Abigail Fredrickson

So first off, I want to apologize.  I said this post would be up last week and did not deliver.  The week was surprisingly hectic and I was woefully underprepared, so I didn’t get a chance to post.  BUT I should have tried harder, so I’m sorry about that. ‘:D

Now let’s get into the fun stuff!  POVs: what POVs are used in writing?  Typically three, although there are four.  First person, third person limited, third person omniscient, and second person.  Second person may come as a bit of a surprise to some of you, but there actually are some people out there who write in it!  So that’s your fun fact for today.

Let’s start out by figuring out the pros and cons of each point of view.  First person is, personally, my own preferred POV to write from.  With first person you can show the character’s thoughts and emotions with greater clarity and intensity than most other povs.  It’s a front row seat.  You, the writer, and your readers take up residence inside the character’s brain.  They can’t hide a thing from you that they can’t hide from themselves.  It’s useful for more intense and dramatic scenes, or if the character is secretive, but you want your audience to know their secrets.  First person IS limited, however, in how much information you can feed your audience.  Even if you write from different characters’ POVs, each character can only offer the information that they themselves learn.  If they’re not paying attention to something, then neither are the readers.  If they don’t notice something, neither do the readers.  Under no circumstances does it make sense for you to try to feed some tidbit of information to your readers that the character never learned.  In other POVs, you may be able to say ‘____ failed to notice the object they were searching for hidden just between a pair of old books.’  Not in first person.  If they don’t know about it, then it doesn’t get mentioned.  This is not a bad thing, but it is crucial to keep in mind when deciding what POV to write from.

Third person limited is like a cross between first and third omniscient.  You’re still limited to one character’s thoughts, but YOU are the narrator, not the character.  You are the one relaying their thoughts and reactions, everything they do.  There’s more freedom of information sharing in this version, as a result.  As the narrator, you are able to bring up things that may be outside the character’s attention, as long as you remain focused around that character.  You cannot jump to another character’s thoughts without a clear POV switch to let your readers know that they’re not witnessing the same person’s intentions.  With the greater freedom of information however, comes a step back from the character.  We are no longer in the character’s mind, we are standing next to them, with a window into their mind.  We can take notice of things they cannot, and can still see some of their thoughts, but it’s not a front row seat.  We use our own eyes, not the character’s.  Because of this, there’s a thin veil between the character and the reader, as we watch more from the outside than the inside.  The intensity is lowered.  Again, this is not a bad thing, merely something to keep in mind.

Third person omniscient is the greatest wealth of information a writer or reader could hope for.  Often stories that have greater, overarching plots are written this way.  Here the window to the characters’ minds are very often veiled.  Not bricked off, but the emotional separation between reader and character is a bit stronger here.  The narrator is in charge of all the information, what motives are shared, what the readers get to know that the characters’ don’t.  They can move around at will.  They can move more fluidly between the characters’ instead of needing to use POV switches.  They can pan across the world to the antagonist or some side plot, or even simply to give a lay of the land.  In trade to this wealth of knowledge, like I mentioned, is our view into the characters’ heads.  We can be made aware of their states, should the narrator choose so, but we rarely get true, raw thoughts.  We’re in the back row, as it were, where we can see everything, but we can’t quite experience the same intensity.  Once again, I stress, this is not a bad thing.  Truthfully, none of these things are bad, merely things to keep in mind.

Last of all, second person.  Second person, in my experience, is in a sense, a cross between first person and third person limited.  The narrator is telling the reader what is happening to them, or the character they’re ‘masquerading’ as, but there is a sense of closeness brought on by the term ‘you’ that’s similar to what first person offers.  The reader is the character.  The reader is the one ‘making the decisions’ in a sense. (Of course, unless this is a Choose Your Own Adventure book, they may not be literally making the decisions.)  Typically this POV follows the first person’s rules about information.  The reader isn’t made privy to any information that the character (them) does not experience.  I have known some to ignore this rule, though I find it feels rather contradictory to say ‘You don’t notice the thing that I am telling you about,’ so I would advise sticking to the first person’s rules in this case.  The style of writing does typically take a step back from the thoughts, however, like third person limited.  It allows the readers to form their own thoughts, rather than tell them explicitly what to think.  Most of the focus is telling them what is occurring around them.  This is a trickier point of view to write from, hence, not a very common one.  If you can pull it off however, I applaud you!

Now, why is it important to choose between these writing styles?  Quite simply, because it affects your entire story.  You could hear the same story told from each different style, and you will realize that it makes a difference.  The emphasis is shifted, and not all points of view will work for each story.  If there are things your reader needs to know that the characters don’t, you definitely can’t write from first person.  But if you want the characters to feel less detached and the emotions more raw, it’s much more difficult to achieve in third omniscient or even sometimes limited.  You have to determine what feel your story needs, what information you need to share.  Do you like taking a step back, but still want a more direct connection to the characters?  Third limited is likely going to work best.

It may seem a bit pointless at first, or just a novel concept.  ‘But I’ve always written from this one point of view!  You mean to tell me some people don’t?’  The day I learned writing from first person was an option changed my entire writing style.  I’d only ever written in third limited or omniscient before, and while my stories were still my own, I found that first person came so much easier to me.  Which is another thing to keep in mind with this.  Experimentation is good.  Don’t be afraid to step away from what you’re comfortable with and try something new, you might be surprised at the results!  Sometimes it’s as much about what point of view comes best for the writer as it is about what elements the story needs.

Please share your own experiences in the comments!  What’s your preferred POV, either to read or to write from?  Have you dabbled in different POVs or do you typically stick to just one?  Is there something in this post that surprised you or that you disagree with?