First Person Point of View

First person POV utilizes I, me, we pronouns.

In this POV it’s difficult to get out of the POV character’s head, so you won’t fall into the head-hopping trap. In this POV the writer chooses a character (usually a main character) to tell the story. The pronoun I is prevalent. Many beginning writers (and advanced) use this POV narration quite effectively.

On the pro side, first person makes it easy for readers to relate to your POV character. It’s also a great POV for YA and some say even the preferred POV choice for that age group.

One drawback on first person POV is that your POV character must be present in all scenes and/or hear what happens from someone else. If that isn’t a problem in your story, then first person POV may be the narration to choose. If you have more than one main character you want to feature in your story, choosing one perspective may be a challenge. Often people will say you shouldn’t use multiple first person narration, but this barrier is being busted all the time. Witness Barbara Kingsolver, Jodi Piccoult, Kathryn Stockett to name a few who have used this technique successfully.

The main thing to remember is to make sure your sections/chapters are labeled so the reader can easily follow whose POV we're in now. The writer must skillfully distinguish the character voices. If you choose to use multiple first person POV each character's narrative should be distinctly hers.

One caution if you choose this POV, be aware of using "I" too much. Once you've established "I" as your main character POV, you don't have to include I in every sentence.

A first person narration with a strong voice often creates compelling reading.

I'd love to hear from you on this or any other writing topic. Please contact me through the comments below or email me at authorsassistant@hotmail.com

This topic is one beginning writers struggle to get a handle on and so I'm breaking this up into three posts. In each post I will try to define the term and explain how to determine if you’re writing your POV most effectively.

Omniscient Point of View

Omni-all--scient-knowing

In this point of view, the narration comes from god-like perspective in which the storyteller shows us each characters thoughts and feelings as we go along. While effective in some short stories, the danger of falling into the trap of head-hopping—going from one character’s thoughts and feelings to another’s without some signal from the reader—is a foil of the beginning writer.

A reminder, the reader’s goal is to be able to identify with your characters. If you try to explain what everyone is thinking and feeling at any one moment, you run the risk of the reader not being able to identify with any of your characters. Omniscient narration for setting a scene description can be used effectively.

The sun set, casting a golden glow over the plains of ripening corn. An example of an omniscient narration where we don't have a POV character.

Head hopping can be prevalent for the beginning romance writer, but romance writers aren't the only authors who can fall off this cliff.

An example of head hopping might look something like this:

He kissed her and she thought, maybe I've found my Prince Charming at last. He lifted his lips from hers and thought, where has this princess been all my life? This can be a little distracting for the reader if we've been in your heroine's head for most of the story and without warning we're inside Prince Charming's thoughts.

This isn't to say you can't have their different perspectives, just that you need to signal your reader and you'll probably want to have more than one sentence in one person's thoughts.

While some critics warn writers to stay away from the omniscient viewpoint in current trends, in a skilled narrative, this POV can be a tool in the writer's box to add variety and distinction.

As I point out in my writing workshops, there is no "right or wrong" there is okay writing, and better writing. The guidelines for writing are varied and every writer, editor and publisher has her own preferences, but to dogmatically say this is right or this is wrong can be a misleading over-generalization.

Remember enjoy and celebrate wherever you are on your writing journey. I'd love to hear your comments or questions. Contact me here or at authorsassistant@hotmail.com. I look forward to hearing from you.