20.16: Second Person

Writing Excuses

Mary Robinette Kowal, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, Dan Wells, and Howard Tayler

Fiction, Business, Careers

4.7 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

People often think of first person POV as the most intimate voice. But in a way, we think second person might be more intimate. With second person, you’re forcing the reader’s subjectivity into the fiction itself. You are integrating the person who is reading the story into the experience of being in the story– in a way that can be a little disorienting (or fun) for the reader.

In the world of POVs, the second person can sometimes feel like a chaotic perspective. There are several different versions, depending on who the “you” is addressing. Is it the reader? Is it another character? What happens when “you” appears in a letter within a story? Second person often appears in conversation and on social media because it’s a way to draw your conversational group into the experience that you personally had. So, when should you use it in your writing, and how can you use it to help advance or deepen your story?

Homework: Write something in the second person, and think of something you’re getting across in the scene. Now, try to convey it with a “you” that’s directed towards another character. Then, as a “you” in a letter. Finally, write it again where the “you” is the reader themselves.

P.S. Want to come write with us in 2025?! Our retreat registration is open, and we are starting to fill up! We are going to unlock our creative processes in Minnesota and explore Story Refinement as we cruise down the Mexican Riviera! Learn more here.

Credits: Your hosts for this episode were Mary Robinette Kowal, Dan Wells, DongWon Song, Erin Roberts, and Howard Tayler. It was produced by Emma Reynolds, recorded by Marshall Carr, Jr., and mastered by Alex Jackson.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode of writing excuses has been brought to you by our listeners, patrons, and friends.
0:05.6	If you would like to learn how to support this podcast, visit www.com.
0:12.0	Slash writing excuses.
0:15.4	Season 20, episode 16.
0:19.2	This is writing excuses.
0:21.8	Second person.
0:23.2	I'm Mary Robinette.
0:24.4	I'm Aaron.
0:25.2	I'm Donglan.
0:26.0	I'm Dan.
0:26.9	And I'm Howard.
0:28.1	I thought about trying to do those intros in second person, but it would have been really
0:31.6	a hard.
0:31.9	It would be very...
0:32.6	You're Mary Robinette.
0:33.6	The best I could come up with was, and you're not Howard, I am, but that's still first person.
0:40.0	Yeah.
0:40.3	Exactly.
0:40.9	I guess I could say, you're errant.
0:44.3	Chaos would reign.
0:46.3	And I think that like second person is sometimes feels like the chaotic, you know, proximity.
0:53.1	So we're talking about perspective.
	...

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