I read a book with first person POV in which the POV character was kick butt and sarcastic. I really liked the character, but got really tired of all the snarky comments in the narration. If the book was written in third person, I would have enjoyed it more.

If you've started out with a first person, you might try translaing it into third person, just to see if it works.

There are a couple of pitfalls.

First, if the first person character starts talking about all the great stuff he's done (presumably your hero is going to do some great stuff), he comes off as being arrogant or conceited. That's why the Sherlock Holmes stories, while written in first person, were from Watson's POV, not Sherlock's.

Second, we, the readers, know that however bad things get, obviously the hero survives. He's telling the story.

Third, the narrator/protagonist knows how this story is going to end. You have to be careful to avoid appearing to withhold vital facts from the reader--things the protagonist wouldn't have known at the time, but does now.

I recommend choosing the pov based on what you think the story needs more than what you think your skill level is.

What's the worst that happens? The story doesn't come out good and you have to rewrite it. You've still learned from the experience and you'll be better prepared next time you want to try it.

As it reviewed their comments, I realized that part (only part ) of the problem was the 1st POV. The novel is sitting in WIP for a rewrite some day in close 3rd.

I find it significantly easier to write a short story in 1st. But the longer the story the harder it is to get the reader into the scene. Robust descriptive language is hard for me to inject into a 1st person narration, but easy in 3rd.

So, in my opinion, if a new author wants to try 1st person start writing shorter stories and move up. Tackling a novel may result in difficulties with POV and description.

However, as others have pointed out, it can be difficult to write a good story in first person. It's very easy to slip out of first and write something in third. But the same can be said for third - it's very easy to slip and talk about something that the POV character wouldn't know. Omni gets away from this concern, but omni is really not done much these days and I find it too distant - books written in omni don't have that same strong connection for me.

Point of View, in my opinion, is one of the more difficult writing skills to master.

My primary suggestion on choosing POV is to choose the right solution for your story. I have read many stories where the author makes the wrong choice - they choose a POV that then they struggle against the whole time, or they choose to write in first, but have to do all sorts of flashbacks and other contrived devices to give us more information that is necessary for the story.

Don't get me wrong, some authors do this well, extremely well, but many don't.

Also, a first-person narrator potentially might affect reader immersion by either reader identification or reader alienation with a narrator as a reader surrogate transference for an author surrogate.

The surrogacy issues I see in my reading of first-person narrator stories, or any narrative point of view, are those of wish fulfillment, and "self" insertions of a writer into focal character roles and attitudes of a narrator to the point of detriments to a story. Self-efficacy, self-idealization, self-worth, self-esteem, etc., narrator features in a story can contribute or detract to reader resonance, immerse or alienate readers. A primary intersection of all author surrogacy, point of view and viewpoint, and focal character roles might appeal to one target audience, alienate another, largely dependent on reading comprehension skills and audience preferences.

Taking all those factors into consideration, first-person narrator stories that appeal to readers can be more challenging to write. But if well-constructed, they can also be easier to relate to for readers. As in all story attributes, audience targeting is a paramount consideration for narrative point of view choices.

He suggests we start a Bible (eek, okay, bible) to keep track of things and I think that's a very good idea. Does anyone have a good idea of how to keep track of little things?

I have an excel document now with all the characters, including age, name, work, place of residence and anything else of note about them (cranky, etc.)

My bible method is HTML, that way I can network the information. For example I have a list of names like you but I make each name a link to a whole bio of that character. You can have all sorts of pages for all the sorts of info you need to remember.

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This is what helps me flesh-out my stories

A first person POV necessarily means that EVERYTHING that happens in the story must be witnessed by the MC. Key events that the MC doesn't experience have to be handled through dialogue or reportage and that's very trcky to do well. So if you are writing a story in which your MC is the focus then first person is an option. If you are writing a story that involves multiple plots and threads and lots of actions that the MC is removed from, it's a lot harder to do.

Second person tones are also common in character points of view in otherwise primary third person narrative point of view. And naturally, often in a viewpoint character's thoughts and conversation.

Examples;

Reflexive: In your waking day, your dreams, your private life, you narrate your meager existence like a movie voiceover. The public world doesn't know you, your deep waters, your judgment of their indifference, their emotionally indifferent hostility toward you.

Implied imperative: Take in the home of a young, attentative fishwife, the unkempt dusty floor of her hovel, the nauseous smells of decayed fish essence saturated into the dirt floor, the otherwise tidy kitchen countertop, and the neatly madeup trundle bed and well-organized makeup counter on her vanity dresser.