By Rebecca Talley
Point of View, or POV, can be confusing, especially when you first begin writing fiction. What does point of view mean and how does it influence the story?Point of View can be defined as the character through whom you choose to tell your story. You, as the writer, will need to determine the character through which the story can be told most effectively and in whose head the reader will be in during the story. In order to choose that character, you will need to understand POV.
Omniscient
Omniscient is all-knowing. The writer can hop into the head of any of the characters and can know the thoughts and feelings of any, or all, of the characters. The reader will interpret the story from all the characters the writer chooses to use. Omniscient used to be much more popular than it is today. Many new writers choose omniscient because they feel it will be easier to tell the story. However, omniscient is difficult to do well, and if done poorly will only confuse the reader and cause the reader to feel detached from the characters and the story.
The advantage of omniscient is being able to tell the story from many characters' perspectives and allowing the reader to pop into the heads of multiple characters, thus allowing a more fully developed understanding of the characters and their motivations.
1st Person
1st Person means that the story is told from one character's perspective using "I," "my," "me," and "mine." As a writer, you can only describe what that one character can see, hear, feel, think, understand, or remember. You cannot hop into another character's head during a scene, you must stay in one character's head throughout the entire scene. Once that scene is over, you may then change into another character's perspective for the next scene, but you have to stay true to the character in whose head you're occupying. If you go head hopping, you've left 1st Person and are using omniscient.
1st Person allows you to achieve a close connection to that character as you experience the story through his or her eyes. 1st Person allows you to delve deeply into that character's psyche and allows readers to become attached to that character. Many middle grade and young adult novels are written in this POV so the readers will immediately identify with the main characters and feel as if he/she is actually participating in the story.
The disadvantage is that readers do not know the thoughts, feelings, or memories of the other characters unless those characters somehow (through dialogue or action) share that information with the point of view character.
2nd Person
2nd Person is not used frequently and requires the use of "you" or "your." It's difficult to maintain 2nd Person throughout an entire novel so very few writers use it.
3rd Person
3rd Person s when you use "she," "he," "his," or "her." You can still achieve similar results as 1st Person, but it is more detached. You can choose tight 3rd Person wherein you stay extremely close to the character and examine his or her emotions. You can loosen your POV by pulling back, similar to the way a camera works. Tight 3rd Person can be likened to a close-up while loose, or limited, 3rd Person can be compared to a panoramic shot.
You can use more than one character to tell the story in 3rd Person, but, as is the case with 1st Person, you must not change the point of view during a scene. If you choose to use more than one character to tell the story, you may sacrifice reader identification with your characters.
The disadvantage to 3rd Person is that you lose the closeness with the character that you can create in 1st Person. You are also limited to only one character's thoughts, feelings, and memories while you are in that character's head.
The point of view you choose to tell your story depends on the effect you want. Each one offers advantages and disadvantages. Ultimately, it comes down to using the POV that best suits your story and tells it in the most powerful way possible.
Don't let POV confuse you. Visit my blog Pursue Your Writing Dream for helpful tips and advice on Point of View and so much more. Make your writing dream a reality . . . today!
