Post #1520870 · Elektrine

2026-04-21 12:04 UTC

#WritersCoffeeClub Apr 21: What&#39;s a (maybe silly) hill you&#39;re willing to defend? Second person sucks. You really hate it. You find it gimmicky, contrived, unnatural, and distancing to the reader, rather than pulling them in. At this point, you&#39;ve read enough to automatically nope out of *anything* written in second person. And you have no regrets.

Replies (4)

@ratsnakegames@mastodon.social 2026-04-21 12:12

@ringles i think the one exception to this is interactive media, e.g. CYOA, intfic, or RPGs ("you are intercepted by three angry goblins. Roll initiative"). The fact that the reader actually has agency in these forms helps sell the idea that the reader *is* the main character.

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@saxbrightwell@indieauthors.social 2026-04-21 13:15

The most common use case you encounter is "readerfic," fanfiction where your blorbo is interested in you personally, to such an extent that instead of a character name or Reader, the other characters address you as [Y/N], for "Your Name." Which 1. makes your skin want to crawl off your body, the streams should NOT cross; and 2. you can't stop reading as "Yes/No?" This experience is universal, you're sure 😆

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@EmpyClaw@mastodon.social 2026-04-21 13:39

@ringles You must be having a bad time with the Scribes prompt 😅

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@saposcat@indieauthors.social 2026-04-21 17:12

@ringles 😂

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