Point of View or POV – If you wrote a book, which would you use? When reading a book what’s your preference?
One of the first decisions to make in writing a book is POV, the most common forms being first person or third person. First person is written from ‘inside’ a single character throughout the book. The character narrates the story with “I-my-me-mine”. The interesting anomaly with first person is only those things ‘seen’ through the character can be described which gives the author some challenges such as “how do I describe what my character looks like?” The positive thing about first person is you can more fully develop your character and describe your character’s emotions and thoughts. The Hunger Games is written in first person POV.
Third person is written from outside of the character(s). The author narratives the story with “He-she-him-her”. Lord of the Rings, for example is an omniscient POV story or written from the POV of all characters. In the Boulton Quest series I use a limited third person POV which means, similar to first person, I limit my view to that of the character and rarely switch between characters. As part of the revision process I surveyed the book looking for parts where I described events not visible to the character at that time, and removed them. Third person point of view offers some flexibility but reduces the author’s ability to describe the character’s emotions and feelings. Harry Potter, for the most part, is written in third person limited POV.
Original Post May 13, 2013