Writing In First Person Feels More Personal, Than in Third Person

Being a student of Mass Communication and Journalism, and taking up Journalism professionally in the later phases of my life, has made me quite habituated to writing in the Third person. In fact, there were times when I’d be considering those articles written in the first person to be not so serious, and quite frivolous, kind of in an oscillatory motion. Possibly I was still a novice then and wasn’t quite aware of the different moods that a writer has while writing, and that grammar can never place one on a pedestal over the others. 

For instance, consider the poem “The Road Not Taken” By Robert Frost. The poet says, “Two roads diverged in a yellow road, 

And sorry I couldn’t not travel both, 

And be one traveller long I stood, 

And looked down one, as far as I could…”

As a child when I’d be reciting this piece, and frequenting it over and over again, it’d generally be showcasing the feeling of pandemonium, that was present in the poet then, and I’d think that even though he does arrive at a decision at the end of the poem, yet to the reader, the confusion still persisted. Back then, I’d never realise that this was an example of heralding the different moods of the poet, as he was actually travelling through the roads. One can’t say for sure, but in reality, there might be times when people have to undergo a tough choice choosing a particular route. In that case, even if it’s not, just by reading a verse merely, one cannot reach a conclusion stating it to be frivolous. 

Years later, when I have started writing for myself, and while I revisit some of my old writings, ones those are written in the third person, in comparison with those in the first person, it feels that both have their own flavours, and a certain amount of uniqueness. However, to be absolutely candid about the same, the ones being written in the first person now feel more personal than the ones where the message is being communicated in the third person. To cite a very recent example, consider this blog, one that has begun by comparison between a first and a third person. 

Now, when it comes to think of it, I feel more relaxed, and the writing seems as if the words are being communicated with ease and in an informal tone. While going through the works of others also, when sentences are being mentioned in the first person, it creates an air of extra curiosity. Just a few days back, while reading a column on a national daily, there was a mention of the manufacture of bread, where the writer mentioned that he and his wife would want to opt for hand-baked breads, rather than the packaged ones. 

Post-reading that, something changed in me, where I decided to bake everything at home, and not purchase packaged ones. Perhaps the reason behind the change was that the write up was in first person.