I’ve been noticing lately there have been some search strings bringing people to ths blog looking for information on point of view (POV).
I don’t claim to be an expert on POV, but I’ll put a little bit about it here. If there are more searches/questions, I’ll find some sources to link to.
Types of POV:
1st Person — Told from the viewpoint of “I/me.” In my opinion, it’s the most difficult to write. Examples of 1st Person POV include Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series.
2nd Person — Told from the viewpoint of “you” as though the reader is the main character in the story. THis is rarely used. I can’t think of any specific examples or authors. Remember the “choose your own adventure” books from the 80s (which I’ve noticed recently are making a bit of a comeback) where you’re presented with two or more choices to continue along the story? Those are/were in 2nd Person.
3rd Person — Told from the viewpoint of “he/she.” There are subsets of 3rd Person.
3rd Person Limited — This stays with one or two characters for the entire story. The reader doesn’t know anything the character(s) don’t, unless there is more than one character, in which case the reader could well know something the other POV character doesn’t.
3rd Person Omniscient — These stories are generally god/author as narrator. Many times, the reader knows everything, including what the character(s) don’t. To me, this POV invites head-hopping, moving from one character to another to another to another (or even back-and-forth between two characters without a scene break or something to take you directly into the other character’s POV) and can be confusing.
Of the projects I have going or have recently completed, three (“Navajo Rose,” “Kiernan’s Curse,” and “Devon’s Wish”) are 3rd person limited. Only one (“Confessions of a Fat Chick”) is 1st person (and honestly gives me problems because of that).
So that’s a bit on POV. See you next time.
Filed under: POV, point of view, writing , 1st Person, 2nd Person, 3rd Person, Jen Nipps, jennipps, point of view, POV, writing
