Determining Point of View
by Delores
Thornton
There are basically four different voices (also called Point of View
characters) from which to tell a story.
1. Third Person limited, told in grammatical
third person, is told from one POV.
2. Second Person POV refers to
"you" which is usually the reader. Generally found in letters and/or
when describing a process, this is seldom used in novel writing.
3. First Person (which is becoming more popular) uses the active voice of
the viewpoint character.
4. Third Person, the accepted
form, where the invisible narrator is assumed by the reader to be omniscient,
and sees into the minds of all the characters.
For purposes of this article, we will examine First Person and Third Person
POV.
Descriptions of First and Third person POV:
First Person
Subjective
Involved
Identified
Informal
Third person
Objective
Detached
Anonymous
Formal Style
Decide Who Will Tell the Story:
One of the first decisions you
make as you start a story is the point of view from which it will be told.
Readers connect to a story by identifying with the viewpoint character that is
usually the main character. The author can ensure this by keeping the point of
view in a character that has a central role in the story. When the author
does this, the reader is always involved in the story, and can feel and
see all of the action through the viewpoint character.
When the viewpoint character
is referred to using the following pronouns: he, she, him, his, it, they,
them or theirs, that’s third person. Multiple narrators may be
employed with this form of narration. Third person is the standard, and most
commonly used approach.
When the viewpoint character is
referred to using the following pronouns: I, me, my, mine, our, ours or we,
that’s First Person. When writing in First Person, you will need to watch
for those annoying "I" references at the beginning of
sentences.
For example: I stopped by the office to pick up the manuscripts.
Revised: On my way home, I remembered that the manuscripts were due in by
Monday; so I stopped by the office and picked them up.
You
may also use multiple narrators with first person; alternating chapters based
on each character’s viewpoint may accomplish this. In some stories you will
find that the writer shifts the point of view from one character to
another and sometimes to a third narrator. It is wise, however, for new writers
to stick to the more standard method of using a single point of view.
Let’s take a look at Third Person:
Ida Mae stumbled into the
kitchen, careful not to wake Papa or Milan as she climbed the back stairs. If
I’m lucky, I can pour a bath and bandage my wounds and be in bed before eleven,
she thought. In the oval mirror above the washstand, she surveyed the damage.
Blood was still oozing from her nose, as well as, the cut on her lip, and her
left cheek had started to swell. The pain she felt between her legs and in her
rectum sent her reeling. Down, down she fell, into a sea of darkness.
Now let’s examine the same scene using first person:
Careful
not to awaken Papa or Milan, I quietly climb the back stairs. Glancing at the
Baby Ben clock atop my chiffonier, I know that I’ll have time to pour a bath,
bandage my wounds, and be in bed by eleven. In the oval mirror above the
washstand, I survey the damage. Blood, still oozing from the cuts on my lips
and nose, leaves a nasty taste in my mouth. My left cheek, which is extremely
sore, is starting to swell. The pain I feel between my legs and in my
rectum is becoming unbearable; a sea of darkness seems to envelope me as I lose
consciousness.
In the First Person POV noted
above, the taste of blood and Ida Mae’s interior thoughts [is intended to] draw
the reader into the story as he/she connects with the narrator!