Point of view (POV) is the voice in which a story is narrated. If you are an avid reader, you most likely have a preference, and if you’re a writer or an author, you probably lean toward writing and narrating from a particular POV.
For an author, the POV in which they tell a story becomes the essence of their writing style and makes them memorable and recognizable.
Because we all have different perspectives or points of view, the same story may be narrated and perceived differently depending upon the POV in which it’s told. I’ve referred loosely to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers by Renni Browne and Dave King in the writing of this article explaining the differences between the types of POV.
There are four types of POV:
- first person
- second person
- third person limited (or close)
- third person omniscient
And there are two types of narrators:
- reliable—second and third person omniscient
- unreliable—first person and third person limited
The POV in which a story is presented is vital and can make or break it.
FIRST PERSON POV (I/WE)
The first person POV is where the narrator tells the story from the perspective of one character in the book.
Another week over—and I am so many days nearer health, and spring! I have now heard all my neighbour’s history, at different sittings, as the housekeeper could spare time from more important occupations. I’ll continue it in her own words, only a little condensed. She is, on the whole, a very fair narrator, and I don’t think I could improve her style.
In the evening, she said, the evening of my visit to the Heights, I knew, as well as if I saw him, that Mr. Heathcliff was about the place; and I shunned going out, because I still carried his letter in my pocket, and didn’t want to be threatened or teased any more. I had made up my mind not to give it till my master went somewhere, as I could not guess how its receipt would affect Catherine. The consequence was, that it did not reach her before the lapse of three days. The fourth was Sunday, and I brought it into her room after the family were gone to church.
The paragraphs quoted above are the opening of a chapter from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. Brontë is an author who is a master of the first person POV, and since Wuthering Heights is easily my all-time favorite book—it captivated me beyond belief when I first read it as a child and is the one book I keep coming back to and re-reading at least once a year—I couldn’t overlook it as the perfect example here.
In Wuthering Heights, Brontë goes even deeper and artfully and skillfully uses two narrators to deliver the brooding story of Heathcliff and Catherine to the reader—Lockwood, Heathcliff’s tenant and the primary narrator, and Ellen “Nelly” Dean, Cathy and Heathcliff’s caregiver and a servant to the Earnshaws and then the Lintons.
Nelly narrates to Lockwood and is the secondary narrator, even though, essentially, hers is the story the book delivers. The POV jumps from Lockwood to Nelly, but the author presents pretty much the entire story in Nelly’s perspective.
While the first person POV is a popular one, it’s also challenging and quite risky. It can be limiting at times since there’s only one perspective and one version of events the reader is exposed to.
Consistency is key in this type of writing since the reader is only ever able to enter the head of the person narrating and remains there the entire time. The narrating character can’t possibly know other characters’ exact feelings and thoughts, so as the author, you can’t discuss what another character might be thinking or feeling—you can only ever show how the narrator perceives the actions and emotions of others.
In this POV, events and their outcomes are only revealed to the reader as they become clear to the narrator.
If done effectively, writing in the first person POV keeps the reader engulfed in the story and on their toes. Everything becomes personal, and they end up consumed by the story and extremely involved in the plot.
In a masterpiece like Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë creates this exact type of dramatic intimacy and deep understanding between the reader and the characters, and the reader remains locked in the action from beginning to end.
At the same time, though, keep in mind that unless you have a captivating main character who can grab and hold the reader’s attention for the duration of the book, your reader may get distracted and frustrated, start skipping through the pages, or even give up on the book altogether; we don’t want to take any chances of that happening.
Above, I also mentioned reliable and unreliable narrators.
A narrator who tells a story from the first person POV is always unreliable. This is because the entire story is told through their eyes, and events and other characters are seen through their perspective only. There is no objectivity present anywhere, and we don’t know how the story would have been told from any of the other characters’ standpoint.
SECOND PERSON POV (YOU/YOU)
While the narrator is considered reliable in second person POV, you—the reader—can often rebel against who the author is forcing you to be and feel isolated as you are being told how to act and what to do, think, and feel.
Being singled out like this can even anger you.
But here is where the irony comes in.
If a story can give rise to such emotions and reactions on your part as the reader, this usually clearly indicates that it’s been written very well, and the desired effect has been achieved.
This was the case with me and the short story “The Cheater’s Guide to Love” by Junot Díaz , featured in The New Yorker in 2012.
Even though I was annoyed with the main character (the narrator) and couldn’t relate to him or give him my empathy and full understanding, I felt an intimate closeness with him and was able to follow along easily, regardless of the fact a lot of the non-English words used in the story were not familiar to me.
The author’s ability to incorporate non-English words in the text in a way that doesn’t confuse the reader reveals an even higher level of skill. Instead of alienating the reader by using words that may not be universally known, the author makes them feel connected and close. The chain of events is so skillfully presented and written, and the cultural aspects are incorporated so well in the story line, that the reader becomes involved right away.
As I mentioned, with this POV, the author is essentially forcing emotions and perspectives on the reader. Narrating in this POV is rightfully considered to be one of the most difficult writing styles to pull off. It is also the most limiting. But if done right, your reader becomes submerged and immersed in the story from page one and remains the focal point of the action until the end.
And as far as trustworthiness and reliability are concerned, generally a narrator in this POV can hardly be considered unreliable, even though this has become a controversial subject in the field of literature.
The verdict that the narrator is reliable in this point of view, however, still remains. Even though you are being told who you are and what you feel, the events that occur can only be taken at face value. There is no bias when it comes to your own inner emotions and the things happening to you. You—the reader—are the center of everything, after all.
THIRD PERSON LIMITED POV (HE/SHE/THEY)
In his book series A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin narrates in third person limited POV. He tells the story from the POV of various characters. They all sort of take turns narrating, and the person telling the story is easily distinguished by chapters, so the chances of possibly confusing the reader are eliminated.
George R. R. Martin undoubtedly chose the right POV for his bewitching book series. His is a story so rich in events and characters that it seems impossible at first that everyone’s private journey can be captured in detail and deep intimacy can be achieved.
The author, however, shows remarkable skill, and the reader gets the chance to become exceptionally close with each character and spend some time inside everyone’s head. As a result, each character becomes more real and human, and the reader is able to bond with every player in the thrilling and exhausting game of thrones and remains deeply involved in the story from beginning to end.
Consistency in this POV is also vital. In A Game of Thrones, the first of the book series, When Martin presents a scene from Ned Stark’s perspective, for example, he’s doing it from Ned’s POV and not from anyone else’s. He doesn’t suddenly jump into, say, Jon Snow’s head without warning in the middle of the scene.
Switching narrators can be done within the same chapter or even scene, but you have to be mindful of clarity, and new authors often struggle with this.
One solution may be a new paragraph and a hard break between paragraphs, for example. This will prepare the reader for a change, and the transition into someone else’s head won’t be so abrupt and obvious.
Of course, the narrator is always unreliable in third person limited POV because they are only ever able to present the chain of events from their own standpoint.
In the magical books of the series A Song of Ice and Fire, because the reader is always in someone’s head, none of the intimacy is lost, and since every character gets a chance to present their standpoint, the reader doesn’t miss any important details, information, or plot twists.
THIRD PERSON OMNISCIENT POV (HE/SHE/THEY)
Merriam-Webster Unabridged defines omniscience as “infinite knowledge.” For this reason, many philosophers refer to omniscience as an attribute of a divine being—for example, God.
This is a valid association because writers and authors are essentially the gods in the stories they write. They create the world in which the events take place, decide who the characters are, how the story unfolds, and how it ends.
The narrator in third person omniscient POV is all-knowing and reliable. An example of a story told in this POV is another one of my all-time favorites—Les Misérables by Victor Hugo.
In this POV, every character’s story and private journey is told by an all-seeing narrator.
Generally, in this POV the reader is not inside anyone’s head at any given point in time, and the characters’ innermost thoughts and emotional reactions are only interpreted and shown—even though in Les Misérables, Hugo exercises some freedom with this concept, and while at the beginning of the story he tells the reader he himself doesn’t know the characters too well, he tends to journey deeper into their heads as the plot thickens and the story progresses.
The final verdict, however, still remains—the POV of his classic multi-volume story is third person omniscient.
The advantage with this POV is that the reader does see and know all that happens instead of only being “in the know” of events and details known by and obvious to one particular character.
Some of the aspects of this writing style may be considered to be negatives or viewed as less advantageous—such as possible distance between the reader and the characters and limitations when it comes to forming intimate bonds between them.
With a classic and amazingly skilled author like Hugo, however, intimacy and understanding are achieved so craftily and precisely that the reader feels exceptionally close and connected to each character and actively participates in each event and plot point, twist, and turn.
I hope you’ve been able to get a better understanding of POV in writing after reading this article.
If you have a favorite POV, which one is it?
Mine is probably the first person, but I have to say as long as the book is written well and grabs my attention, I’m in for the ride.