I figured I’d pose this to folks here as YOU’RE probably pretty familiar with second person perspective/pronouns.
I had a dream about a month ago. It was incredibly vivid, involving time travel, memory loss and espionage. I took notes on waking and have mentioned it a bit on Twitter. I plan on writing a short story, or maybe a novella or something, depending how concise and expressive I get with it. It will be titled either “The Office Post” or “The U.S. Office Post”.
I’m considering writing it in second person present tense for the bulk of it, but I’m not sure if that might seem jarring or odd. It’s an experiment I intend to try unless I get very negative feedback on its use.
Thanks for your thoughts.
It’d be unusual for sure, but who dares wins right?
ReplyDeleteI use second person present for pbp (and solo "GM voice"). I find it lends a kind of punchy feel, very immediate, but it's also somewhat informal -- and it's just plain easier to get a bunch of words out in it.
ReplyDeleteThat said, it will make what you write stand out for that aspect alone, which may or may not be a good thing.
Other than gamebooks and Bright Lights, Big City, it's not that common. Though the latter has spawned a host of imitations. I don't say this to put you off, but most people will immediately think of that (instead of saying, 'gee, this reminds me a lot of The Warlock of Firetop Mountain').
ReplyDeleteIn the creative writing classes I took way back, two teachers advised against writing in the second person. Still, I know Junot Diaz has used it to good effect in one chapter of his novel "Oscar Wao" and I hear he wrote "This Is How You Lose Her" in second person.
ReplyDeleteI'd say, just follow your dream (pun intended).
if you need some advice I found this
ReplyDeletenovel-writing-help.com - Is Second Person Point of View a Smart Choice? | Novel Writing Help
Sounds cool, I used to have serial dreams in a continuous world with overarching plots and such. I would take notes and planned on writing it up as a story or novel. The dreams stopped one day, never did anything with it. I say go for it, create for the sake of it, not for a market.
ReplyDeleteI don't often have incredibly vivid dreams that stick with me after waking, these days, though I occasionally have dreamed music I end up recording and similar. Lucid dreaming was something I did a bit as a teenager, and I would love to have access to that again. I used to experience deja vu a LOT as a kid, and I'm going to attribute that to the endless vivid dreams I used to experience.
ReplyDeleteMy sleep quality the last decade or so has been utter shit, and it has impacted my life in a number of ways. I've been struggling to get it fixed, and wonder at how much it will bring back a lot that's missing from my life.
You should try it. You never know. I’ve read somewhere that dreams are the mechanisms that brains use to make sense of what transpires during the day, so this might help you, who knows.
ReplyDelete