Second Person Point of View

The second person point of view is so rare in literature that it is almost not worth mentioning at all - but only almost. It is my aim to be as comprehensive as I can here at Novel Writing Help, and that means talking about a viewpoint you are unlikely to use - if only to explain why you are unlikely to use it.

It is most commonly seen in cookery books. Here, the writers use second person point of view, present tense, with the "you" removed: "(You) take 6 eggs and (you) separate the whites from the yolks..."

After cookery books, you sometimes see 2nd person point of view used in short stories, but almost never in novels. Which isn't to say that you absolutely shouldn't write a novel using the second person viewpoint. But if you do, you had better make it nothing less than brilliant if you want to see it published.

Here is Second Person Point of View in action:

You first met him in the Harbour Lights Hotel on Christmas Eve. It was also the day you turned forty. He was standing at the bar, digging in the right hand pocket of his chinos for change. You watched him from a dark booth as you sipped your third vodka martini.

The trouble, of course, is that the central character of this novel is you, the reader. And the reaction of most readers on reading this passage would be to say:

• No, I didn't meet him in a hotel on Christmas Eve!
• I'm 30, not 40, thank you very much!
• And male, too, and happily married, so I'm hardly going to hit on the guy at the bar!
• And I prefer my martinis with gin!

In 2nd person point of view, the author invents a fictional character (just as they would with a 1st or 3rd person novel), and then invites you, the reader, to become that character. But that is simply a leap of faith too far for most readers.

If you really want to write some experimental second person fiction, your best bet is to stick to short stories. I probably could have turned the example quoted above into an 8-12 page story and not lost too many readers.

But a novel of a few hundred pages written in second person point of view?!? Good luck to you if you think you could manage it, but take my advice and stick to the first person point of view or third person point of view.

Actually, I can offer you a few crumbs of encouragement - in the form of a 2nd person point of view novel you could learn from. (It's written in the present tense, not the past tense, but that doesn't matter.) The novel is called Bright Lights, Big City (you've probably heard of it) and it's written by Jay McInerney.

Here is how it begins:

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 novel, by the way, was a bestseller in its day. So if you really have your heart set on a second person point of view novel, go for it. Maybe next time I revise this page I'll be quoting from your novel.