Point of view

 Shifting back to writing about writing -- a topic on my mind this week is "point of view" aka POV. Many authors (and readers) are familiar with first person POV, which presents the story through the mind of one of the characters -- sometimes the protagonist, sometimes a third party who is observing the protagonist (think "Great Gatsby) -- and with third person POV, which is the author basically telling the story. 

However, there are more than just two POVs possible. There is second person, in which the narrator speaks to you. This is not commonly used in novels (but it is used in blog posts 😉) because of the difficulty of keeping it up for 100,000 words, but it is used occasionally in short stories and especially in "Choose Your Own" adventure type works. 

More commonly, though, is third-person limited and third person omniscient. Third-person limited is the one you probably thought of when you read "third-person." That's where the author is speaking in third person -- he, she, they, them, it -- but from the perspective of a single character. We know what that character is thinking and feeling and seeing. The perspective may change within the novel, but when it does, it is still from that of a single character, just a different one. It is always signaled by some kind of break, either a section break (###) or a chapter break or some other kind of break that I can't think of but undoubtedly exists. You don't change perspective within a single scene. 

Third-person omniscient is where the author/narrator speaks from the perspective of every character. And that isn't the same as "head hopping," where the author sometimes speaks from one character, sometimes from another at more or less random. The author must include every perspective of every character at all times -- which is what makes it difficult to carry off throughout a novel. And the narrator knows more than the characters do; the narrator is God. 😄 Some claim that you can "zoom in and out from limited to omniscient." I won't say that you can't, but you'd better be very skilled at it. Some of the Victorians did it, especially Thomas Hardy. He loved to zoom out and make omniscient proclamations, especially as the novel neared its end. Again, it should be signaled by some kind of break.

I've written several short stories in first-person, one being "Effie's Tale" that won the Mystery Category in last year's SouthWest Writer's short story contest. I'm toying with the idea of writing one from second person and, eventually, one from third-person omniscient. I started one recently, and switched to third-person limited without meaning to. 😄 Old habits die hard! But it was also because there were too many characters -- at least 9, without counting the bit players who had walk-ons. I think for my first foray, I should limit it to at most 4 characters.