WHAT IS POV (POINT OF VIEW)?Â
POV is the perspective the story is told through, the eyes you see the events unfold before, the person narrating what is happening. There are many different kinds of POVs and ways to write them, so I'll do my best to touch-base on all of the ones I am aware of before giving my tips on how to write them well.
First, the main types of POV are third-person, first-person, and second-person. I'll go into depth for each one and list out the different sub-POVs used in them with a brief description beside them, and then give my tips and advice on them. If you want me to go more in-depth on anything here, let me know!
THIRD-PERSON
Third-person is the most common POV used. It's where the story is told using the pronouns she/he/they, her/him/them, etc. Normally, and what I like, third-person is in the character's head where you see the story through their eyes and see their thoughts. But with everything else in life, there are different varieties and exceptions.
1. Third-Person Omniscient:Â This is where the narrator is all-knowing or omniscient and can see any character's thoughts at any given time. Its knowledge is not limited to one single character, and therefore, can tell information that the MC (Main Character) does not know. If you look, a lot of classic books were written this way.Â
2. Third-Person Limited:Â This is where the story is told through a specific character. The narrator is the character, so it only knows what the character knows and can't go from one character's head to another. There's also third-person limited multiple, where it's the same as limited, but has a set of characters the story is told through, whether it's two or six, it doesn't matter as long as you stay consistent and only go into these set characters' heads.Â
3. Third-Person Narrative:Â This is where the story is told by a narrator along the sidelines. It doesn't go into a character's head but instead tells the story objectively as if they are telling, or narrating, the book to you.Â
Writing Third-Person Good
With third-person, you have to be careful to stay in your POV's head (unless writing in omniscient), and not tell things your character(s) wouldn't realistically know. It can also be easy to slip into a more distant POV, where it's like you're looking down on what the characters are doing instead of actually being inside of their head. I'm guilty of making this mistake countless times! Don't worry too much about it in your first draft; just get the story down, then later you can come back and make sure you're consistently in your character's head and seeing the events through their eyes.
I've noticed with a lot of third-person books, especially omniscient ones, newer authors tend to do a lot of something called head-hopping. Head-hopping is essentially where you jump from one character's POV and thoughts to another in the same paragraph, with no hint that you are, most of the time leaving the reader confused because they never know whose thoughts they're actually reading. If you're writing in one or more POVs, make sure you never change to someone else's thoughts or eyes unless you've given a clear scene/space break, by using asterisks (***) or something of the like. And if you're writing in omniscient, then make sure to not head-hop and change paragraphs when switching to a new, relevant POV. Notice my emphasis on relevant. You shouldn't go to just any person just because you can. Make sure there's a purpose in going to their POV, and make sure it flows well from paragraph to paragraph, POV to POV.
FIRST-PERSON
First-person has been popular in YA books lately and is where the story is told using the pronouns I/me/my/myself/mine. It's told through a character's POV, where you are inside their head and seeing the events unfold how they saw it. It's trendy in the Young Adult genre right now because, with the use of I and me, it makes the readers feel as if they are experiencing the events themselves, instead of the character.
1. First-Person Omniscient: This one is very rare as it's contradictory, saying that it's told through one specific person, who knows everything? But it's been done before, such as in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, where the story is told through Death's perspective.
2. First-Person Limited: This is the most common form of first-person, and is what most people think of when they hear first-person. Like I'd mentioned before, this is when you go inside the character's head and tell the story through their eyes and how they saw things.
Writing First-Person Good
It's a little more limited than third because you must only describe or write what that specific character would notice. So make sure you stay in your character's head. For example, if they walk into a restaurant, you can only describe what they see. If this character doesn't notice the floor type or how many people are inside, then you can't describe that. That's one of the reasons why I personally prefer third-person, but I have read a lot of books in first that I love!Â
Using first-person makes it very easy to put yourself into your characters using "I" and "me." While some is good and fine, make sure you don't make exact replicas of yourself and keep your characters unique and different. Don't have them all afraid of spiders, or all have a deep sense of compassion, just because you do. Give them variety.Â
I've mentioned how many people love books in first-person because it makes them feel as if they are experiencing the story themselves, but there's also a completely opposite side to that. Many people also don't like it because it feels weird reading it like they're the character, and it can get redundant after the millionth use of "I." Also, if it's in multiple POV, which I'll talk about in just a second, if the reader takes a break or something, it's very easy to forget who's POV you're in at the moment, because there are no names, just I's and me's, so it can get confusing.Â
If you choose to write in first-person, I'd recommend finding ways to get the character's name in there every so often, by someone saying it or something, so your readers don't get confused or forget who the book's even about.
When writing multiple POVs, the best way that I've seen to do this is to have only one character's POV per chapter, and to have their name at the beginning, either as the chapter title or below it. If you do use more than one per chapter, make sure to have an obvious scene/space break and then the new character's name under it.
SECOND-PERSON
Now, I don't know too much on second-person, because it's very uncommon, but I thought I'd go ahead and tell you what it is and how it's used. Second-person is pretty much only used fictionally in a make your own decision/choose your own adventure book, called a gamebook.
Using the pronouns you/your/yourself, this kind of book allows the reader to choose what the character does by flipping to the stated page for the action the reader chose. For example, say it's an adventure book, and the character is faced with taking the wide, easy looking path to the left, or the narrow, overgrown, dangerous-looking path to the right. You, as the reader, get to choose which path the character takes and then flip to the corresponding page for the action selected.
Thanks for reading, and I hope you learned something from this! If you have any questions or would like to suggest a writing topic for a future blog post, let me know in the comments!
–– Katie Marie