How To Choose the Best Point of View For Your Story
By: Sherryl Clark
Tags: Point Of View, Writing, Writing Tools, Fiction Writing, Character

How To Choose the Best Point of View For Your Story

A guide to understanding POV and what each one will do for your story and character

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

One of the key questions a writer has to answer when beginning their story is which point of view to use. Even if you know whose story it is, you still have to choose, usually between first person and third person intimate, especially if you want the reader to feel close to the character. I have found many writers are not sure how to choose, why one is better suited than another, or why a point of view such as omniscient might be better avoided. Here is a practical guide that will help.

First Person

In simple terms, first person POV uses I, and the story is seen entirely through one character’s eyes, ears and emotions. So let’s say I have a story about Jane, George and Phillip, but I tell the story through George’s POV only, using I, and cannot go into Jane or Phillip’s heads.

I tipped my wine onto the white tablecloth. I was right. The red stain looked nothing like blood. Jane had already run to the kitchen for a cloth, but Phillip leaned back in his chair, a sneer on his face. “That wasn’t very clever of you, George,” he said.

I think you’re the idiot, actually. But I kept a polite smile on my face and helped Jane mop up the wine, wishing she would stop looking at me as if I were some kind of troublemaker.

First person has become more and more popular over the past 20 years, especially in young adult fiction. It’s been creeping into a lot of middle grade fiction, and literary writers seem to love first person/present tense.

Advantages — first person can create a sense of immediacy, of being very close to the action of the story and the central narrator. It can create a sense of intimacy with the narrator so the reader more easily identifies with him/her.

Disadvantages — this POV can limit the story. The only action that can be described is that experienced by the narrator. The writer can’t go into other characters’ heads and can only show their emotions and reactions as witnessed by the narrator. You can’t include scenes where the narrator is not present.

One way of getting around this is to have two first-person narrators, as long as they sound different, or else have sections of the story where things are told in third person (which can feel like cheating to the reader unless done well).

Challenges — voice! You have to create an engaging voice that the reader connects with. In YA fiction, a lot of readers hate a whiny narrator (Why me? My life sucks. I hate my mother.) A smartypants narrator can also be off-putting, as can someone whose life is full of angst and comes off sounding melodramatic.

You also have to tread the line between a narrator that will offend no one and sound bland, and creating a character with such a strong voice that they will be unlikeable or feel distancing.

One step up in first person is the unreliable narrator. This is where the character might have mental issues and have a flawed view of events, or be a liar (deliberately misleading the reader) or perhaps be a child who doesn’t fully understand the meaning of what they see and hear.

Why would you choose to use a first person POV?

You might have a really strong sense of the narrator’s voice right from the beginning, which feels and sounds right for the story. YA writer John Marsden says he can’t start a novel until he hears the narrator’s voice clearly in his head.

You might want to tell a story in which the confinement of one person’s POV suits the way it has to be told. Room by Emma Donoghue is a good example of this. Or you might feel that the particular kind of story you want to convey needs a close, intimate POV to fully engage the reader.

Hint: you can always change to third person intimate if you change your mind.

Writing pointer: if you are having trouble with making a character come alive, do some free writing in first person from that character’s POV. Get them to tell you their life story and how they feel about where they are in your story. You might be surprised what they say!

3rd Person Intimate

There are several different terms for this POV (limited, close) but this is the one I use. It means that the story is told in third person (he or she) but is confined to one person’s POV. So I might have a story about Jane, George and Phillip but I tell the story through George’s POV only, using he, and cannot go into Jane’s or Phillip’s heads.

George tipped his wine onto the white tablecloth. The red stain looked nothing like blood. Jane had already run to the kitchen for a cloth, but Phillip leaned back in his chair, a sneer on his face. “That wasn’t very clever of you, George,” he said.

I think you’re the idiot, actually. But George kept a polite smile on his face and helped Jane mop up the wine, ignoring her quick glances at them both.

Advantages — you can still maintain a sense of intimacy and closeness to the POV character, but it allows you to expand the world of the story more. This POV, when well done, never has to use he thought or she thought because we are always inside the character’s head and we understand this. In first person, your narrator is unlikely to describe setting and details, or even their own actions, a lot as it would sound strange, or more likely be an info dump. But you can do this a little more easily in third person without the reader noticing.

Disadvantages — you do lose that extra level of closeness to the main character, and have to work harder at showing their thoughts and emotions. It’s easy to slip into telling (Joe felt angry), although I see people do this in first person, too. You still can’t go into other characters’ heads — you can only say what the POV character observes, and what they think or intuit about it.

Challenges — as with first person, you need an observant, reasonably intelligent POV character. Even a child needs to be observant, although they may not be able to accurately interpret what they see. You also need to stay close to your POV character while giving a sense of the wider world of the story.

Writing pointer: if you’re not sure which would work better, write a chapter in first person, then put it aside and write it again in third person intimate. (Don’t just use the same chapter and change the pronouns — write it twice.) Which one feels like it has more depth and resonance? Which one has the stronger characterization in it?

Omnisicient POV

Omniscient used to be the standard. It’s also known as eye of God, because the reader gets to see inside everyone’s heads and emotions. It also allows for a lot of description and detail. Back in the 1800s, it meant pages and pages of setting and description, but these days they’d be considered info dumps. It is tempting to load ominiscient POV with every single thing, but you need to choose carefully what will best serve your story.

You also have to avoid head-hopping. Once you establish you are in a character’s head, leaping around can be disorienting. If you find you are sticking mostly to one character, you may need to reconsider third person intimate.

Here are our characters in omniscient:

George tipped his wine onto the white tablecloth. As he’d thought, the red stain looked nothing like blood. Jane had already run to the kitchen for a cloth, but Phillip leaned back in his chair, a sneer on his face. He was getting sick of George’s games. “That wasn’t very clever of you, George,” he said.

I think you’re the idiot, actually, George thought, but he kept a polite smile on his face and helped Jane mop up the wine.

Jane glanced at the two men nervously. Were they going to come to blows over this?

Advantages — the story widens out and can encompass everything and everyone. You can provide a world view, and play with things like discrepancies between characters’ thoughts and actions.

Disadvantages — the reader can end up feeling as though there is no focus, or that you have no control over your own story. It’s easy to fall into head-hopping, jumping around between character so much that you cause confusion, or a lack of engagement with the story and characters overall. You can also lapse into info dumps, and the temptation to tell rather than show can be a trap.

Challenges — our preference these days for “involvement” (e.g. reality TV, gossip magazines, investigative personal journalism, etc) means that many readers will automatically prefer a closer POV and you will have to work hard to make the story engaging. You can do this through an exciting plot or fascinating characters, or just excellent writing.

Writing hint: continually ask yourself “What is interesting/intriguing/exciting about this scene? How can I write this so that the reader feels the same way I do?” You can also imagine your story as a movie, and turn your omniscient eye into a magic camera that goes everywhere and reads thoughts as well!

Second person POV

When writing in second person, the pronoun used is you. Over and over. Whereas I in first person blends into the voice, you sticks out. Second person is tricky. It seems clever but is very difficult to pull off effectively. It works best in short stories, but there have been a couple of novels that have done well. I’d recommend a YA novel, Damage by A.M Jenkins, as a good example.

Here is our sample in second person, where the you is George. Second person almost demands present tense, by the way, which can make it even trickier to manage well.

You tip your wine onto the white tablecloth. The red stain looks nothing like blood. Jane has already run to the kitchen for a cloth, but Phillip leans back in his chair, a sneer on his face. “That wasn’t very clever of you, George,” he says.

You think, You’re the idiot, actually. But you keep a polite smile on your face and help Jane mop up the wine, ignoring her quick glances at you both.

Advantages — second person can create a special effect that enhances your story, but it has to be the right kind of story. An action adventure, for example, will be too slow in second person. Something more introspective might work. It does bring the reader close to the story because there is the feeling that the you might be the reader.

Disadvantages — you can become more and more conscious of it as you go on. If this happens, you probably need to change to another POV. A lot of readers don’t like this POV, so you risk alienating them.

Challenges — it’s difficult to maintain a rhythm and flow in the writing. As the writer, you have to feel confident in using this POV, which means a strong confidence in your grammar skills. Otherwise you will make mistakes that you aren’t even aware of.

Writing pointer: Try this POV just for the heck of it! It might transform a story that isn’t working, or just give you a new insight into it.

Camera Eye POV

Pretend you are the camera. You can only write what a camera would see (although you can use the five senses). No going into any character’s thoughts and emotions. Everything must be shown externally in some way. There is an Ernest Hemingway story, Hills Like White Elephants, that is a good example of this POV. This is our example:

George tipped his wine onto the white tablecloth. The red stain spread quickly, unlike blood. Jane had already run to the kitchen for a cloth, but Phillip leaned back in his chair, a sneer on his face. “That wasn’t very clever of you, George,” he said.

George clenched his hands but kept a polite smile on his face and helped Jane mop up the wine.

Jane glanced at the two men, her mouth trembling a little.

Advantages — are there any? This POV is useful for screenwriters, and also for you to practice if you struggle with how to show emotions and reactions. It can create a coldness in the story that can be fun to play with.

Disadvantages — that distance I mentioned. This is not the POV you want for a story where you are trying to connect the reader to the characters.

Challenges — showing everything! No convenient character thought to explain behavior.

Writing pointer: a great POV to try out as a test of your skills, or to deliberately create a Hemingway-type story.

As with any writing tool, it’s worth examining in other people’s writing. Check out your favorite novels — do they all use first person or third? Sometimes our automatic choice comes from what we read. Look at how the writer uses POV, how they make you feel close to the character. Use a highlighter pen and mark words and phrases that contribute. This is how we learn, by observing the work of those we admire.

POV is a crucial choice — it will end up dictating how you tell your story, the blessings and the limits it places on you and your characters. Experiment a little before locking in your choice.