You: Writing in the Second Person
There are many strong essays and stories written in the second-person point of view. One I’ve come across recently, “Bread” by Margaret Atwood, is especially instructive for its use of scenes to build an argument. With just the right details of place, situations, and people in those places, the you (who is her character and who is us) considers bread. And in this considering, the reader comes to feel the power of story to make us deeply consider our humanity. After several scenes, the story ends with questions for all of us reading the story. And we finish the story with a question, not asked but lodged in our heads and hearts: “How well do I know myself?” The success of writing in the you form iis measured by how closely using the form has brought us in touch with our feelings, concerns, empathy, honesty, and courage.
In the embedded video, I discuss the story and its craft. And below the video link are links to more sources for studying writing in the second person.
Sources for Reading Second Person Stories
“Bread” By Margaret Atwood
http://ir.uiowa.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2673&context=iowareview
“Leopard” by Wells Tower
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/11/10/leopard
How to Be a Writer by Lorrie Moore
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/specials/moore-writer.html
“Miss Lora” by Junot Diaz is another second-person story from the New Yorker magazine’s files:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/04/23/miss-lora
Author Angela Mirabella suggests second-person stories:
https://www.bookish.com/articles/the-power-of-you-5-stories-written-in-second-person/
Chuffed Buff Books website suggests:
http://www.chuffedbuffbooks.com/writing-in-second-person-atwood-to-tolstoy/
You: An Anthology of Essays Devoted to the Second Person:
http://amzn.to/2o2qTq2