I have a question about limited third person POV. Or about fanfic in general.

This article on fanfic peeves says:

Most fan fiction is written in limited third person -- this means that the story keeps a tight focus on the viewpoint character. This is a good thing, generally; it makes it easy for the reader to feel close to that character. But there are things you can't do with limited third.

If Blair is our viewpoint character, you can say

"Blair looked up into Jim's adoring face"
(though it's so sweet I wish you wouldn't...)

but you can't say

"Blair raised his incredibly beautiful azure eyes to Jim's adoring face."

Is most fanfic really written in ltd 3rd? Because, apart from the retch factor, I doubt the latter sentence would have yanked me out of the moment (though I probably should wonder why I'm reading Sentinel fic at that point). But I'm hypothesising with a faulty memory, and maybe the sampling of fic I read isn't characteristic at all.

Or I'm a sloppy reader.

Well, I tend to write in a limited 3rd where the POV shifts from scene to scene. I find it easier to live in a particular character's head in certain situations. The sentence with the incredibly beautiful azure eyes could be limited 3rd, if Blair is an utterly self-absorbed git who knows he's beautiful and is using ever wile at his command on poor Jim.

Most fic? Subjectively, I think most fic is limited 3rd, but that might because I prefer ltd 3rd (which looks like musical notation). There's a sense of immediacy in ltd 3rd, because you do have to live in one person's head through that scene, you're not so detached as you would be with omnisicient 3rd.

Now that I think about it, I think all the books I re-read--as opposed to read one time then avoid--are ltd 3rd, just for the sense of being closer to the characters.

Is most fanfic really written in ltd 3rd?

Connie's right. Speculating wildly out of my hindparts, I suspect that the majority of fiction is ltd 3rd, and that fanfic, which tends to be about emotional & experiential stuff, is even moreso than that.

Not that there aren't people who head-jump like lice, but the fact that they are called on this regularly implies to me a culture that tends to eschew omniscience. I think there's something about identidying with a character -- which I think most fanfic writers do -- that trends the writing away from standing at a distance like, say, the show's own producers, and toward standing in the trenches wth the [beleaguered] character[s].

This theory from my hindparts sadly does not cover the relative dearth of 1st person. I suppose fear of being labeled Mary Sue?

Maybe. I love first, but it does absolutely limit you to one character's knowledge and stuff. I've written 2 first-person drabbles(as my girl Kay,her voice is just that strong for me) but that's it.

I agree that first person can be limiting. Some characters beg for it more than others.

Batman, I'm discovering, is very much a self-involved, first person kind of guy. And in the comics, he's written in first person.

My default is limited third, but I've been trying to stretch more.

And lack of first person may be the worry about coming off as a Mary Sue, but in my experience, I think I have a more difficult time writing engaging prose in first person. It's all "I went there and I did that and I sat down--"

Maybe that's just me.

You realize I might take that as a challenge, now?

What? Huh?

Hey, if you wanna. I just meant that I, personally, think I write like crap in 1st person. Other people do it well, and I read it with wistful envy.

Kind of teasing about the challenge part, but now I wonder...why do we(and now I've been archived it's we) do that? Partly cause that's what you see, and partly cause bad first's the worst, as you said.

My learning process in fanfic went like this:

- Oh, headhopping bad.

- Staying in third person limited means the narrative voice should sound kind of like the POV character.

- Wait, maybe there's a world beyond that.

I suspect it might be the same for many people who learned how to write through fanfic.

Is 3rd person limited for the author, or the audience? It sounds like it'd be harder to write.