An experiment

The experiment? Working in the second person. As you read the story you are told what you are doing. As you read your enjoyment grows as you explore a second person story.

At least that's the theory. Second persons stories are very hard to write, which is why this was an experiment. The title of the story?

You (Female, 23) Need The Money.

Goodgulf, I applaud your experiment and totally agree with your observation that 2nd person stories are HARD to write.

In my opinion, they are also hard to READ. By that I mean that it's easy for the reader to become confused.

My sense is 1st person stories are the easiest to read, because they are somewhat "natural" to the way we think. I don't think 1st person, however, is all that easy to write.

Goodgulf, my "guess" is that 3rd person is the easiest to write, but again if the writer is not careful, can become confusing for the reader.

Of course, most confusing of all is when the writer changes perspective during the story. This can be a powerful technique, but... but requires a lot of skill to ensure the reader understands from whose perspective we are viewing the story AT ALL TIMES.

Manton wrote some books that were all 1st person, but that person changed in each chapter! I don't think he did a particularly good job in making clear who is the current narrator.

3rd person is the easiest to write. 3rd person omniscience (or semi-omniscience) is quite easy. First person? That can be hard at times. You have to wrap your mind around doing things that you would never do while typing "I". For example:

I snuck up behind her. Cindy didn't suspect anyone was there until I grabbed her, flopped her over my knees, and started to spank the seat of her skirt. Cindy squealed as she shouted out names. It was almost insulting as she shouted out "Steve? Stan? Greg? Mark? Ow! Bill? Oooh! Fred, is that you?".
-------

No, I would never grab a girl like that, not until it was part of a consensual game, and it feels weird to type "I grabbed her" like that.

The second person? It is the hardest point of view. When I called that an experiment, I meant it. I think it worked, but that could just be me.

I did a similar thing with the second person, and it is very hard to write. First person can be limiting, but it's fun. I like to experiment with things in the writing. A recent Spank Shop was written 3rd person, present tense, that really wasn't easy. I've written a couple with multiple first person POVs, too.

Let me remind everybody who would like to try that the Library contains a very fine second person story by Smeple called (aptly) "You". The theme is very different, so Goodgulf's challenge is still open. Sammi11205 takes it even further in the second part of "Me, You, and Aunt Sadie" with a present tense, second person story. (Technically speaking, Smeple's story is also present tense, but the present tense there has a different function - it's definitely not a camera eye perspective).

I left a comment to this affect but I'll state here how much I love 2nd person stories. I like the feeling of being put in the action, maybe as one who prefers to identify more with the mindset of the spankee rather than the spanker. I've never attempted it myself but for those who write them, I applaud the effort and the payoff.

Call me an imbecile. Something was different about the story.
First I thought: first person story telling, but no, it was not an I story.
Second person stories are simply too rare to consider them. Since I am German and not a native English speaker I opted to hide behind being a foreigener. Why should I strain my brain, when I can turn it off.
Some might call it, taking the easy way out and they are probably right with this assumption.

I might need a few more expirimental stories to be able to really appreciate them.

I enjoyed the story to some extent as I tend to enjoy all Goodgulfs work but in general 2nd person feels to me like it has very narrow usage where it works. I think where I've found it works best is things like choose your own adventure-style books, or more commonly today quests. For anyone not familiar with the latter it's basically like a choose-your-own-adventure but the author puts it up to votes from the readers to determine which option is chosen and then written, rather than a classic cyoa book where you have a bunch of different story paths written up in one book. In either case getting the reader to put themselves into the shoes of the protagonists helps get them engaged more in the story and the choices so 2nd person works well there. Otherwise, 1st and 3rd person feel like they tend to work better. That's my opinion anyways.

I do know your pain on the trouble with writing like that though. I once did do a small project in 2nd person and it felt like I was spending more than half my time going back and rewriting things because I kept defaulting to 3rd person.

Don't you find that 2nd person is really just 1st person, but with 'you' instead of 'I'?

And regarding 1st and 3rd, depending what kind of story you're after, you could say that 1st person is actually easier to write than 3rd because you're simply 'speaking' in the character's voice. If you can inhabit that person's status and mindset, and describe events and other characters the way they would, then you're away. Whereas with 3rd person, you've got to create each character through a mix of show and tell (where too much tell gets tedious), and you've still got to calibrate the style and tone of your authorial voice and be consistent with it.

All in all, you could argue that an apprentice writer would be better off starting out telling the story 1st person. But you may not agree...

Anyone who wants to read an exceedingly tedious explanation and analysis of "person" and "point of view" (NOT the same thing) in storytelling is referred to the answer to the final question in the "Interview with an Author" from Wellred Weekly, Vol 1, #7.