Why is point of view so important?
When I first started writing I assumed that as long as I was consistent with the point of view it wouldn’t really make that much difference which I chose. I couldn’t have been more wrong.
My lesson came at a writing course in beautiful Yorkshire. I lucked out – not only was the group I did the writing course largely great but the authors tutoring us were Mavis Cheek and Chris Wakling. They are not only undeniably excellent writers but fantastic tutors.
I’d finished the first draft of my second novel (Winter City). It didn’t take an expert to know that it needed ‘work’. We did a lot of writing exercises which were helpful but terrifying in that we had to read our impromptu efforts out to the group who were complete strangers up until then. Part of the deal was that we each got a short one to one with each of the tutors. I was torn – I desperately wanted to show them some of my best writing to get positive feedback, but I was having all sorts of trouble with my first chapter and I couldn’t find a solution for it. I decided that I needed to show them what I really needed help with, the first chapter.
Mavis Cheek said, ‘We know you can write Nicole so what the hell happened here?’ I had to laugh. In the end she did her best to try and help me but her primary advice was to rewrite the entire book in the first person.
I tried to ignore the advice but when it was repeated by Chris Wakling I realised I needed to do it.
It's hard to admit that up until that point I hadn’t warmed to my main character Jazzy. She seemed just that to me – jazzy – all superficiality and no substance. Finding herself in a difficult situation she’d forced to rescue herself.
Rewriting the entire book, which took about 4 months was excruciating but something amazing happened – I grew to understand Jaz and like her a lot more. I discovered that she had enormous reserves of strength and character that I hadn’t seen before with the book written in the third person.
This is one of the significant advantages of writing in the first person. While every piece of fiction needs be plot and character driven, practically writers need to choose one to lead with. All my books have been character driven, even the crime novels.
The first person has the advantage that you can get to know your main character much better. You can hear their thoughts. They can be unreliable because you can only see their point of view. You are largely limited to dialogue or other forms of communication such as letters and emails for other characters’ opinions.
When I decided to write my first crime novel I found it too uncomfortable to tell the story from the point of view of the serial killers. The third person point of view still gave me insight into what they were thinking and feeling but I wasn’t killing their victims with them. I was watching them doing it but from a ‘distance’. This distance is key to the third person point of view. In that novel, I alternate between the third person point of view of the serial killers and my main character DI Claire Johansen. This gives me the capacity to move the story forward at a faster pace, which is required in crime novels.
There are other points of view writers can use however the first and third person are the most common. For clarity these are how each look:
She walked towards him her pace quickening as she got closer (third person).
I walked towards him, my pace quickened as I got closer (first person if your main character is the woman).
She walked towards me, getting quicker as she got closer (first person if your main character is the man).
Some of the pros and cons of these two POVs are:
First person
Pros
• Writers often find it easier to maintain their main character’s point of view consistently rather than in the third person
• However strange your main character’s actions might be for your other characters your readers will better understand their motivations because they know what your main character is thinking and feeling
• One of your main objectives as a writer is to get your readers to buy into your main character, to feel sympathy for them, to root for them. This is much easier to do when your readers spend so much time in your character’s head
Cons
• Characters as with real people can often only see events from their perspective and that can provide a skewed view
• The viewpoint is limited to what the main character can see and hear
• Other characters viewpoints can only be revealed through dialogue that the main character can hear or letters, emails etc
Third person
Pros
• With the third person, the writers can know the thoughts and feelings of all their characters, providing them with a great deal of freedom
• The writer can develop secondary characters as much or as little as they choose to
• It can provide more scope to develop the antagonist character/s further
Cons
• The reader may sympathise less with your main character as they will have less access to their private thoughts, feelings, and motivations
• Because of ‘distance’, the third person provides the reader the writer may also find it more difficult to get to know their main character.
Using more than one point of view
It is fine to use more than one point of view in your fiction writing – whether from the first person or third person POV. I would hesitate to recommend more than two viewpoint characters unless you are very confident your reader will be able to follow without confusion.
It can prove complicated for both the writer and the reader to understand which character is speaking or thinking. If such confusion exists it will be extremely frustrating for your readers and prevent them developing sympathy or resonating with your protagonist.
That said there are several ways to avoid such confusion:
1. The first is obvious. Develop your main characters with such unique characters and ‘voices’ i.e. styles that your reader will immediately recognise which character they are reading about. This requires extremely well developed main characters and perfecting their communicating styles.
2. Alternate consistently between two POVs – that is every odd chapter from your protagonist and every even chapter from your antagonist. Their characters will still have to be evident from their thoughts, feelings, and speech but they will be able to recognise the character’s POV.
3. There are some very successful authors who have managed to write from several characters’ POVs – particularly in family type novels. They have used each chapter to write from individual characters’ points of view and used stylistic changes to reinforce the reader’s understanding of which character’s head they are in. I haven’t used this method because I think it takes a master of character development to ensure your readers are completely bewildered by constant changes of POV.
The key to all POV issues is consistency and clarity. If your approach is consistent then it’s very likely your readers won’t have too much difficulty with your chosen approach.
Consider carefully what you are trying to achieve and which POV suits that style best. If you’re not sure try writing a page or two of your story in each and see which you prefer.