Writing Blog Number 2

20240121 Point Of View

Point Of View

The first posting based on a request! Woo-hoo!

Point Of View (PoV) is the “person” who tells the story. There are three points of view.
         First person – this is “I” and “we”
         Second person – this is “you”
         Third person – this is “he”, “she”, “it” and “them”
All have been used in writing. All have positives and negatives.

Now, before I begin, changes in POV are not really accepted in writing. Having said that, I have read some fine works that shifts between third person and first person in alternate chapters. But this is rare. It can work, though.

So, there are generally accepted to be four different forms of PoV used in fiction.


1. First Person

First person restricts everything to one person’s perspective, and that can work for some genres (e.g. thrillers, horror and detective) because the reader learns things as the narrator does, and so they can become more invested in the character. This gets us to know the main character very well and we see the world through their eyes, including their personal relationships. First person works well when there's going to be one MC and a lot of intensely emotional stuff.

First person works well when used as a sort of blank slate onto which the reader can project themselves as well. While this is a negative aspect to some, publishers of books for teenagers seem to have come to prefer it in the past 30 years.

The problem with first person is that it tends towards the introspective and, to coin the vernacular, that can come across as whiny real fast. First person makes it harder to get a good balance between characters. In many cases, this results in the narrator-character either becoming an author avatar, in which case everything is exaggerated (good and bad), or becoming a person of only a few traits, not well-rounded at all, because they are the personification of something the author wants to get across.

Another negative is that if the main character is also the narrator, it can come across as boasting. In some cases it actually seems to work better if the narrator is a secondary character who can put a realistic perspective on the main character’s actions.

But first person can work really well.


2. Second Person

This is very uncommon, but I have seen it used in three ways.

First, in poetry, when the poet is addressing some-one specifically. This can make a poem very intensely personal which can be very emotional or alienate the reader. It depends on the quality of the poem.

Second is in those old choose-your-own-adventure style books. These have fallen out of fashion in recent years, but they were very popular when I was a youngster. They engage a reader and get the reader involved in the story, which works in the choice-based stories.

Third, it can be used effectively in a well-written psychological horror. I have seen a couple of good examples of this as well.

But traditional publishers are not fans, and selling books in second person (or even short stories) is almost impossible.

Going back to the pre-1960s, though, the second person was often used to help description. For example, "When you go down Washington Blvd, just before you come to the dead end, on your left you will see an old house, rotting in the weather," comes from a book by Lionel Fanthorpe. This has fallen out of fashion, but is still a legitimate use of the second person.


3. Third person limited

From my experience, third person limited is preferred by most traditional publishers because it is felt you can show so much more than first person, but it does not feel overdone, as can occur in third person omniscient. Third person limited is where the point of view is focused on one character, maybe two. Like first person, third person limited restricts most of the action to one person’s perspective (or maybe two), and that can work for some genres.

This works well when you want to focus on one character, but also want to let the reader know things the character cannot possibly know. As a technical aside, if introducing something the PoV character cannot know, it is felt by publishers that this is best done at the end of a section, chapter, etc. It is the most common PoV used in fiction.

There are very few negatives with using this POV, to be honest. But it does not really work with multiple characters.


4. Third person omniscient

Third person omniscient is when the reader is allowed to see everything from all perspectives. This is the preferred POV for fantasy with most traditional publishers.

Third person omniscient has one huge advantage, and that is you get to really know more motivations of more characters. It is a great way to make your “bad guys” sympathetic. You can show how different people respond to one another, thus setting up more complex personal dynamics. And you can show how groups respond and the herd mentality at work. Unfortunately, it does mean that some authors who use this do fall into third person tell not show habits because they have such a large sand-box to play with.

This is actually a challenge to write well. But there are many stories that would not work without it, especially with multiple character arcs and action in different places.


5. Third Person Caveat

There is an issue with third person that authors need to be aware of - ‘head-hopping’ or changing PoV. It is known to happen a lot in third person omniscient and at times in third person limited. What this means is that each section should sit within the head of one character, otherwise you hop from head to head, and this can confuse the reader. If you are going to change points of view in a story (and that is perfectly valid to do), it is recommended you separate the changes (three asterisks is usual in published works: * * *) to help your reader follow what is going on.

When it comes to short stories, traditional publishers rarely want multiple points of view.

Now, in first person, publishers and most readers only want one first person narrator in a story. If you do have a second person throw in some chapters, they need to be separated completely, either using a font change or italicised. Rare, but it happens. Don't do what Naomi Campbell did in her "novel" and change the first person narrator from one paragraph to the next.


6. Fourth Wall Breaks

I'll throw this here because, this has become quite popular in stories following the Deadpool movies (despite Deadpool doing it in the comics for years). As to whether it should be used, so long as it works in the context of the story, nothing's out of bounds. Some fine comedy writing (like Douglas Adams) breaks the fourth wall, and some really good first person POV horror can do the same. It tends to work best in first person if in present tense. Some would say the second person descriptions I mentioned above is also a form of fourth wall breaking.

Generally, outside of comedy, it does not work well in third person PoV stories.

Having said that, most publishers I have worked with think it's just the author being too clever and hate it.