Second person is much more obscure in story writing.
This means using the pronouns 'you', 'your', 'yourself', etc.
So why write in the second person?
The second person is used a lot more in advertising and marketing as it uses direct address, making the writing seem more personal to you.
For example, my blog uses a combination of first and second person as I talk about my experiences and how you can use them.
But it is much less common in creative writing.
Of course, that isn't to say you shouldn't use it - it can be used to make a story very poignant and personal. You might use it in poetry, you might write a story addressed to someone, such as a dead relative or a friend on the other side of the world.
Is the second person perspective right for my story?
There is no reason why it shouldn't be. Second person writing can make for some of the most meaningful and deep reaching reading.
One second person story that has always stuck with me is Life on the Refrigerator Door by Alice Kuipers. It is written as a series of notes between a mother and a daughter that become increasingly more important as the story progresses.
The notes start off simple: a shopping list followed by 'If you can carry any more, get a chicken and two cans of beans. Don't worry if you can't, I can try and pick these up tomorrow. Love, Mom'.
The use of second person in this novel is fantastic - you can imagine these two people in different walks of life communicating, but always indirectly. Sometimes there are a few days, or even a few months between the notes. But the mother-daughter bond never goes away. I won't ruin the ending as I thoroughly recommend you reading this book no matter what age you are! It's been a permanent fixture on my shelf since I was about 10.
But the second person isn't perfect either.
For me, in normal prose when you are just directly addressing the reader as you, I get a strong feeling of being in the twilight zone.
Also, using 'you' can seem demanding. Your reader doesn't want to be told exactly what to do and how to think.
You also run the risk of your reader not being able to relate to your story. For example, if I was reading a story that said 'When you go into your local coffee shop, as you do every morning...' it might actually make me feel more distanced from the piece as that isn't what I do every morning.
You can, of course, combine the second and first person perspectives, as is done in Life on the Refrigerator Door, but you now have two main characters. I think this only really works well when using notes or texts, etc.
Happy writing!
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