As a British, native English speaker and English graduate, I am so happy to have found this forum and this paticular topic.
I admit that I am annoyingly pedantic, particularly when it comes to such as the mixing of "then" when it should be "than", the confusing of "there, "their" and "they're", "to" and "too" and the horrendous use of "of" instead of "have".
Some of these appear to be more used in American English, and some are more frequently in British use.
Oh, and I am completely with Gurlyboy. I also proofread everything. Sad, aren't we?

I agree with overmykneenow, in that there isn't really any advantage/disadvantage in using first or third character. I think that tense is MUCH more important.
Past tense in story-telling allows the reader to build a more complete picture of what happened, while present tense gives tunnel vision and seems more like an instruction manual.

Just my thoughts.