Point of View, or POV, is an incredibly important part of the storytelling process. In fact, it’s been said that the mastering of this skill is one of the determining factors between a professional writer—and an amateur. But no pressure, right?
In the world of storytelling, there are essentially four main POV options:
1st person (I stared into the eyes of the tiger as I lifted the cookie jar with trembling hands.)
2nd person (You hope against hope he likes chocolate chip, since you’re all out of snicker doodles.)
3rd person limited (She recoiled in horror as the tiger’s eyes narrowed into yellow slits of rage.)
3rd person omniscient (There once lived a terrified baker who ran out of snicker doodles and was promptly eaten by a ravenous tiger, who thought her a bit dry.)
Each POV has its place in the world of literature, though 2nd Person is sort of the fine china of the POV family—rarely used and easy to break—so unless you have VERY good reason or are writing a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, it’s probably best to leave this one alone.
Examples for the others can be found throughout literature. 1st person? Think Jane Eyre, Hunger Games, or Twilight. 3rd person omniscient? Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice, and pretty much any fairytale. 3rd person limited? The Wheel of Time and Game of Thrones*.
*But wait, Elizabeth, you might be thinking to yourself, how can the point of view be 3rd person limited when both of these series feature viewpoints of multiple characters? Well, gentle reader, because although the POVs do shift between characters, for each section, only one character’s specific POV is addressed. i.e. In one chapter, we get to see what’s going on inside Tyrion’s head, and in the next Sansa’s—but within that specific scene, we ONLY see what Tyrion is observing; the author doesn’t tell us he’s hungry, and sleepy, then in the next sentence describe an elaborate fantasy that Sansa is having in her head about lemon cakes. That will have to wait until her own chapter.
Each style has its own pros and cons, which is why you’ll want to think things over carefully before you commit to choosing one for your book—because it IS a commitment. You’re married for LIFE, baby. ‘Til death do you part. Once you choose a POV, no hopping around (unless you’re J.K. Rowling, in which case, I’m flattered that you’re reading this, but you probably have better things to do with your time).
Here’s the good, the bad, and the ugly in a nutshell:
1st person lets you go deep down into the heart of what your character is thinking and feeling. There is almost no room for ambiguity—everything making your main character’s head tick is written out all over the page for everyone to see. The tricky part is that we never get to know what’s going on inside any of the other characters’ heads—but that’s also part of the fun, because you can build mystery and intrigue that way. Think of how different Jane Eyre would be if we dropped inside Rochester’s head. All of that wonderful buildup about poor, crazy Bertha in the attic would have been revealed way before we discovered the truth alongside Jane, destroying all of that yummy tension. Plus, something tells me Rochester is a little more broody and dreamy if we don’t actually know what’s going on inside that lovably twisted brain.
(i.e. Reader, I married him!
Rochester chuckled to himself; he couldn’t wait for the honeymoon.)
3rd person limited still allows you to play with building tension and intrigue by only seeing things through one perspective, but you won’t be getting the same level of deep-dark-secrets-blood-and-guts-confessionals as with a 1st person POV. In a way, this can be limiting, but it can also be very freeing as a writer—because your main character can be a bit more surprising. You aren’t experiencing every single thought and feeling and sensation along with them—the author can selectively pick and choose—so sometimes the character’s motivations are a mystery. Sometimes they keep secrets that can be revealed at a dramatic moment (He was really a monkey this entire time! Etc.) This style also allows more opportunity to use section or chapter breaks to move into another character’s limited perspective (like in Cassandra Clare’s Mortal Instruments series, where sometimes we’re seeing things from Clary’s POV, and sometimes we’re seeing the world through Simon’s eyes—and wait, what, Jace has a secret? What isn’t he telling us??)
3rd person omniscient allows you to move back and forth between multiple characters’ perspectives within the same section, so in a way, it’s the POV that reveals the most about the characters—but in a way, it’s also one that reveals the least. Since you’re moving back and forth between many peoples’ brains, you never get to dive into one too deeply; the story has to remain somewhat detached from any one person, only giving us occasional glimpses into their innermost thoughts and feelings. In a way, the narrator or author becomes a character in and of itself, even though you never interact directly with the characters—which means you better have a pretty strong, unique voice to keep things moving along, or this will fall flat rather quickly. Take a look at The Princess Bride, Stardust, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, or pretty much anything by the lovely Miss Austen to see how much the narration plays a part in these stories.
Confused yet? That’s because it’s confusing! But here’s a go-to cheat sheet you can reference if you’re still unclear:
If you’re doing 1st person or 3rd person limited: the reader should never be told directly what anyone is feeling except for the POV character.
WRONG: I watched him dance the Macarena. He felt terrible.
Some go-to, easy fixes for this are words like appeared, seemed, looked, as if, as though, and so forth.
RIGHT: I watched him dance the Macarena. He looked as if he felt terrible.
Or, better yet, instead of telling us how anyone feels, SHOW us.
EXTRA RIGHT: I watched him dance the Macarena. His face turned a putrid shade of green, and he clutched at his stomach with one hand as he wobbled through the moves.
The same goes for anything another character besides your POV character is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, or experiencing in any way. In all of these instances, you must rely on your POV character to either notice the details, actions, dialogue, etc. that will lead them to these conclusions, or cut out the information altogether.
WRONG: I took him outside to get a breather. He caught a whiff of cinnamon in the evening breeze.
RIGHT: I took him outside to get a breather. He sniffed the air, face paling. “Is that. . . cinnamon?”
WRONG: I asked him what was wrong. With a jolt of horror, he realized it all at once.
RIGHT: I asked him what was wrong. A look of horror flashed through his eyes. “Oh no,” he realized aloud. “I think I’m a were-tiger—and if I don’t eat snicker doodles soon, I may kill again!”
Good look, authors. Happy writing.
Elizabeth Gilliland performs content and copy editing at Xchyler Publishing. Watch for release of her upcoming project, Vivatera by Candace J. Thomas, in April 2013.