Point of view, or PoV, is the perspective that the story is told
from. When a reader picks up a book, they are looking through a camera
at the story. The location of this camera is their PoV. A couple
definitions before the full discussion on PoV: First person uses "I". I
did this, and I saw that. Second person (which is almost never used in
fiction, and is really only used when writing how-to/self-help kind of
things) uses "you". Third person, the most common for fiction, uses
"he", "she", and "it". He looked out of the airplane window, trying to
ignore the girl snoring next to him. The majority of fiction is
classically told using third person, although recently, there has been a
surge of first person books.
All the different points of view can
pretty much be summed up into four types. The first of these is
internal, main character. When a book/story uses an internal PoV, that
means that the camera the reader is watching through is located in the
head of one character. The reader sees what the character sees, hears
what the character thinks, but unless that character is a mind reader,
the reader can't tell what other characters are thinking. All internal
PoV use first person, but this also limits what can be written to show
the reader. First person anything is often hard to pull off well, even
though there are more and more books in first person that are being
published nowadays.
The second PoV is internal, secondary
character. Again, the reader is being shown the story through a single
character, but in this case, that character is not the main character,
but rather a secondary character. Nice how the names of these PoVs
correspond with what they are. I have yet to see this PoV succeed (that
I remember), although I'm sure it can be done. In fiction writing at
least, this PoV isn't used very much.
After internal PoVs, there
are external PoVs. The two types of external PoV are limited narrator
and omniscient narrator. Both use third person, and both place the
"camera" in the world instead of in a character's head. The primary
difference is how that camera is set up. In external, limited narrator,
the camera is stuck. It's placed on a tripod somewhere and it can't
see everything that's going on. In the classic good versus bad story,
the camera is often stuck with the good side, preventing the reader from
knowing what's happening with the bad side.
External, omniscient
narrator. This one is a lot easier to understand if you know what
omniscient means (I happen to like this word). Omniscient means
"all-knowing". Contrary to limited narrator, in omniscient narrator,
the camera is no longer stuck on a tripod on the ground, but rather
flying around up in the sky where it can swivel in every direction and
zoom in on anything at all. This might seem like it would be easier to
write in, since then the author can show the reader anything that he/she
deems necessary. However, sometimes it's better to keep the reader in
the dark to make them keep reading.
There's only four of these
PoVs I've talked about, but deciding which one to use can make or break a
story. So how do you choose? There's a few questions you can ask.
First, consider each choice of narrator individually. Beginning with
the main character, for internal, main character, ask what the narrator
(main character) will be able to know that other characters won't. Also
consider what the reader can learn about the main character and the
other characters from inside the main character's head. Finally, ask
yourself if you can effectively write the story. This means considering
if you can properly convey any emotions or tension necessary, as well
as delivering the build up and the climax of the story in a way that
will hook and keep the reader. Ask yourself these questions about all
four PoVs (main character, secondary character, limited narrator, and
omniscient narrator), then decide which one will be most beneficial for
your story. Good luck!
What is your preferred PoV for your own writing and for reading? What do you find easiest to write in?
No comments:
Post a Comment