Creative Thoughts: Point of View

When writing a story, choosing the point of view can be just as vital as the content itself. Presentation is a very important issue with a lot of readers and knowing the right point of view (or POV) for your piece is good.

These are the major points of view:

• First Person - This is the main character's perspective, telling the story with the I pronoun. I think a lot of beginning writers gravitate toward this choice because it allows them the freedom to feel like they're writing as the main character. The key to first person, though, is that you are writing as the character, but you - the writer are not the character (that would be memoir). So you have to remove yourself from the character and make the distinction between narrator and author.
• Second Person - By far the most under-used point of view, second person is written in the manner of a how-to book. You becomes the main character, allowing the reader to take the place of the main character, rather than the author, as in first person. It's also very difficult to pull off, because it's jarring for most readers.
• Third Person - Third person is the most effective way to tell a broad-spectrum story. When there are multiple characters, lots of subplots, and a long story, third person allows the author to write about everything. It's limiting, though, because it doesn't allow for much introspection on the part of any one character.

Each has it's benefits and it's flaws. For me, first person is most effective when telling a very personal, character-motivated story. Third person is good for stories with a more authoritative feel to them (like a lot of the science fiction pieces I write). Second person is something I've not utilized often, but it can be effective if you're trying to directly engage your reader.

There are a few other smaller distinctions within each of these points of view.

• First Person, Communal - William Faulkner used this particular technique a lot. Instead of stories being told by I, they're told by We. It gives a sense that there is a multiple-person effort in the telling of the story.
• Third Person, Omniscient - The general idea of third person is this type of point of view. The author sees everything, knows everything, controls everything. We, as readers, are given exactly what the author wants us to have. It's effective, as I said above, if you're telling a sort of large-scale story.
• Third Person, Limited - To alleviate some of the concern about having too much in the narrative, you can limit the perspective to one character (sometimes two) by allowing the reader inside their head. While the story is told from an outside narrator, our view of the story is always restricted to one character, thus we have a more personal touch to the story through the eyes of the character we're most invested in.

Point of view can be tricky. I suggest trying your hand at writing a very short story in all three major points of view. Then try writing it in the minor ones. Your characters speak to you in different ways when you write in different points of view; knowing which best fits the story you're telling will help you connect with your readers better.