Writing Tips - Understanding Point of View

What point of view will you use when telling your story? Do you know that there are different kinds of point of view? Do you know what they are and how to use them correctly? If not, continue reading and we'll learn more about point of view.

Determining point of view is an important decision. It will affect nearly everything in your story. It also affects how much the readers can believe in your story.

When telling your story, you have three choices to make when considering point of view.

First Person
Second Person
Third Person




Rarely, would an author use Second Person because "you" aren't a character in your story and your reader knows "you" aren't a character in your story.

From here on, we'll consider First Person and Third Person point of view.

First Person
This is a great way to write a story because your character is telling his or her own story. The biggest advantage of First Person narrative is that it can promote an almost instant identification between the reader and your protagonist.

However, not every story can use First Person point of view. It has limitations. How are you going to get the reader information that the protagonist doesn't have access to?

Describing your character seems like an easy thing to do, but when you are using First Person point of view, if you have a heroic protagonist it just sounds like bragging when he or she describes themselves as brave and courageous.

So, let's learn about Third Person point of view which is usually the better choice.

Third Person
There are at least four kinds of third-person narratives: Omniscient, camera eye, single point of view, and sigma character.

Omniscient
This is the least restrictive point of view. The author writes as "God". The author can comment on what's going on in any character's mind, can discuss action "off stage", and warn the reader of future events.

While Omniscient is tricky and attractive to the writer because it offers the most freedom, it's not as popular as it used to be.

Camera Eye
This point of view is opposite of omniscient. The story is unfolded in front of the reader as if the reader were watching a movie or television program. The reader has no insight into a character's mind.

Camera Eye is a very limiting way to tell a story. It distances the reader from the protagonist.

Single Point of View
This viewpoint is a good compromise between Camera Eye and Omniscient. You are able to convey to your reader not only your protagonist's actions but what they are thinking as well. It's important to remember that you must only write from the one character's point of view. Do not slip thoughts of other characters into your story. Your readers will notice.

Sigma Character
This unusually named point of view is simply this: use multiple view points but only one view point per scene. You can write from a different character's view point either in separate scenes or separate chapters. Your readers may enjoy this because they are not in the head of one character the entire book.

Do you understand Point of View a little better now?

Great, now go write that story!

The resource used to write this blog post was The Writer's Digest Handbook of Novel Writing.

Who is going to tell your story?

Point of View: The combination of collective opinions, prejudices, tastes and attitudes of your story's character(s). (According to James N. Frey in How to Write a Damn Good Novel.)

How important is Point of View (POV)? It's so important that it will affect almost everything in your story. According to Joel Rosenberg, Choosing Your Storyteller, "Your point of view choice is also important in that point of view affects how much the readers can believe in the story being told. A proper choice can lead to the willing suspension of disbelief."

We all know how important POV is. The questions I get from my writers are What POV should I use? and What's the difference between the POVs?

Let's see if we can answer those questions.

What's the difference between the POVs?

Joel Rosenberg tells us that we have three basic choices: first (me), second (you) or third (him/her). He quickly dispenses with second POV as a poor choice because it puts the writer/reader in the story as a character, which the reader would probably never believe and would probababy leave your abilities as a writer in jeopardy.

First Person POV is where one of the characters tells his/her story. A beginning writer usually finds this the easiest way to write. However, it takes quite a bit of skill to manipulate first person POV. According to Mr. Frey, "You cannot go places the narrator couldn't have been and show things to the reader the narrator couldn't have seen. Not without a lot of burdensome explaining."

One of the best examples of first person narrative done right is J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.

Third Person POV can come in various forms: omniscient, camera eye, single point of view, and sigma character.

Omniscient is the God-like POV. It's where the narrator of the story knows everything about every character and reveals all of their thoughts to the reader.

Camera Eye is the exact opposite of Omniscient. Instead of the reading knowing all, the reader only knows what is going on in front of them, not getting the thoughts of feelings of the characters. Just like watching movie.
Single POV is exactly what it says. The POV for the reader comes from one character only throughout the entire story.

Sigma Character is also known as multiple POV. According to Janet Evonovich in How I Write, she points out that "With multiple points of view, the action moves from person to person." It's important to understand; however, that with the changing of character POV, you should do so in a practical manner. Do not change POV in the middle of scenes in the middle of paragraphs. Make sure you use proper scene breaks or chapter breaks to indicate the changes of POV.

Ms. Evonovich says it best, "When you change a narrator's point of view, always use a transition such as a scene break or a new chapter. This tells the reader that he is now inside the head of a new character. It's best to limit the POV to a few characters because the more you use, the more confusing it is to the reader."
So, what point of view should you use?

According to Mr. Frey, the question isn't "what point of view?" but "Who can tell this story best?" Remember, to make your story the best it can be, you want to tell it from the character's POV that can best reflect your image of your story.

Again, according to Mr. Frey, "the selection of the narrative voice is based upon a consideration of genre." In his opinion, "for most genres, you are probably well-advised to use author-invisible, third-person, limited omniscient viewpoint. That's the standard; it's what readers expect and what editors want. You should deviate from the norm only for powerful and persuasive reasons."

In my opinion? I think all the experts have differing opinions. What's most popular? Depends on what book you're reading at the moment, actually.

Point of view is something that needs to be worked on individually with each writer with each story. What I hope I've done here, is helped you understand POV a little better.