Perspective refers to the narrative approach to storytelling, while point of view (POV) refers to who is telling or narrating a story, be that an unnamed narrator or a POV character. First-person and third-person perspectives are common in fiction, but there are at least five perspectives from which a story can be told:
- First-person: told from an individual POV using I/me/my pronouns.
- Second-person: told from the POV of the reader as the main character, using you/your pronouns.
- Third-person limited: uses third-person pronouns (they/them/their, he/his, she/her, and it/its), focusing on one character per scene with breaks (scene or chapter) between them.
- Third-person omniscient: uses third-person pronouns and features a narrator with an independent personality who can share multiple POVs in rapid succession or all at once.
- Third-person objective: uses third-person pronouns and is told from an impartial outside perspective.
Both first-person and second-person perspective are straightforward. With first-person, the writer puts themselves in their character’s head and shares with the reader what that character is experiencing, thinking, feeling, doing, and saying. With second-person perspective, the reader experiences the whole story through the main character’s eyes. Third-person perspective is a more complicated because there are three different approaches. Some writers inadvertently mix and match third-person perspectives to suit the needs of a particular scene or chapter, but switching perspectives without justifiable cause can disorient the reader and weaken the structure of the story.
Each third-person perspective has general rules, and each comes with potential obstacles. It’s essential for a writer to know which perspective they are writing in and to carry that perspective as consistently as possible throughout their manuscript with few creative exceptions.
Third-Person Limited
This perspective presents events from one POV at a time per scene. Some such narratives focus entirely on a single POV, while others may incorporate multiple POVs (sometimes referred to as first-person multiple). With few exceptions, the multi-POV nature of a narrative should be introduced within the first few chapters to avoid breaking the reader’s immersion in the story. All new POVs should be introduced in their own scenes/chapters, with scene or chapter breaks wherever the POV changes.
In third-person limited narrative, the narrator has no independent thoughts, feelings, or personality. Because this perspective requires scene breaks between POVs, it usually focuses on one or a few characters; too many would make for a crowded stage. Featuring fewer POV characters allows for a more intimate view of each characters’ thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, imbuing the reader with a sense of emotional closeness to the POV character. The characters are vehicles for the reader’s knowledge and understanding of events. Whatever events or facts the writer feels each character needs to know to progress the story should be incorporated organically, meaning in a way that feels natural to the reader and suits the writer’s worldbuilding and characterization.
Whatever the POV in a given scene, the narrator’s knowledge is limited to that character’s established preexisting knowledge and what they learn in the scene. This means no POV character should share information (history, description, etc.) before said character has been made privy to it, even if it seems relevant to the story at the time. If a detail exists outside of all the POV characters’ knowledge at the start and cannot be organically introduced through any POV over the course of the narrative, that detail may need to be left out.
Lack of knowledge in one or several POVs can lend tension, which keeps the reader engaged. This said, there are myriad ways to introduce relevant detail while remaining “in POV,” such as through an overheard conversation, a side character’s commentary, a conversation (in full or paraphrased) that reveals facts after they’ve happened, an object that reveals the detail, and so on.
The writer of a third-person limited narrative should take particular care not to leap from one POV to another without a break, which is often referred to as “head-hopping.” One should also be wary of giving the POV to any character whose POV does not develop the plot or present unique information only they can know or learn.
With these rules in mind, a writer may want to switch mid-scene to another character’s point of view, which, because of the requisite scene break, may result in a scene that is too brief to stand alone. Too-short scenes can make a narrative choppy, so the writer should consider sharing the information by another means (dialogue or action) to avoid changing POVs.
Keeping the POV cast relatively small, inserting scene or chapter breaks where the POV changes, keeping scenes long enough to fully immerse the reader and convey new information, and using third-person pronouns lays a solid foundation for a successful third-person limited perspective narrative.
Third-Person Omniscient
The third-person omniscient narrator speaks outside of, but still close to, the characters. This narrator can speak from the POV of any character at any time as well as from a separate POV of their own, which allows the writer to provide details and background information outside the characters’ perspectives. The third-person omniscient narrator’s unique ability to chime in and comment from a largely objective but still all-knowing perspective independent of the characters makes this narrator something of a character themselves, albeit an unnamed one.
Although the third-person omniscient narrator takes what might be called a god’s-eye view of events, mixing POVs in any given scene does not make for a solid third-person omniscient perspective; there are still limits to and rules for what this all-knowing but not all-powerful perspective can do.
A third-person omniscient narrator should be established as early as possible, preferably within the first chapter, so the reader knows to expect shifting POVs throughout the story. To do this, such a narrative might open from no particular POV and describe the setting or weather or action, or the narrative might open with a multi-POV scene right off the bat—generally, the writer should avoid sticking to one character’s POV for too long at the start. To do so may falsely imply a third-person limited perspective.
Though third-person omniscient narrators can share any character(s) thoughts that are relevant to the story at any time, the writer should take care not to share too many characters’ thoughts in too-rapid succession, as this can begin to feel like head-hopping. Thoughts in this perspective should also take dialogue tags (i.e., he/she thought/wondered/mused etc.), especially in multi-POV scenes, to avoid confusing the reader on who is thinking what.
Third-person omniscient narrators can share any information the writer feels is relevant to the story, even if the characters don’t know it. That said, the writer (in this and any perspective) must be selective about when and how much background information to include in a scene; too much information at once or in the wrong place can hamper the pacing in an effect often called “info-dumping.”
This narrator enjoys a relatively broad field of perception, but because the reader knows the POV could change at any time, and because the narrator is a separate entity from the characters, third-person omniscient narration can feel less intimate than a third-person limited narration, in terms of the reader’s emotional proximity to the characters. When done well, however, this complex perspective can facilitate as vibrant and multifaceted a view of the world and its characters as the writer seeks to create.
Third-Person Objective
The third-person objective narrator is an impartial observer to events in the story. This narrator cannot comment on a character’s actions to steer the reader’s perceptions or biases; they can only communicate observable details, such as a character’s actions, expressions, and dialogue, and they cannot suggest what mood a character is in, what the character is thinking, or what emotions might color their tone or actions. They cannot tell what motivates any character’s decisions. The tone of such narrative is observational, and the vantage point is more detached than the third-person limited or omniscient perspective.
This perspective can lend a sense of voyeurism, which some readers may find appealing. The narrator hides nothing from the reader because they convey only what the reader, were they in the room with the character(s), could observe by themselves. Naturally, because the narrator must remain impartial and has no access to any character’s thoughts or feelings, it is entirely up to the reader how they interpret the observable facts. This allows for myriad interpretations of the same story by different readers.
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As with all art forms, whatever perspective a writer chooses is up to their subjective preferences; each of these perspectives provides a unique vantage point from which to view the events of a story. The writer should choose a perspective that allows them to strike their desired balance between emotional proximity and level of detail, establish that perspective as early as possible, and stick to it as consistently as possible. Of course, there are exceptions to any rule, but it’s best to break rules of perspective only after the writer has completely familiarized themselves with these rules and when breaking them has verifiable positive impact on the efficacy of the story.
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