Writing in the second person narrative means speaking to the audience from the perspective of a second person (other than yourself). What this means is that the writing will have a conversational feel to it, like you are interacting or speaking directly to another person.

Because of the conversational feel of second person narrative, this style is used less often in novels and short stories. Conversely, it is one of the most commonly used perspectives in songs and poetry. However, it is in business and technical writing that the second person narrative really shines.

Give Me a You!
When writing in the second person narrative, it is all about the pronoun “you.”

First, let’s cover the word “you” from a grammatical perspective. “You” is a really flexible pronoun. Generally, pronouns are either subjective (i.e., subject of the sentence), or objective (i.e., the object of the sentence). Here are a couple of examples:

You light up my life.

Here, “you” is clearly the subject of the sentence where “life” is the object.

I can’t live without you.

However in this sentence, “I” is the subject and “you” is the object. Sounds like “you” is also the object of someone’s affections. (Let’s hear it for love!) Also, unlike most pronouns, “you” can be either singular or plural.

You take the trash out.
I love all of you.

As you can see, “you” is singular in the first sentence and plural in the second. That is one flexible pronoun!

Isn’t It Romantic?
One great thing about the second person narrative is that it draws the reader or listener into the dialogue. It’s inclusive. It makes the reader a part of the action. Second person narrative does a better job of this than first person and a much better job than the third person. Let’s look at poetry for example.

You are my heart and my life.

Gives you goosebumps, doesn’t it? You are the object of this affection so you feel like you’re part of that relationship.

Now let’s change the sentence to a first-person narrative.

I see you as my heart and my life.

See? Not as many goosebumps. It’s a little more formal because it is coming from another person’s perspective. It is still romantic but the sentiment loses some power.

How about third-person perspective?

He saw her as his heart and his life.

Yeah, there are no goosies at all in this one. And if they are, it is from a distance. The action is happening to someone else, and while the reader may feel empathy and warm fuzzies for whoever the “her” in the sentence is, they still feel like they are on the outside looking in. Nothing is directed toward the reader so it’s not as personal.

If you think about it, the same could be said for music. How many love songs have been written to “you”? I don’t know for certain, but I’d guess the number is in the millions! And that is because—by writing the song about “you”—it puts the listener in the position of the one being loved, so they tend to feel it more. They can relate to the song as if a person (probably someone they know) is singing the song to them.

Examples of Second Person Narrative
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