Editor’s Note: This column is contributed by Mary Deal, a 15-year resident of Kapa‘a. She is an award-winning author with four novels published and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her articles, short stories and poetry are published in magazines and
Editor’s Note: This column is contributed by Mary Deal, a 15-year resident of Kapa‘a. She is an award-winning author with four novels published and is a Pushcart Prize nominee. Her articles, short stories and poetry are published in magazines and anthologies. Her Web site, writeanygenre.com, is a valuable resource for writers.
Selecting a point of view for your stories is the first step in finding your “voice” in writing.
When you begin to write a story, whether a short story or a novel, you first need to know from which point of view (POV) the story will be told. You can always change this once the story is written or just doesn’t work out the way you had intended, but it’s best to plan from the beginning.
You cannot successfully write a story unless you’ve chosen your point of view.
—First Person POV – The story is told through the mind of one character. First Person is also used when the author is telling a story or nonfiction experience from his or her own POV. When writing this way, what unfolds in the telling can only be what the POV character perceives. The author cannot provide a POV from another character’s mind.
— Second Person POV – The writer speaks directly to another character using “you.” Second Person is the least favored and most difficult point of view to use in fiction. The reader then becomes the protagonist, the hero or heroine. Joyce Carol Oates writes in Second Person.
— Third Person POV – Stories are usually written through the main character’s POV. Use Third Person to replace the tightness of First and Second Person in a story. Third Person can be broken down into varying styles of points of view. Here are three:
— Third Person Limited – This means that the entire story is written from the main character’s POV and everything is told in past tense. The reader gets to know only what the main POV character knows. I find this stimulating because it can hide the obvious and keep the climax a secret till the riveting ending. This is the POV that is easiest to read and is readily accepted by publishers.
— Third Person Omniscient – The narrator takes an all-encompassing view of the story action. Many points of view can be utilized. This can be quite an intricate way to write because too much detail needs to be included and may over-complicate the story. A poorly written omniscient story may inadvertently give away the ending thereby deflating a reader’s enjoyment. A well-written story in this POV was “And then There Were None” by Agatha Christie.
— Third Person Multiple – The story is told from several characters’ points of view. This has an effect to heighten drama and action if successful at writing from multiple characters’ points of view. Tony Hillerman’s “Coyote Waits” is a perfect example here.
No set rule for points of view applies when writing. A writer usually sticks to the POV that feels comfortable.
If you are a beginning writer, try writing several paragraphs, including dialogue, from each POV. You will know immediately what feels right for your way of storytelling.
I suggest you stick with one character’s POV to begin with. Even successful writers risk giving readers whiplash when pinging back and forth between points of view.
Nora Roberts head-hops but does it with such skill the reader barely notices the jumps.
Once you have established your favored POV, get busy writing your story. Your “voice” will develop as you write. “Voice” is your storytelling ability. It identifies your style.
Watch for other articles about voice, dialogue and other topics that will appear in this column.
• Mary Deal can be contacted through her Web site at writeanygenre.com.
