desires, was written in 3rd POV, and I liked doing that. But my second romantic suspense novel, The Right Wrong Man, is written in 1st and was SO MUCH FUN. So now, I’m writing my 3rd romantic suspense, going back and forth in chapters between the two main characters. And I’m trying something really different. With the female’s character, I use 3rd person POV in those chapters. With the male’s character, I use 1st person POV in his chapters. So far, beta readers like it. I’m holding my breath to see how it turns out. Wish me luck!
I was thinking about your concept of alternating between 1st and 3rd person, and it sounds pretty interesting. Without having read your story, I can imagine a potential consequence, though. Since 1st person is usually a closer narration, it might seem as though your 1st person narrator is actually narrating the whole story. Like it could somehow weaken the female character’s POV so that it ‘s really mostly the male’s story. A close 3rd person can feel like a tight narration, but when you have that contrast of a 1st person internally, I imagine the 3rd person would have to seem a little more distant by comparison. Out of curiosity, how did you go about choosing which character got the 1st person POV?
I began the book in the female’s 3rd person POV – I knew I needed her to be a special education teacher, and divorced with a child. She helped me move along some chapters, and then ‘he’ arrived. Now his 1st person POV comes after each of her chapters, so we see things from his perspective, after reading hers (Bea cringed when Travis followed the boy in the wheelchair), for instance. So far Beta readers haven’t noted a disconnect, but I’ll definitely look out for that. THANK YOU.
Hi Bryn and everyone!! I’m chiming in a little late here, but I found this article while skimming around as I was looking for something completely different. It made me stop and think because I came up with the story I’m currently working on when I was 19, and it started out as a 1st person narrative. Now, after twenty years of life experience (and seven years working as a librarian at an all-girls’ high school), I’ve grown weary of 1st person (and, sadly, so much YA fiction). I find it harder and harder to get into that POV. My own novel has, in the course of its incubation, also changed to 3rd person, and I’m having so much fun writing it – so I find it interesting that my POV preference has changed with age. I like (as DAfan7711 stated) that it’s possible to keep the characters in the dark without having to keep the reader in the dark, which can heighten tension and make the reader want to keep reading to see how things turn out. An exception to my general dislike of 1st PPOV is the novel “The Time Traveller’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger; the novel is written in alternating 1st PPOV, and I absolutely loved it – but I like the idea of time travel, and the romance in the book was compelling. So even though I prefer 3rd person, I will read 1st if the idea grabs me. Tense, however, is another matter altogether; I apologise to anyone who uses present tense in their writing, but it’s a deal-breaker for me. Is it some kind of psychological conditioning that causes me to eschew present tense? I don’t know, but there’s never been a story in present tense that I’ve truly loved – I just find it too jarring and unnatural to read. I’m all for writers using the POV and tense that best conveys their story, however, so again, I mean no offense and make no judgement of the worth of any story with my admission. Just adding my general musings to the chat. (Thank you for these awesome resources, Bryn!! I adore your blog and your books!!)
This is so interesting, I always write in 3rd person, good to have some validation from one of my favourite writers, Bryn Donovan you are awesome.
Ah thanks, Nastasia! You are way too kind!
I can’t believe what I just read in this article. I have a historical romance (my first) that I wrote in third- person. I sent it off to my editor and she told me I needed to change it to first. Honestly, I did not want to change my MS- thought it was fine, but I will say once I completed the change to first-it made me a better writer (so far). Now I stumble across this article and I don’t know what to do. I am ready to send this book out-finally and I read this. I’m so nervous. Should I do a complete rewrite, again or leave it as it is? I personally love how my novel reads in first-person, but I don’t want to be the only one who loves it. Also I will say, I have four people that are the focus of my story, so maybe that’s why she suggested first-person? I don’t know, I’m confused now.
Hi, Katrina! Listen, this is one person’s opinion, and I did say every story is different. If you feel like it’s within the submission guidelines of the publishers you are targeting (or if they publish a lot of first-person historical romance), then I don’t see any reason to change it.
I’m writing in first person. First novel. First draft. I’m writing to see where it goes with the ending in my mind and exploring the themes. When I will rewrite it, I will do it in third pov. I am 15 by the way.
I am about a year and a half late to this thread, but it came up on the top of my Googling about this so here I am! One question: one reason I like some first-person POV (Jewel E. Ann’s Undeniably You is the last one I read) where it’s *only* the main character’s POV is because there is some suspense about how exactly the other character feels about the main character. I know we all know what’s eventually going to happen, but for me it can raise the tension and the believability of what the main character is going through in terms of not knowing how the other feels about her. When I know right away that both characters think the other is smoking hot and can’t wait to sleep together, that loses a bit of the feeling of not knowing, and so the drama/suspense of that is lessened. Or if the main character thinks the other is just in it for sex and doesn’t want a relationship, but we know immediately that the other character *does* want a relationship and is already in love with her, there’s no drama in wondering, just the suspense of wondering when the main character will find out. I don’t know if this makes sense to anyone else! This is not to say I don’t also love 3rd person POV books as well.
You are so right. That was what I was thinking. Especially when the main character sees the man she loves as a very secretive being.
I enjoyed your article about writing romance in third person rather than first person. I’ve never written romance, but my very first novel writing class was taught by a romance writer and about half of the students wrote romance. The other half wrote memoirs. I was the odd one writing sci/fi. Thank goodness the instructor thought that good writing is good writing no matter what genre. I learned so much from the romance writers about emotions – my own and others. For that I am truly grateful.
I write by the seat of my pants, so formula writing as taught by my instructor was never my style. I did come to realize that I went into WAY TOO MANY points of view even for science fiction.
When I completed my first novel, I decided to get control of my points of view, so I started a book in first person. I figured if I wrote in first person I couldn’t possibly go into everybody’s head, and I chose to write fantasy instead of science fiction. (I handed my seven-year-old self a pencil and let her have whatever adventures she could invent.) Actually, my teacher wanted a second sci/fi novel, so I wrote fantasy on my own while I wrote my sci/fi sequel in class. I had lots of fun with first person and ended up writing three books in first person. The second and third books were definitely harder, because my seven-year-old was growing up, but I kept them in first person. It was a great exercise and then when I went back to third person for a number of prequels in that series, I had more control over points of view. I stayed mainly in one point of view and added a limited number of others for the sake of the story. Third person.
I do enjoy sweet romance, especially Sunrise Cabin. 🙂
I wish I knew this blog before, but I have a request, can you have one paragraph example in third person view, Please, anyone
He held her cheek in his palms, mumbling out those words he never would understand himself. It was weird trying to control himself when around her, her gasp made him retract and he apologized, “I wasn’t thinking!”
Beautiful/ thanks
Thank you so much for this posting and your website! It has been incredibly helpful to me and my writing. I have written in both 1st and 3rd POVs for the short stories I have written. However, I am writing my first romance/paranormal novel and I find choosing a POV very conflicting. I have always preferred to write in third, but have often wondered if writing one character in 3rd and the other in 1st POV would be a good choice? Do you offer any coaching?
Hi, Christopher! It’s great to hear from you! Sorry I didn’t see this sooner. You can do what you want, of course, but I strongly advise against mixing 1st and 3rd. It can be really jarring for a reader to go back and forth. Good luck with your project!
This is an older post, but I was thinking, most of these issues could also be solved with dual POV. I read a lot of contemprary romance novels and I find that when it switches between hero/heronie for (M/F romances) I still get to see the guy as a softy who is in love and any dramatic irony.
Personally I love first person. If I have a list of books to read, I start with the dual POVs, then the deep 3rds, and lastly the one POV first person.
This has been super helpful as I jump into writing a new story. I always seem to want to write first person, and then change it. I like the immediacy of 1PPOV, but one thing I loathe is when it feels like the character is telling the reader things they (the character) would already know. I don’t walk around thinking to myself, ‘that’s my friend, Bridget, who I went to high school with. We used to love the Spice Girls,’ for example. 1PPOV always raises the question of just who is the narrator narrating to? Themselves? Nonsense. Someone else? – if so, who and why? First person has worked for me when it’s clear the narrator is telling the story to someone in the world of the story. Otherwise, third person makes the most sense to me, as a reader. Having said that, I’ve certainly enjoyed some 1PPOV-written novels.