Point of View: What it is, how it works, and why it matters
No Point Of View, No Story
There is no story on this earth, within the limits of time and space, bound by gravity or consciousness that can be told without using point of view. No point of view, no story.
Point Of View (POV) is the narrator’s position in the description of the events, also known as narrative mode.
They who control the narrative, control history, civilizations, societies, people, and individuals. POV matters because it filters every element of your story. Damaged POV means a damaged story. POV problems are the easiest for the unpracticed writer to make and they plague even high-skill writers. They are vital to fix! Sloppy POV erodes a writer’s credibility and a reader’s trust.
Types Of Point Of View
There are five types of POV:
1st Person
2nd Person
3rd Person Limited
3rd Person Omniscient
3rd Person Close/Free-Indirect
In 1st Person POV the “I” telling the story is a character inside the narrative relating direct experience.
1st Person POV is common but difficult to manage, especially time and setting, because all events are filtered through one person. It is limited, biased, and incomplete, which can, depending on the writer’s aims, be exactly as they want it.
1st person POV isn’t telling the story but instead telling their story. 1st person is popular among readers (it builds trust) because it’s imbued with the character’s personality and unique perspective. In the kingdom of story, 1st person is a device unique to fiction.
1st Person POV can be used to surprise the reader through the unreliable narrator, a technique in which the reader learns that the narrator’s version of events cannot be trusted. Think: Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl in which typical 1st Person POV narration duels with journal entries.
There are two big mistakes writers make in 1st Person POV: first, the narrator isn’t likable. We don’t want cliché heroes or morally upright saints but the narrator must at least be interesting if we are to respect a reader’s investment in 300 or more pages.
The second common error is the narrator telling and not showing. The story is being told from inside a character’s mind, relaying what they think and feel but, remember, that character must do and act more than they should describe what they are witnessing.
2nd Person POV narration is when the story is told to “you.” It is uncommon in fiction but common in non-fiction essays.
In this POV, the narrator is relating the experiences of another character called “you.” “You” carry the plot, “your” fate determines the story. 2nd Person POV is the narration mode in video games, particularly Role Playing Games, and it works because it pulls the reader into action, and makes the story personal.
2nd Person POV is used in 1st Person or 3rd Person POV when the “fourth wall” is broken. Using the 2nd Person POV stretches your skill as a fiction writer, it’s worth experimenting and perfecting your ability to employ the technique for that alone. Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney is an example of 2nd Person POV used skillfully in fiction.
3rd Person Limited POV is when the story is about “he,” “she,” or “them/they.” It’s the most common POV in commercial fiction. The narrator is outside of the story and relating the events of experiences of a character.
The narrator of 3rd Person Limited POV is limited because they don’t know any more information about people, events, or what’s to come in the arc of the story than the character whose experience they’re relating. It can be used to create suspense—the reader and the POV knowing the same amount of information at the same time—but is particularly difficult if you want to employ dramatic irony in which the audience knows more about future events and their consequences than the narrator.
3rd Person Omniscient POV is when the story is still about “he,” she,” or “they/them,” but the narrator has full access to the thoughts and experiences of all other characters.
3rd Person Omniscient POV is unfairly named, as it doesn’t truly function as the narration in which all thoughts of all characters are revealed. It’s a problem of practicality, scenes in which multiple characters’ thoughts were revealed would be unwieldy. The writer would create whiplash if page after page they revealed all thoughts and emotions of characters in conflict.
Consider a scene in which a couple is arguing written in a letter-of-the-law 3rd Person Omniscient POV. If story is the carefully constructed and skillfully revealed chronicle of characters’ taking action based on their inner needs and outer desires then a 3rd Person POV Omniscient scene in which two people in love are fighting for their relationship and autonomy would be difficult to track every way in which a character changes their tactics and themselves to achieve their aims in that argument. It would feel like real life: confusing, muddy, and generally unsatisfying. Story is like real life in that it is better than real life; the Coca-Cola Classic to diet Coke.
The biggest mistake that writers make with the 3rd Person Omniscient POV is “head hopping,” or switching the POV characters from thought-to-thought or emotion-to-emotion. It breaks the reader’s trust and entanglement. A technique to avoid head hopping is to stick with one character’s thoughts per scene or chapter and switch to a different character’s interiority in the next scene or chapter. George R.R. Martin chooses this method in the Games Of Thrones books.
3rd Person Close/Free-Indirect is 3rd Person narration that uses elements of a character’s first-person speech.
Free-Indirect is the most difficult POV to understand and employ but ultimately it has the most range. First, the writer can achieve a unique voice and style with Free-Indirect because the character’s attitude and mannerisms are filtered through the narrator.
Free-Indirect is omniscient—the reader benefits from knowing the thoughts, desires, and motivations of all characters—but has the personality of 1st Person POV because the narration often uses the tone, rapidity, colloquialisms, argot, accents of the main character. Jane Austen invented this technique, singlehandedly. Ragtime, by E.L Doctrow is a great example of 3rd Person Close/Free-Indirect.
Some additional considerations include: once a writer has picked a POV they are stuck with it. Do not change from the 1st Person POV to any other POV mid-story and vice-versa. More commonly, do not start with 3rd Person Limited POV and then give the narrator full omniscience later in the story to solve a plot problem or supply backstory/exposition. Once the writer has picked a POV, they must establish it within the first two paragraphs.
To study, learn, and employ technique—especially mastering POV—is the task of a writer who respects that the audience is spending their limited leisure by engaging with their work. Again, as always, there are no rules to our thing. These are only ranges, not requirements. There is no best POV. The true writer, like the carpenter, mason, or potter that know their materials and craft, learns and employs the techniques of POV to prove that great creators are not born. They are made. And they continually make themselves better.
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