It is somewhat likely we’ve all read books from different points of view (POV). Whether we recognize the difference initially might be another question, especially when it comes to third-person omniscient or third-person limited. Some even argue that every written word has a POV, even factual notations. This brings to mind some instructors I’ve had who simply spoke as if they had very little character as possible, relying on facts to make the subject matter enjoyable. So, which POV is suitable for which project? How does one pick the perspective they are going to write in? How does one know if they accidentally switched in the middle of a scene?
For me, it’s one of the hardest things to edit because I read and know exactly what I was thinking. So as I’m editing, I’m trying to keep my POV in mind. I’m going to dive into issues I have with keeping the same point of view in the next post (teaser, I know). Still, before I dive into the errors and questions I have with POV, it’s important to know what terms and how I define or understand POV. Plus, talking about it helps me figure out what’s missing in my works, so let’s define POV.
(POV) – Generally…
So I spent an afternoon reading a few articles on POV. The best general definition of POV I can come up with is the narrator’s perspective of a story. This can range from written works to screenplays to textbooks. POV has three types: first person, second person, and third person.
The first-person POV is from the perspective of a singular person. Whereas the second person is the narrator talking to the reader.
Unlike the third person, the first and second person are relatively straightforward and easy to stick to. This is because the third-person POV is from the perspective of a narrator who is not the reader or the writer.
There are two different types of third-person POV. The first subdivision is the third-person omniscient. I always think of the narrator in Lemony Snicket’s series A Series of Unfortunate Events. Mostly because the narrator creeped me out as a kid. But he was a compelling narrator in the third person omniscient. He had opinions and was not directly involved in the Baudelaire children’s misfortunes but merely recorded them.
The second one, growing in popularity, is the third-person limited POV or a closed third. Think Game of Thrones, Eragon, Harry Potter, and more. It allows the insight into one of the characters, usually the protagonist’s head, to show emotions and thoughts.
But often, in Fantasy and Science Fiction genres, it’s helpful to switch whose limited perspective you’re telling the story from. Think Game of Thrones, where there are eight different perspectives in a chapter.
In the next post, I will dive deeper into third-person POV with examples.
SOURCES:
Camile Grant 
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