Points of view - What style is best?

[underwhere]

For myself, I guess I'm a little complicated. I prefer third person, but also love the challenge of getting into the head of the character being abused not by directly writing down the characters thoughts, but rather by being detailed about how others see her reacting, by noting small details such as where she's looking, what her posture is, what her physical sensations are.

I'm a little complicated too. When writing in third person, its really difficult to get into the characters' heads, and sometimes, you just can't understand what is going on without that ability, especially since some characters are exceptionally good at masking their thoughts and feelings. As a reader, I'm equally interested in that, if not more so, than I am in the action itself.

Actually, I'm now in the process of waiting for a review of my first assignment in the Writers Block in which I was not consistent with my point of view, switching between first and third person here and there. I'm very interested to see how it reads to others. (It reads well to me, but I can't write simply for myself if I want my stories read by others, after all.) There is plenty of room in this assignment if I want to add something to it later, so its quite possible that I may eventually put it up in chapter form in the library itself at some point.

For some reason I find that to be more erotic than just a straightforward "Here's word for word what's in my head." Letting the reader infer what in a characters head by her reactions and her immediate environment tends to be more satisfying, in my experience.

I think it works both ways, but there is definitely an art to doing it well no matter which method you choose.

I think its probably easier to be consistent with first person, and quite possibly, it might be easier to craft a tighter tale that way, but I've read plenty of each style to know that they each serve a purpose, both to the writer and to the reader. The trick seems to be in choosing the right approach for the particular writing project.

Its also possible that the mood of a story will come out better if told one way or the other. So maybe it depends more on the story itself than on the author or the audience. I dunno....just some rambling thoughts.