Soo, this is a topic I’ve wanted to discuss for a while. Let’s jump into it!
**1st person + 3rd person**
***Type One -*** The “Holmes and Watson” variant.
A slightly boring variant, but some stories use this quite well. Basically, the story is told from first person, but the greatest amount of focus is on the thoughts and actions of another character. Again, best example would be the original *Sherlock Holmes* stories by Arthur Conan Doyle.
This is kind of common actually, especially in older classics. It’s worth noting that the line between this and ordinary first-person is quite thin, and there’s a lot of crossover.
***Type Two -*** The Snarky Narrator variant
Very similar to type one, except here the narrator does not take part in the adventure. They might be a significant character in the setting, but they don’t play too much of an active role. They’re mostly around to give commentary and witty asides, but that can be quite effective for some stories. Lemony Snicket in the *A Series of Unfortunate Events (*by Lemony Snicket) might be my favorite example, but more literary works like *Slaughterhouse Five* and *Middlesex* dip into this style occasionaly.
**1st person + 2nd person**
Ooh, I love this one. Basically, here a first person narrator is telling the story to a second person: the “You”. It’s such a visceral, almost claustrophobic choice, and is often used in psychological thrillers. Unfortunately, the best example I can come up with is *You* by Caroline Kepnes. But I’m sure there are better ones out there.
Epistolary novels, i.e. stories where one character is writing or talking to another person, also use this, and I like this even better than the previous psychological crazy obsessed protagonist subtype. It adds a brisk, grounded air to the first-person narrative, which can be quite valuable sometimes.
**1st person plural + 3rd person????**
1st person plural is when the key pronoun is “We”. If that doesn’t sound weird enough to you, think about mixing it with third person! It’s so fucking weird!
So there’s this book, *the Roadside MBA.* It’s nothing to write home about, but it’s fairly interesting book about how small businesses manage to survive in the modern world. The story is about three guys on a road trip, who co-write the book itself. Now, the three authors, refer to themselves as “We” and never “I”. Which is weird, but okay… But when the the three are talking to each other, they use third person…
Am I the only one who finds this off-putting? I spent ages trying to figure out which author was the first person narrator, and when I realized thiere wasn’t one, it was so freaking insane. Are there any other books that use this method?
**2nd person + 3rd person**
Does this exist? I dunno. Haven’t seen it anywhere. Does anyone have an example?
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by T_Lawliet