Lesson 12: Point of View II

Last week we covered one of the points of view: first-person. This week we move on to cover second- and third-person point of view.

Second-Person:

At first glance, second person seems odd. In essence you are telling your reader what he or she is experiencing directly. "You walk down the dusty mountain path and see a shiny yellow ball in the grass to your left. You wonder how a child's playtoy came to be in an area it took you days to hike into." That sort of story takes a bit of getting used to.

There are a couple of definite advantages to using second-person POV. First, your reader is instantly immersed in whatever world you've created. They can't escape because the reader him- or herself is inside the story. Also, it's easy to insert thought, intentions, and other intangibles into the narrative.

However, that strength is also a weakness. Some readers will be turned off or even deeply offended if the "you" in the story does something she or he disagrees with. You as an author are writing this for anyone who reads it, so if you want to avoid this problem you have to keep the narrator's actions very subdued — and that can lead to a very dull story.

The majority of teachers I've taken courses from recommend using second person only for short pieces where observation of a situation is key to its impact.

Third-Person:

Though first-person may be more natural, third-person is by far the most common form of narrative. In it, you as an author say "he did this..." "she did that..." "they walked along...". The action is described from outside the characters, and the story's "camera" can float around wherever it wants to go. Third-person stories can narrate the actions and thoughts of a character and then in the next chapter, or the next paragraph, narrate the thoughts and actions of a character five thousand kilometres away.

There are several variations of third-person POV. These vary based on 1) whether the author can show intangibles like thoughts and feelings, and 2) whether the author can only show a single character's POV, and 3) whether the author can tell the reader everything, or only use the knowledge inside a single character's head.

Third-Person Omniscient

In this POV, the writer is allowed to jump from one character to another, showing everything: actions, thoughts, feelings, etc. The author can use knowledge that none of the character knows to explain the story to the reader. The result of this is that the reader can see the narrative from all angles, knowing everyting about every situation. A peculiarity of this variation is that it often includes the author's own words intruding on the narrative, explaining a summary of the story so far and what will happen next. This is very rare in contemporary writing, but was very common in the 19th century. Just look at the phrase "Now dear reader..." and you will likely recognise it from a book you read long ago.

Third-Person Limited - Subjective and Objective

In this variation, the writer shows the world by locking onto a single character, showing only what he or she knows, and following him or her through the world. In the "Subjective" version of this POV, the author freely adds thoughts, feelings, and other intangibles to the narrative. In the "Objective" version, the author reports only what can be seen. These two are by far the most common POVs in contemporary writing.

Third-Person Flexible, or Limited Omniscient

In this variation, the writer is free to skip around to multiple characters, but must show the knowledge and feelings of only those characters chosen as the main character in each section. That is, if Chapter 1 is written with Jane as the centre of the author's attention, then Jane's thoughts and knowledge frame the narrative. If the story switches to focus on John in Chapter 2, then Jane's thoughts and knowledge suddenly become non-existant.

Further Variations

I'll drop in a note here to say there are many other variations of POV: Third-person multiple, Objective, Combined First- and Second-Person, Combined First- and Third-Person, Third-Person Plural Observer, First-Person Collective Observer, Stream of Consciousness... the list goes on. We could spend weeks just discussing and doing exercises on POV but we have too many other areas to cover. I do encourage you to Google for these or find a library and check them out.

Exercise: due before you sleep on Tuesday, 22 July

Length: two pages

1. Choose one character you have used in the past, or create one. You can get away with a shallow definition but you're encouraged to do enough definition of the character to make her or him real to your readers.

2. Create a small event for this character to interact with, like I did last week with exercise 11. It doesn't need massive background, or a world to live in — just some event that happens and is over in, say, five minutes at the most.

3. Tell the story of this event using a Third-Person Limited Objective POV. That is, tell the story from your character's POV but don't show any thoughts or feelings - tell only what could be observed by someone else looking at your character.

4. Now tell the story using Third-Person Limited Subjective POV. That is, tell your story from your character's POV, and make sure to add thoughts, feelings, moods, etc.

5. Post up your writing, and, if you wish, use the general discussion thread to type up your impressions of the difference between Objective and Subjective writing.