How to Choose the Right Point of View for Your Story
(You can download a free, printable Point of View Cheatsheet to go along with this post in my Free Resource Library! If you are already a subscriber, check your inbox for the login information. Or just keep reading!)
Point of View: An Introduction
Simply stated, point of view is the vantage point from which a story is told. But point of view is much more complicated than that. It encompasses everything from who the narrator is (the author? a character?) to what attitude they have about the story they’re telling.
When the point of view for a short story or novel has been thoughtfully constructed, it acts nearly invisibly. But lose your footing, even briefly, and the reader will immediately sense something is off. Even subtle inconsistencies in a story’s point of view can pull us out of the moment.
With the stakes so high, it’s important to make deliberate, thoughtful choices about point of view. Yet all too often, this show-stopping element of fiction writing takes a backseat to writers’ concerns about plot and character. But point of view isn’t an easy gimmick or a frivolous choice to be taken lightly. Point of view, when used correctly, is the story.
Let me repeat that. Point of view IS the story.
Say your novel is about a woman who murdered her husband. You could tell that story from the perspective of the woman, 20 years later, looking back regretfully on what happened… or from the perspective of a burned-out detective, during the investigation… or from the perspective of her dead husband, from the afterlife, as he watches his wife suffer in prison… or from the perspective of a deaf child who witnessed the crime, and is now traumatized for life…
But those aren’t just “different spins” on the same story. They are all completely different stories.
The infinite subtleties and endless possibilities of point of view are too much for a single blog post. But I’d like to share some point of view basics with you as a jumping off point.
Here’s a list of the five most common points of view, and how to decide which is right for you. I also made a free, printable Point of View Cheatsheet that you can download in my Free Resource Library. 🙂
The Five Basic Points of View
The five basic points of view are first person, second person, third person limited, third person omniscient, and multiple point view. Choosing between them can seem overwhelming at first, but you can simplify your decision by thinking of them as existing on a continuum between perspective and intimacy.
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