Since many people have been asking me through the years, I decided to put everything I know about writing in a book. I hope it helps you improve your writing and motivate you to create.
Feel free to tag people on the comments who may be in need of h...
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Choosing Pov
When you want to write, it is natural to question where to begin and POV aka Point Of View is a very important thing that plays a major role in how your book will be perceived.
You can think of the POV as the tool through which your readers will be seeing your story. The eyes the readers will borrow to experience your story.
In fiction there are three main options to choose from:
First Person: "I" am telling the story.Second Person: The story is told to "you."Third Person: The story is about "he" or "she."
From the first-person point of view, the main character is the narrator of the story. They are telling their story, from their perspective, in their voice, with the events filtered through their unique beliefs and minds.
Example: I couldn't help but stare at him, unable to determine if he was truly saying the truth.
First Pov = I
While using this pov, the readers are basically one with the main character, they share shoes and see the story from their side only. The reader knows just what the character knows and nothing else. They see from the eyes of that character only.
Personally, I find the first pov unpleasant because it narrows your view as a writer.
You can't change pov in a book by simply stating ( XX Pov's ) on top of the page or at a corner. In books that's a big unusual. The pov needs to change naturally and be visible that it did, and when in the first pov, it's hard looking into anyone's else emotions or moments, without the main character to be there, because everything is through the eyes of that character.
In a story written in the second person, the reader becomes the central character in the story.
Second Pov = you
Example: You brushed your hair as quickly as you could while the sound of your ringtone kept echoing.
A story told in the third person POV is presented from a narrative distance that makes the reader an outside viewer of the story.
Within third person POV, you have two choices:
Third Person Omniscient POVThird Person Limited POV
Third Pov= he /she
Example: He felt the world spinning around him as he stood still under the street light.
In third-person omniscient POV, the narrator has a "god's eye view" of the story. This means the narrator sees and knows everything in the story, and that their knowledge is not limited to what anyone character knows or sees. Basically using this Pov, you can speak about anything, jump anywhere, from the emotions of one character to another, from the eyes of one character to another, to the eyes of the world itself. Total freedom of expression.
A story told in the third person limited is similar to one told in the first person in the way that it's narrated from the close perspective of just one character. However, the difference is that in the third person limited, the reader is not "trapped" inside that character's head. So basically you talk about one character and follow events related to one character only, but instead of using I as in the first pov, you use he/she, speaking about them. A narrator but limited because the focus is on one character. The eyes through which we get the story told are of that one character.
Now personally I like mixing POV and it will be great if you can do that. For beginners, I believe the third POV Omniscient could help you more because it gives you the freedom to dive into any character, any situation, any feelings at any moment.
After you decide which POV is best for you, you have to decide what tense to use.
Narrative tense shows the reader when the story is happening.
There are three choices when it comes to narrative tense:
Past tense - it already happened "Yesterday, I didn't go"Present tense - it's happening right now "I am in the house"Future tense - it has yet to happen "I will go tomorrow"
Most stories are told using either the past tense or present tense. If you can't decide what tense to write your work in, you should probably default to writing in the past tense or do some research and find out what tense the genre you are willing to write to, is most commonly used.
That's all for the Pov, I hope the information was helpful. Feel free to leave questions in the comments if you haven't understood yet or have any questions related to POV.
In the next chapter, we will be speaking about the golden rule of writing. "Show don't tell"
See you there :)
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