The Rose Code : My Wattpad Blog

B: Who Is Telling Your Story?

A few of my Wattpad friends had questions about Point of View. I will try my best to answer them in this post.

Point of View (POV) is simply: Who is telling the story? Or from whose perspective are things happening?

There are 4 Main Types of POV: First, Second, Third, and Omniscient

FIRST

First person uses the words - I, me, my, and mine.

Many teen fiction books are written in first person.

In my story Forever Remember, Jasmine is the main character. She is telling the story from her first person POV. She tells the reader everything that is happening to her- what she sees, hears, feels, smells, tastes, and thinks.

Here is the first paragraph from Chapter 1 of Forever Remember. I highlighted the first person words.

I sat up in bed with a scream trapped in my throat. My heart pounded against my chest, trying to escape from its bony cage. I peered through the darkness at little Hannah Hoover, my newest foster sister, in the twin bed next to mine. Did I wake her again? She blinked, turned over, and went back to sleep. Not me.

SECOND

Second person uses the words - you, your, and yours.

Very few books are written in second person.

I'll use the previous example and change it to second person POV.

You sat up in bed with a scream trapped in your throat. Your heart pounded against your chest, trying to escape from its bony cage. You peered through the darkness at little Hannah Hoover, your newest foster sister, in the twin bed next to yours. Did you wake her again? She blinked, turned over, and went back to sleep. Not you.

THIRD

Third person uses the words - he/she, her/him, and hers/his.

This is the most popular POV.

I'll use the previous example from my story and change it to third person POV.

Jasmine sat up in bed with a scream trapped in her throat. Her heart pounded against her chest, trying to escape from its bony cage. She peered through the darkness at little Hannah Hoover, her newest foster sister, in the twin bed next to hers. Did she wake her again? She blinked, turned over, and went back to sleep. Not her.

The main rule for POV is each chapter or scene must only be in one person's POV at a time.

You can't "head hop" between characters unless you are writing in omniscient third person.

OMNISCIENT

Omniscient means all knowing.

Omniscient uses all the words as third person. In omniscient POV, an all knowing narrator is telling the story and knows what everyone is seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling, tasting, and thinking.

Many classics were written in this POV, but very few modern stories are.

POV PROBLEMS

Too Many POVs: It's hard for readers to keep track of too many characters, so keep your POVs to four or less and tell the reader at the start of each chapter or scene whose POV they are reading.

Mixing POVs: If you are writing in first person, don't address the reader in second person. This throws the reader out of the POV and out of the story. (Mixing POV is okay for a blog post but not for a novel.)

Example: I despise math. Don't you hate it when the teacher gives you homework every Friday?

Head Hoping: Don't hop between two character's heads in the same scene. Each scene or chapter should only be in one person's POV, unless you are writing in Omniscient POV.

What is your favorite POV to write? Let me know in the comments.