Handling Points of View with Grace · 6:15am Oct 4th, 2020
I’m pretty sure that all of you have read more than one story in your life, and I’d bet that most of you noticed that stories can be told from a variety of perspectives. If you prefer a somewhat fancier term, such a perspective can be also called a point of view (POV for short). Types of POVs, their usage, and common pitfalls are what’s this miniguide going to be about. Just like in case of the guides previously published here (and archived in my blogs), this is meant primarily for beginners and non-native English speakers. That’s why I‘ll try to simplify this topic and its terminology a little, though hopefully not to the point where it becomes misleading.
Let’s start with the first-person POV. A story using this POV is told from the perspective of a narrator that’s also a character in the story. In other words, the readers are perceiving everything through the eyes of the protagonist, and they also have almost full access to the protagonist’s thoughts, internal remarks and such. If done well, this POV is an excellent tool for making the audience sympathise with the character early on, simply because they can read their thoughts, and, to be fair, because they’re stuck in the character’s head for quite a while. That also brings me to the first pitfall of this POV—some people are too eager to show off their character that they flood the reader with their every though, feeling, and memory whenever they get the chance. Don’t forget that the story’s still happening outside, not in the character’s mind. (And even if you are writing some heavily psychological piece that mostly takes place in the character’s head, you should provide the audience with a reasonable amount of relevant information.) You also want to make sure that all the “I” and “my” don’t get too repetitive.
Furthermore, the protagonist usually cannot know everything, be everywhere at once, and their perception of the world around them is slightly distorted by their personality and past experiences. That means that first-person POV usually features the so-called unreliable narrator—a narrator that won’t provide the audience with objective information. This is really useful if you need to manipulate the readers’ minds a little or want to mess with them for some other reason. A slight downside of this POV is that you can show only what the character perceives, i.e. you cannot show a scene in which the protagonist is absent. Some people solve this issue by switching between multiple characters and telling the story from their separate POVs. It’s a viable option, though a little risky one as it might get jarring pretty quickly. Switching between two or three character POVs between chapters or larger scenes is feasible, but to be frank, if you are still learning the basics, it’d be wiser to stick to just one character.
Here’s an example of first-person POV. Notice the predominant pronouns “I” and “my” in the narrative, mixed with the protagonist’s observations and thoughts.
“Err… are you alright?” It was a young earth pony, more a filly than a mare, staring at me worriedly. Was she… trembling?
I looked at my legs floating in some brown-green sludge. Opening my mouth, I immediately retched at the putrid smell.
“Never better. Ever heard of mud baths? This is a low budget version,” I said finally, my throat burning and insides twisting. I gave her a crooked smile and extended my wings from the slop. Another lance of pain shot through my system, and a quiet grunt fought its way through the barrier of my clenched teeth.
“G-g-griffon!” Her eyes were suddenly the size of Celestia’s dinner plates. “P-please, d-don’t eat m-me,” she squeaked, slowly backing away. Her shaking knees were now more than apparent.
I cocked my head, feeling my hat sliding to the side. “Griffon? What?” Her hooves already pounded away on the cobblestones of the dark alley, her tail all but flying behind her. Coward.
Next, second-person POV. The reader is not just in the protagonist’s head, they are the protagonist (or are roleplaying as one). This POV is used in stories where you want the reader to feel almost intimately close to the story—that’s why you’ll usually encounter it in works featuring romance and also in those “Choose Your Own Adventure”- like stories. It can be theoretically used in any kind of story, but in most cases you’ll be better off using another POV. The largest limitation of these stories is that you have to be really careful about your choice of words and also about the protagonist’s actions. If the character does something that the reader wouldn’t do in their wildest dreams, has very extensive knowledge of something the audience never heard about, and generally behaves and talks in a somewhat extreme way, then the readers might be put off by it. The protagonist here is simply not supposed to have a very prominent personality. Also, it’s better to clarify very early on if the readers have to imagine themselves as someone specific (e.g. a unicorn mare) or if they are just a generic pony. Thinking that you’re an earth pony, only to find in the last chapter that you are a pegasus, is sort of jarring.
These stories also tend to rely on large amounts of description to really sell the idea that the reader is a part of the story. It’s just like all those 4D, 5D, 8D and whatever number of D cinemas where they slap a VR headset on you and make your seat move this way and that while blowing air at you and pouring buckets of piranha-infested water behind your neck. Of course, such a large amount of description comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. (Also, it's good to state that this POV is rather frowned upon by some denizens of this site, as evidenced by the heated discussion in The Writers' Group where I posted this first.)
Here’s a part of the excerpt from earlier, this time adjusted for the second-person POV. Notice the change in pronouns.
“Err… are you alright?” It was a young earth pony, more a filly than a mare, staring at you worriedly. Your eyes narrowed, following the tremors shaking her whole body. That was odd.
You looked at your legs floating in some brown-green sludge. Opening your mouth, you immediately retched at the putrid smell.
Last but certainly not least, there’s the third-person POV. This one is akin to watching a commented hockey match—both the reader and the narrator are not a part of the story (i.e. they are not the hockey players), though the former still can get heavily invested in the plot, the latter usually shouldn’t. The traditional third-person narrator is supposed to be objective, reliable, and neutral, but if you know what you are doing, you can break this rule (just like almost any other one). The narrator is omnipresent, meaning that you can show whatever scene you need to, regardless of what (if any) characters are present, which makes this POV really versatile. The narrator can also function in two modes, more or less, anyway.
The narrator in third-person limited POV has access to the thoughts of none or just one character* (or a few characters, though they never get in the head of more than one character per scene) and should display a limited knowledge of the world.
*This kind of third-person limited sensu stricto that sticks to one character and their thoughts and perception is dominantly used in modern literature.
On the other hand, third-person omniscient POV features a narrator that’s omniscient (“all-knowing”) and thus can freely glance into the heads of all characters. They may also know everything about the world. This offers you quite a lot of freedom in your narrative, though it’s also really easy to overuse. Keep in mind that even though the narrator is omniscient, it’s sometimes better if they keep certain information to themselves. Using an omniscient narrator does not justify info dumps and lots of exposition or redundant details. Rapidly shifting the focus between many characters to view all their thoughts and opinions on something (the so-called head-hopping) is also really jarring and should be avoided.
The excerpt again, this time adjusted for third-person:
“Err… are you alright?” A young earth pony, more a filly than a mare, stared at the pegasus mare worriedly. The filly’s knees trembled a little as the larger pony fidgeted and narrowed her eyes momentarily.
The pegasus looked at her legs floating in some brown-green sludge. Opening her mouth, she immediately retched at the putrid smell.
In the end, it doesn’t really matter what POV do you choose, all of them can be used to tell a good story. I suggest going with the one you feel would make your story the most impactful, and also with the one you are comfortable writing and can do it well. Whatever is your choice going to be, you ought to be consistent and keep it the same thorough the story. Momentarily switching from one POV to another is a major and very noticeable error. There might be instances where you can somewhat break this rule and use more POVs (e.g. alternating first-person POV and third-person POV chapters with the former being in the form of letters or journal entries), but you should always know what purpose is that going to serve. Some stories might also combine POVs as if they were a matryoshka doll. For example, a whole story might be written in a third-person POV, but once you reach the epilogue, you learn that it was actually a first-person POV with some character serving as the narrator of the tale you just read. You can just hope there isn’t a second epilogue with another narrator lurking on the next page.
And of course, keep in mind that this guide is simplified and doesn't cover by far all aspects of POVs. Furthermore, the interpretation of some details mentioned above is rather subjective.
This thread has been originally posted in The Writer's Group and Struggling Authors. Reposting here for safekeeping purposes.
PS: The excerpt used here is from an upcoming story of mine. Though given the current circumstances, I have no idea when I'll be able to finish it.
Very nice.
Myself can find this a lot of jarring when you are at the begging in the story and it is a tale of epic proportions with lot of characters and POV is switching rapidly how their are introduced into the story and I find myself saying, "Who the hell is this guy?". Bonus points if the storyline is jumping back and forth in time
One way where this was done very wall I think is first book of Game of Thrones (the books has a wonderfull way with POV from technical point of view I think) that all the important characters were introduced throught eyes of the first character using POV so later switching is so much confusing.
I think another metric could be how POV is usefull for narative. What I mean for example when you have a lot of fight scenes in the story then I would suggest third-person close limited POV rather then omniscient POV so the fight would be more engaging throught a sense description for that character who is fighting.
5370475
Thank you.
Eh, I have to say I'm not sure what are you trying to say here. Do you have a problem with the rapid introduction of many characters or POV switching? Those are two very different things.
Honestly, there's no difference between using third-person limited and third-person omniscient in this case. Both can be used to convey the very same thing, including following one character thorough the whole fight and documenting their feelings. The main difference between these POVs is that the latter allows you to do things you cannot do with the former. However, nobody says that you have to utilise all of these in all your scenes. In other words, an omniscient narrator is not obliged to share all their knowledge all the time.
5370476
With both. I will try it make more clear. Say story is a from third-person limited POV and has convention that end of chapter means switching POV. Then when you are introducing new characters from their POV then you are switching to their POV at same time. A when the character is not properly introduced then for me sometimes two diffrent POV can bland together meaning the character is not enough distinguished from another.
Is then third-person limited POV special case of third-person omniscient POV where I limit description of world from only one character?
5370481
To be fair, this seems more like an improperly handled third-person omniscient that anything else. Switching between multiple characters in third-person POV is not really a switching of POVs. Unless you mean that the story started in third-person and then switched to first-person POVs of the individual characters.
Describing a world from the viewpoint of just one character is mostly a thing of first-person POV. In third-person POV, you are looking at the world through the eyes of an outside narrator--much like when you are watching a theatre play. Third-person limited can indeed be treated as a somewhat limited omniscient narrator (That's als why we call it limited, after all.) The main difference is that an omniscient narrator is allowed to glance into the minds of all characters, while a limited narrator can read the thoughts of only one character (or no character, in some cases).
5370487
Then how do you define POV switch?
So in my previous comment I mistook the limited omniscient narrator with narative distance? What I ment previously is that for interesting fight scene is better to be close to POV character then not. Like for me 'I felt blood trickling behind my ear' feels just slightly more engaging then 'Henry felt a blood trickling behind his ear'.
And since I'm already here, there something I wanted to ask. I read some advice that when you are descripbing a fight scene and you have adnventure party, one trick how to raise a stakes 'for free' is a tell a fight from POV of weakest character so the fight would seem more dangerous then it would a for a stronger character. Does this makes a sense?
5370491
A POV switch is simply a switch between various POVs, e.g. switching from third-person to first-person. Technically, this term could also be used to refer to switching between characters in first-person, because then you are basically switching narrators. However, since there's no such thing as a POV character in third-person, you cannot really call what you exemplified a POV switch.
Well, kind of. Based on your example below, you are mixing up first-person (I) and third-person (Henry) POV. With that said, yes, first-person POV makes the reader feel closer to the character faster and with more ease, as I have already stated in the miniguide. However, it's still possible to engage the audience using third-person, and it's in fact not that hard. I'd say that it can be engaging more than first-person in certain cases.
Na chvilku přepnu do češtiny, kde je možná to názvosloví trochu variabilnější a snáze uchopitelnější. To, co se v angličtině označuje jako POV, je u nás takzvaná ich-forma a er-forma a týká se to hlavně použitého vypravěče a potažmo zájmen. To, že se nějakou dobu/více zaměřuju na jednu postavu samo o sobě neříká nic o tom, jestli používám ich-formu nebo er-formu.
This is somewhat dubious and depends on what effect are you going for. Sure, it's going to seem scary through the eyes of a weak character. On the other hand, it's the weakest character you have, of course he is going to be scared! But if the stronges character gets scared and beaten to a pulp, then that's going to seem like a much more intense fight.
5370497
Oh, then I get. I have no idead what I'm talking about. So just make it clear, when in story the chapter is told from eyes of some character, then there is new of chapter and that chapter is told from eyes of some other character, that is not POV switch?
Jasně to rozumím, ale není přehlednější se držet jedné formy? Jakože pokud polovinu příběhu vypravím příběh z první osoby, jakože "Já slyšel", "Já řekl" atd a pak přepnu do "On řekl" nebo "Henry slyšel" tak nemůže to být trochu matoucí?
5374181
It can be called that by some if it's a switch betwen first-person POVs, but other than that, no.
Samozřejmě, že je to přehlednější a výrazně míň matoucí, proto se to přepínání taky bere jako chyba. Pokud k tomu nemáš sakra dobrý důvod, tak bys nikdy takhle přepínat neměl. Mám pocit, že tady došlo k nějakému nedorozumění...
5374184
Občas se neumím jasně vyjádřit. Já jsem si spletil "narrative distance" s dostupností informace z pohledy postavy. Jakože jsem si, že third-person omniscient vzdálnější vyprávění a, že third-person limited si můžu představit jako kdybych seděl na rameni té postavy viděl svět jako její interpretaci.
Takže jestli to chápu dobře teď, rozdíl je, že v third-person limited vidím do hlavy jenom jedné postavy, u third-person omniscient to může být více?
5374188
Pohoda.
Jasně, přesně tak.