Hi Hamaniacs!
In last week’s installment in my Writing Tips series to help all of us libertarians write better fiction as a way to influence culture, I discussed the importance of understanding POV. But because this is such an important topic for every writer to comprehend, I’ve got even more POV goodness for ya!
TYPES OF POV
There are 4 POVs: 1st, 2nd, 3rd Limited and 3rd Omniscient. Beginner writers should stick with 1st Person or 3rd Person Limited. The general rule is that if you write YA (Young Adult) then use 1st Person and everything else is 3rd Person Limited. But what does “limited” mean? It means that you can only write what the POV character can sense or think to themselves about. Here are some examples to demonstrate 3rd Person Limited POV…
Physical Example: Sara read her book in bed while the murderer climbed the stairs.
Critique: NO! If Sara is in her bed reading a book, then you cannot write that there is an axe-wielding murderer coming up the stairs. Sara can’t see that so she doesn’t know it’s happening so you can’t write it.
Psychological Example: Sara saw Bob at the table and sat down next to him. “Hi Bob. Nice weather today.” “Yeah, I suppose,” Bob said. But Bob didn’t care about that. All he could think about was his divorce.
Critique: NO! Sara cannot read people’s minds. She cannot know that Bob is thinking about his divorce. She is the POV character so you are limited to writing only about what she knows. Even if the reader knows that Bob is getting a divorce from something that happened in a previous chapter, Sara doesn’t know and therefore you can’t write it. Even if Sara does know about it, she can’t read other people’s minds. You’re in the POV character’s head only and you have to stay there in 3rd Limited.
“OK”, you say, “but I want to talk about what Bob is feeling so why can’t I use 3rd Omniscient?”
The blunt answer is that writing in omniscient is extremely difficult to do well. It’s so difficult that I simply cannot recommend it. If you want an example of it done correctly, then read Dune by Frank Herbert or Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho and see if that’s something you really want to explore. But for beginners, stick with 3rd Limited. Most successful and professional authors who have written for years won’t touch the omniscient viewpoint because it is so difficult.
In liberty,
Tyrone the Porcupine Hobo
Fiction is really difficult