In the case of a story narrated by one character to another in the second person, such that it's clear to the reader that "you" is not referring to them, does this qualify as second person or a weird third person with a long dialog formatted in second person?
For example, let's say the story is a mystery dealio with the investigator speaking directly to the culprit, slowly revealing how they discovered whodunnit, and the reader can try to figure out who they're talking to as the story progresses. And let's assume the writer effectively established this context to the reader. Does this still qualify as second person?
This is a good question and I had to think about it for a bit. First-person narration is special in that the first-person narrator can masquerade as either a second- or third-person narrator for almost any length of time by "withholding" the information that they are a character in the story (in a technical sense, holding back any mention of "I" or "me" until the writer is ready to reveal that the narrator is a character in the story). If the investigator in this scenario is speaking directly to the culprit and never references themself, that could be considered second person with the reader standing in for the culprit/perpetrator. However, if the investigator backs out at any point to reference themself (eg, "and that's how I knew it was you"), then what appeared to be a second-person narrative is revealed, perhaps late in the story, to have been a first-person narrative all along.
I actually have a story going right now that is similar, in that (if I am successful with it, anyway) it sounds like it's written by a mildly chatty third-person narrator until about halfway through when the narrator reveals herself as an important character in the story, who was relating prior events to the reader before her character was introduced.
I always second-guess myself on point of view. I once wrote half of a novel in close third and the other half in first. It sits in my drive like that to this day.
Thursday's article will get into this but I have a hard time sticking to one verb tense, I jump from present to past. I also tend to write everything in first-person POV on the first draft when I'm just dumping text out of my brain, and then I really give it some thought for the revision. For instance, I've been working on a short story about a young person who can speak to ghosts and uses this skill to purchase haunted houses at a low price, convince the ghost to leave, and then flip the no-longer-haunted house at a huge profit. I was telling it from the young person's POV originally but it became a much better story when I re-told it from the POV of the ghost she just can't get rid of.
In the case of a story narrated by one character to another in the second person, such that it's clear to the reader that "you" is not referring to them, does this qualify as second person or a weird third person with a long dialog formatted in second person?
For example, let's say the story is a mystery dealio with the investigator speaking directly to the culprit, slowly revealing how they discovered whodunnit, and the reader can try to figure out who they're talking to as the story progresses. And let's assume the writer effectively established this context to the reader. Does this still qualify as second person?
This is a good question and I had to think about it for a bit. First-person narration is special in that the first-person narrator can masquerade as either a second- or third-person narrator for almost any length of time by "withholding" the information that they are a character in the story (in a technical sense, holding back any mention of "I" or "me" until the writer is ready to reveal that the narrator is a character in the story). If the investigator in this scenario is speaking directly to the culprit and never references themself, that could be considered second person with the reader standing in for the culprit/perpetrator. However, if the investigator backs out at any point to reference themself (eg, "and that's how I knew it was you"), then what appeared to be a second-person narrative is revealed, perhaps late in the story, to have been a first-person narrative all along.
I actually have a story going right now that is similar, in that (if I am successful with it, anyway) it sounds like it's written by a mildly chatty third-person narrator until about halfway through when the narrator reveals herself as an important character in the story, who was relating prior events to the reader before her character was introduced.
I always second-guess myself on point of view. I once wrote half of a novel in close third and the other half in first. It sits in my drive like that to this day.
Thursday's article will get into this but I have a hard time sticking to one verb tense, I jump from present to past. I also tend to write everything in first-person POV on the first draft when I'm just dumping text out of my brain, and then I really give it some thought for the revision. For instance, I've been working on a short story about a young person who can speak to ghosts and uses this skill to purchase haunted houses at a low price, convince the ghost to leave, and then flip the no-longer-haunted house at a huge profit. I was telling it from the young person's POV originally but it became a much better story when I re-told it from the POV of the ghost she just can't get rid of.