POV or How I Stopped Worrying About Myself and Started Using an Effective Persona

Another thing to consider if you plan on using first person: do you tell your story using first person major character (the main character of the story as in The Tell-Tale Heart) or minor character (Nick Caraway is the narrator of the novel, The Great Gatsby, but Gatsby, not Nick, is the main character of the novel). The minor character can describe the main character better (physical, emotional, mental attributes), but always has to be around the main character because that’s the main character and the plot revolves around the main character, not the minor character.

So before you leap into first person, be sure you are doing it for the right reasons: you want the reader to make a stronger emotional connection with the character, you want to create an unreliable narrator to keep the reader guessing, or because you can relate to the character easier that way, making it easier for you to write the story.

Third Person or the “He/She” Point of View

Everything that’s not first person pov falls under the general category of third person. That includes third person omniscient, third person limited, third person objective and all their sub categories. Third person means your character is no longer an “I” (I did this and I did that), but a “he” or “she” (Harry did this, or Harriet did that). When you want to create a character persona in the third person, you move away from the more intimate relationship between reader and narrator offered in first person. You put a bit more distance between the two, and that can be good or bad. Remember: everything you do should be for a reason in writing, so let’s look at the reasons you should or should not select a third person pov for your story.

Next to writing in first person, using third person omniscient is probably the most common form of narration. The word omniscient means “all knowing or seeing.” This simply is a method of allowing the narrator to peek into everyone’s head and tell the reader what he or she is thinking. It’s an artificial device to help the reader understand what various characters’ motivations are. For example: Marge knew she was going to be in trouble for hacking into Norm’s computer, but she just had to see for herself what the big secret was all about. Now on the very next page you might see: Norm couldn’t wait for Marge to be alone with his computer. He even left it open to make it easier for her to find what she thought she would find. Both Marge and Norm have had their thoughts revealed to us, the readers. This makes it easier for the reader to understand the characters’ actions and relate to their personalities. Thus, the reader can view the perspective of the protagonist as well as the antagonist. Creating a great villain means understanding why that character is a villain in the first place. Another advantage of using an omniscient perspective is that any character can be described fully without having to resort to mirrors or other reflective devices. Problems? Omniscient is, as I said, an artificial device, and, as such, requires the willing suspension of disbelief. If the author delves into people’s heads too frequently, it becomes less and less believable and even somewhat irritating. The thoughts, emotions, motivations of the characters should be revealed with caution. As in cooking, add too much of anything and it can make the result hard to digest.