I readily admit that many authors use first person narration, but I don’t like it. I greatly prefer standard third person narration for several reasons. Can anyone imagine a historical novel about George Washington written in first person narration? Or a novel entitled, I, Moses or even I, Jesus? Simply awkward and inappropriate from the start.

More importantly, in first person narration, the name of the main character/narrator tends to disappear. Character names are important and can help define a character’s personality and description without another word being used. Compare two hypothetical character names: John Loving and Brutus Haight. Which name conveys a mental picture of a thug? When a character is “I” all the time, that mental picture becomes fuzzy and commonplace.

I’ve seen it happen. In her novel The Elite (Selection Series Book Two), author Kiera Cass has created a wonderfully beautiful, red-headed young lady in silk dresses named “America”, a stunningly beautiful name which should tell the reader something about the main character’s graceful appearance and personality all by itself. However, Cass uses first person narration for her main character, and in the process turns “America” with its implied elegant charm into something common and ordinary, turning her into just another “I”.

First person character/narrators also tend to be more faceless and featureless than characters in third person narration. What character is going to be describing his/her facial features and expressions throughout the novel? Other characters can even be featureless as well, as what character in realistic dialogue is going to describe his/her conversation partner’s face and expressions in detail? Third person narration allows much more freedom to fully describe characters’ faces and expressions, without artificial, awkward contrivances.

Next, first person narration allows for only one viewpoint character—the main character/narrator, which creates problems if the author wants the reader to know something that the main character does not. Example: two high school friends, Rachel and Susan. Rachel tells Susan that her boyfriend, Bob, has decided to go to the homecoming dance with cheerleader Julie instead. With third person narration, there can be more than one viewpoint character, say, Rachel’s other friend Freda, who has lied to Rachel about Bob going to the homecoming with Julie so that she, Freda, can break Susan and Bob apart and claim handsome Bob for herself. With a second viewpoint in third person narration—Freda’s—we can hear Freda’s nefarious thoughts as she plans her lie about Bob. The suspense ratchets up as readers hope that Rachel finds out about Freda’s duplicity in time to warn Susan and Bob about Freda’s lie, and so that Rachel can keep Susan and Bob together. (Let’s say that she does, just to have a happy ending.)

Authors who use first person narration claim that it allows the reader to have a closer identification with the main character. But even if that were true—and there is certainly no way to prove it—third person narration allows the author much more freedom to describe characters and scenes and to build suspense. Traditional third person narration creates a more well-rounded story, allowing the reader to more easily comprehend what is going on in the story, with more intense suspense and build-up.