Adventures in Writing

7) Points of View

Points of View

The point of view is how you tell the story, if it's you at all.

Third person point of view is told from the "eye in the sky". You are the all-seeing eye in the sky that knows everything that is happening. You know what the characters are thinking and what they're going to do next. You know what's going to happen, but you can't tell the readers! Not yet. You just tell the events as they happen, or happened, depending on the tense.

Third person point of view can also be limited. You focus on the main character, rather than multiple characters at once. You sit on the main character's shoulders and write their adventure surrounding them, using pronouns such as "he" or "she" or "they", but your focal point is the main character. You know what he's thinking, you know what he's planning and how he's feeling.

First person point of view is limited to one character at a time. You use pronouns such as "I" or "me" or "we". You tell the story as the character. You step out of your mind and into theirs. Stop thinking like yourself and stop following your rules. Live inside the character, become the character. You don't know what the other characters are thinking. You don't know what they're planning, but you know what you yourself are planning. You tend to spout off a few monologues, so the readers can better understand the character himself/herself.

First person point of view can be told from multiple points of view, though. One chapter can be Jacob's point of view, but the next one has to be Edward's, and the one after that is Bella's. This one tends to be a bit more difficult because you're jumping into several different characters and they have to be different from one another. Jacob and Edward don't think alike. So their points of view have to be different.

Another thing about first person point of view is to avoid using too many characters. Some authors get carried away and just do a hundred characters and eventually the reader gets confused. Stick to only one or two main characters at a time, maybe occasionally throwing in a third. And never add a random point of view change in the middle of a chapter. It's too abrupt and shakes the mood. Just move onto a new chapter if you plan to do this.

The next point of view is generally not seen in literary work. And that point of view is the second person point of view. This one is usually used in guide books, such as this one, because I am talking to YOU and no one else. And while this one is usually used for guide books, there are some authors who managed to pull it off quite well in their works. 

Point of view is a fun thing to work with and it's always good to try a new one every once in a while. An author that can master multiple view points is a good author indeed!