Do you think of it as an instinctive impulse? I'm trying to work out where my non-trained writing self would start, and I don't think it would be there.

I think it started for me as shameless copying. My first impulse generally is first, I think.

What Micole and Nutty said, basically. And Dana too. The fannish audience is so closely wedded to the characters that both writers and readers tend to stick to limited third most of the time, although it's acceptable for the pov to rotate amongst two or three characters.

Limited third from an original character's pov is done, but not often (KodiakkeMax's In the Company of Ghosts comes to mind). Omniscient is difficult to pull off, and often just looks like head-jumping unless it's set up very carefully. People tend to shy away from it for that, I think.

First person requires a very good handle on the pov character's voice to work properly, and not every writer can do that. When it's done well, though, the reader response can be quite gratifying. Voice is one of the issues that comes up over and over in fanfic -- the imperative to sound as close as possible to the characters on the show, either through dialogue or through the narrator's internal monologue.

I prefer 3rd limited in my regular reading, as well as in fanfic, so it was sort of a natural POV for me to choose. I write 1st person from time to time, and find that Fred, for example, is much easier for me to write 1st person than she is 3rd, for whatever that's worth. I wouldn't write 1st person Wes ever, because 1: I dislike most 1st person Wes stuff, and 2: it feels off for me to do so, even though I have a fairly decent grasp on the voice.

3rd Omni usually fails to draw me into a story. As a reader, I'm all about pathetic navel gazing and the human condition.

(Also, Latitude has been updated, as happens once a month or so.)

A writing teacher once told me that people, as they learn to write, usually go through phases. They often start with 1st person because it's easier to write. While in that phase, often every story's protagonist sounds like every other, because they're all the writer's voice. Then they learn to make them sound different from one another, and then they start writing in 3rd person, either omniscient or limited, and play with those two for awhile. After they've mastered each of those styles, they'll often write in whichever voice serves the story best, though less skilled writers, or writers who are less interested in form, will settle into whichever one is most comfortable for them, though some writers will choose the point of view first and then write something in it, in order to stretch their abilities as a writer, or as an interesting exercise in working with the limitations of a particular POV.

I believe limited 3rd is most popular because it's a way to distance the narrator from the protagonist, a little, but not so much that the reader feels he or she should know everything that's going on, and yet be able to reveal things that the protagonist can't know. I recall studying Moby Dick in college, and having pointed out to me (I didn't notice it) that the first person narrator tells the reader what happens in the captain's cabin when the captain is alone, something he couldn't have known.

Most of my fanfic is first person. I just find the BtVS characters speak quite clearly in my head.

Second person may be the hardest to write.

Ya'll know my feelings on the second person. We have a special and close relationship.

First person and I are not on speaking terms.

I just got the worst (best?) feedback:

What an amazing story that is?

Um. Well. Why don't you tell me? I probably already like it, if I was interested enough to write it.

::sigh:: Livejournal is a scary, scary place.

Second person is pretty easy for me to write, but I don't do it often.

Hmm. Actually, I don't think I've ever posted any of it other than drabbles. But I do like it muchly.

Do you think of it as an instinctive impulse?

For me, yes. Yinstinctive impulses are almost certain toV.

I'm trying to work out where my non-trained writing self would start, and I don't think it would be there.

I don't really recall where I started writing, but the first piece of fiction I actually remember setting out to write as a story was limited third-- I remember, because it was fantasy and I had to change points of view once to tell the whole plot. I was eight or nine, and incrediably pleased when I finished.

And the first piece of fanfic that got out of my head was limited third, too. It's crappy, but it's lmt3rd. Later I started playing with 1st-- which is always even more limited, although I have a vague plot bunny which I'd write as 1st from TPTB's POV, and thus write omni1st-- and sometimes I'll use omni3rd, but that actually takes more thinking. I don't think I've used 2nd, yet, probably because I've read so few good pieces that use it. And because I'm not that fond of reading it.

I guess the question is basically about distant third -- it would seem that one could get away with less of an intimate grasp on character voice -- sure, all the dialogue needs to be true, but you don't have to keep up the internals for such a long time.

But in limited 3rd, you never need to know why a bad guy does a thing -- you just need to make your character react to it. (An omniscient viewpoint doesn't need to tell why someone does a thing, but it's a lot more obvious an omission.) It can be a lot easier to spring a surprise on limited characters, because your readers know only as much of the plot structure as the characters themselves. But especially, in fanfic, by using ltd 3rd you leap right into the eyeballs of a [canon] character, which leap tends to make it pretty easy for the reader to identify with that character (aside from the predisposition to like canon characters anyway).

Not all ltd 3rd characters are huge internal monologuists; that's just a trope of fanfic (that I find kind of irritating in its overuse).

They often start with 1st person because it's easier to write. While in that phase, often every story's protagonist sounds like every other, because they're all the writer's voice.

I will say, when I started writing fanfic, I did start using mostly limited viewpoints --1st and 3rd. I've come to the conclusion, though, that my own writerly voice is best suited by omniscience, because limited viewpoints don't go flying off into rhetorical similes enough for my purposes. Then again, omniscience tends to make it harder to win over one's audience, in the fanfic world anyway.