Who’s telling this story?

Check out any writer’s forum and you’ll find discussions about point of view. There is recent hostility toward first-person by some. Others find second-person ridiculous. Third-person seems standard, which is interpreted as boring by those who prefer something else. Omniscient may be disappearing.

Preferences aside, there are examples of excellent writing using every possible POV, even second-person. Choosing which to employ for a novel or short story is a major decision. The choice is ultimately how close you’re allowing the reader to know what’s going on.

FIRST-PERSON PROS:

1. Great for character-driven stories.
2. Perfect for quirky characters with entertaining thoughts they’re unlikely to share out loud.
3. The reader feels close to the character, even if the character isn’t likable.
4. A natural for a child’s POV, especially if you use the present tense.
5. Lends itself well to gothic-style stories when it is intended to be someone’s journal and the others need to remain mysterious.
6. When using multiple POVs, any character written in the first-person automatically seems more important to the plot.

FIRST-PERSON CONS:

1. Unless you use multiple POVs, it’s very limiting. You can only know what the character knows.
2. It may be harder to maintain momentum with only one character carrying the weight.
3. Writing the character has to become natural, keeping all the biases and rationalizations logical, the voice stable, the behavior believable. It’s easier to show a character’s change in the third person, generally speaking.
4. You can’t hold back information necessary to solve a mystery if the first-person character is involved. If she’s done something horrible, the only way she won’t think about it is if she has a psychological disorder that prevents her from knowing what she did. That plot twist has been covered several times.
5. Some people have developed a strong distaste for first-person writing. Unless you can pull it off, you may lose readers (if that matters to you).

WRITING IN SECOND PERSON: I’ve only read one novel written in the second-person (“Then We Came to the End” by Joshua Ferris). It was a successful novel and I believe the author made it work. Others have been written in the second-person, but my experience is limited. I can only imagine it is difficult to maintain this view for an entire novel. Congratulations to those who try.

THIRD-PERSON LIMITED PROS:

1. There’s a reason third-person limited is the most common. It is similar to the first-person in that you remain in one character’s head, but there is some distance. The reader only expects to know what a voyeur would know. Easier to write, and it allows the reader to form opinions on her own.
2. Succinct writing is easier with third-person limited. More attention can be placed on the action, for those who prefer plot-driven stories, and less attention is given to internal dialog and rationalizations.

THIRD-PERSON LIMITED CONS:

1. This point-of-view is still limited. Because the author and reader have some distance from the character, the author has to be very careful not to jump into other characters’ heads. (I’ve caught this error both in best-selling novels and movies.)
2. When using third-person limited and multiple POVs, effort must be made to differentiate between the characters. It can be more subtle than when using first-person, however.
3. Even with the distance of third-person, a character who is guilty of a crime that is the main subject of the story cannot withhold this information. (I’m harping on this because I’m reading a book for a book club at the moment where the author has done this.) If you’re writing a thriller or mystery and you want to surprise the reader, don’t give the guilty party POV. It feels like cheating when they reveal after 70% of the book that they did, in fact, do the deed.

As for THIRD-PERSON OMNISCIENT, I could be persuaded to attempt it for a short story. Novelists who have successfully carried it out have my admiration. When the narrator knows and sees all, decisions must be made as to how much attention is given to a character. I imagine plot-driven novels can move much faster with an omniscient being telling the story. If you’ve had experience with this POV, please leave a comment.

MULTIPLE POV:

Since I started reading and writing, I have been a fan of multiple POVs. Not everyone shares my enthusiasm.

Can too many characters have POV?  My vote is yes. I’m reading a book now with eleven POV characters, all talking during the same time period. It’s a bit much. One of them, as I’ve already mentioned, should have been left without a voice for suspense. It is also difficult to differentiate between them when there are too many.

Can too few characters have POV? Depending on whether the first or third person is used, yes. If hopping into someone’s head is necessary to tell the story, someone else needs a voice.

Diversity of POV creates more variety for readers. I have found it worthy of consideration and experimentation. How the story is told is sometimes more important than the story itself.