Point of View
Hello dear reades!
Today, I want to talk to you about Point of View (POV). As I’ve been working my way through my 4th and 5th drafts of A Songbird’s Tale, one thing I find that I’m really struggling with as a writer is pov. But before we get into that, let’s talk about what POV is.
Point of View basically describes who is telling the story and which character’s our ‘camera lense’ is focused on while that story is being told.
First person POV - is pretty common and is when the character narrates their own story to you, the audience. First person is written as “I did this, I said this.” We, the audience, only have access to information that our narrating character knows. We learn and experience everything along the way as our main character.
Here is an example: I smelled steak. My mouth began to water. I immediately began to sniff around to see if I could locate the origin of this delicious aroma.
Third Person Limited POV - is also fairly common. This is where a narrator who is not a character in the book narrates the story to the audience. The important thing to know about this is that in third person limited we also only have access to the information that our main character has access to. Even though the story is being told by an outside source, the camera lense through which we are viewing the story is very tightly focused on one main character at a time. We can only hear, see, smell, touch and know anything our main character does.
Example: Bjorn smelled steak. Drool began to drip from his jowels. He sniffed the air, searching for the origin of such a delicious aroma.
Third Person Omniscient POV - I’m told this is not as common. In third person omniscient, a narrator who is not a character in the book narrates the story to the audience. The different between limited and omniscient is that while limited is tightly focused to one character at a time, omniscient allows us to have access to information that some, or even none of our characters have. Our all knowing narrator can detail what is happening with any given character at any time.
Example: Bjorn smelled steak. Drool began to drip from his jowels. He sniffed the air, searching for the origin of such a delicious aroma. The steak was indifferent, wondering absently what the sniffing sound might mean. Far in the distance, a pine beetle thought about the weather.
For better, or worse, I set out to write A Songbird’s Tale in Third Person Omniscient. I hadn’t really bothered with POV or perspective since highschool, and I just knew I didn’t want to write this story in first person. I wanted to give the reader access to both Songbird and Jaren’s thoughts in regards to the same situation so the reader can not only see how they react, but understand the way they think and how different they are from each other.
And I know some of you out there are saying “show the readers, don’t tell them.” Well, to all of you, I say I chose to show with third person omniscient.” Essentially I wanted to be able to pop in and out of my character’s heads without having to stick to a single character’s perspective for an entire section or chapter. Apparently some of my beta readers really didn’t love this idea as much as I did. Which is fine. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. But it leaves me with a bit of a conundrum.
Ultimately I don’t want my story to be difficult for readers to get through. I want it to be a fun and enjoyable read. However, trying to convert third person omniscient to third person limited I feel like I’m loosing so many of the details and small moments I worked hard to craft into my story to bring things to life between these characters.
Right now I’m feeling really torn between sticking to third person omniscient, even though I’m told not as many people like to read it and also that it makes my characters less likable to harder for the reader to bond with them, and changing to third person limited to address the above potential deficits.
What are your thoughts? Do you all prefer to read books in first person or third person? And do you like staying in one character’s head throughout an entire book, or series? Let me know! Till next time, dear reader! <3 Tiff
