patxi:
rollin: So if you wish to convey the thoughts of others in the story 1st person is not the right choice.
Quite, it can be done but only if the thoughts of the 2nd person are conveyed in conversation to the 1st person so that the reader can pick up what the 2nd person thinks or feels. Not easy and the conversation must be handled carefully.
Well, in RL a person ends up figuring out (or at least trying to figure out) the emotions being felt by other people, at least those who are fairly close to him/her emotionally, quite frequently.
In a first-person narrative, you can't write: "Bill felt highly embarrassed at being totally nude in a room full of stylishly-dressed women."
However, you can write: "Based on his flushed face and downcast gaze, it was apparent that Bill felt highly embarrassed at being totally nude in a room full of stylishly-dressed women."
The words "to me" could be inserted after "apparent" in order to make it 'crystal clear' that the narrator here is referring to her own individual perception, but IMHO that's not essential--when using the first person, AFAIC it's pretty much given that words like "seemingly," "obviously," "apparently," etc. refer to the narrator's personal perspective.
You can't write: "Julie was experiencing a self-satisfying sense of accomplishment after corporally disciplining her cousin."
However, you can write: "Knowing Julie as well as I did, it was obvious that she was experiencing a self-satisfying sense of accomplishment after corporally disciplining her cousin."
(Again, there's the implicit "to me," in this case after "obvious," which could be made explicit at the author's discretion.)
Direction conversation clearly would work also:
"Damn it all, Rhonda," Bill told me as multiple pairs of feminine eyes were focused on his ruby red behind, "I feel so totally embarrassed, standing here in my birthday suit in this room full of nicely-dressed women."
"Paddling you so soundly in front of my girlfriends," Julie teasingly informed her nude cousin as she patted his glowing derriere, "That's given me such a satisfying sense of personal accomplishment."
Of course, in that last example it's assumed that the narrator was present to hear (or at least overhear) the conversation.
I find it kind of fun to occasionally experiment with different first-person points of view (I'm not claiming that I do it especially well, just that I enjoy trying to do so once in a while)--the narrator doesn't necessarily have to be one of the main characters (which in a spanking story would usually be the spanker and spankee) in the story, which is one way of avoiding overusing the "I did this" and "I felt that" repetition of "I" throughout a first-person narrative.
Of course, third person (omniscient) is probably the easiest point of view to start out with, there's no need to explain or at least suggest how certain things are known to the narrator... --C.K.