Edit like an Editor: A Wattpad Featured Guide ✔

Part iii. Second-Person POV

Second-person describes writing that is from the point-of-view of a narrative onlooker who is writing about you, the reader: "You went to school that morning."

Second-person POV is the least commonly used POV in literary writings. It is certainly an unusual POV, but now and then it can be quite effective.

In this POV, the narrator uses the pronoun "you" to refer to one of the characters in the story and to address the reader or listener directly.

The second-person POV is rarely used in fiction but it does appear every so often in speeches and other forms of nonfiction, such as letters, greeting cards, and so on.

This is a common type of narrative POV for popular music lyrics (in which the narrator often directly "speaks" to another person) and certain types of poetry, though it is quite rarely found in published novels or short stories.

In some cases, a narrator uses the second-person, rather than the usual first-person, to refer to her- or himself, thus providing an alienated, emotional, or ironic distance.

The second-person ("you") is often used to address the reader personally and is therefore frequently used in persuasive writing and advertising.

It is, in many languages, a very common technique of several popular and non- or quasi-fictional written genres such as guidebooks, self-help books, choose-your-own-adventure books, do-it-yourself manuals, role-playing games, gamebooks, musical lyrics, and also blogs.

We see second-person POV utilized most on Wattpad in fanfiction where it's (insert any famous character here) and "you," the reader, in a fantasized reality imagined by the author. This type of fiction is called interactive fiction.

Let's look at an example from Jay McInerney's "Big Lights, Big City":

You are not the kind of guy who would be at a place like this at this time of the morning. But here you are, and you cannot say that the terrain is entirely unfamiliar, although the details are fuzzy. You are at a nightclub talking to a girl with a shaved head. The club is either Heartbreak or the Lizard Lounge. All might come clear if you could just slip into the bathroom and do a little more Bolivian Marching Powder.

Why choose second-person?

While most people naturally write in the first- or third-person, it takes real effort and intention to write in the second-person. Generally, people decide to write in the second-person because:

• They want to immerse the reader in the experience of "being" the protagonist.

• They want to engage the reader in an extremely rich sensory experience, which can best be accomplished by forcing the reader to imagine himself as part of the experience.

• They want to write a particularly persuasive or engaging passage that will be most effectively written in the second-person.

• They want to try a new and different style of writing.

While there is certainly nothing wrong with experimenting with any type of writing, second-person requires a good deal of practice and finesse. Don't be surprised if your first efforts end with readers who are confused or frustrated; only through refining your technique can you become an accomplished writer in this most difficult form.

A tip: If you're writing a short story and the draft isn't working very well with the first-person POV, try this one. It can certainly energize a story.

Onto the next POV, third-person! Please remember to vote!