2021-03-08 Publishers Weekly

® WRITING ADVICE

60 BOOKLIFE, MARCH 8, 2021

T

here can be a lot of anxiety about selecting

the right point of view for a novel. It’s no

wonder: there are a lot of conflicting opinions.

Some prevailing wisdom claims that publishers

only like the third person, or that a writer will

never find an agent who will accept a novel written

in the first person. One of the benefits of being

a self-published author is that you have the free-

dom to select whichever point of view for your

novel in progress makes the most sense to you.

What are the options?

Some writers find that one point of view comes

more naturally. Other writers default to one point

of view because they just aren’t sure what options

exist. In order to determine which point of view is

right for your next book, it can be helpful to explore

all the possibilities.

First-person singular: With the first person, a

book is usually narrated from the perspective of

one character using the pronoun I. Readers follow

the story through this character’s perspective and

experience. Readers will only see, know, and expe-

rience the story as the narrator does.

First-person omniscient: The book is written in

the first person, but, while the narrator of the book

is a character in the story, that person also has a

unique knowledge of the thoughts and actions of

the other characters.

Second person: Not often used for book-length

writing, the second person speaks directly to the

reader in the text. In this way—to borrow a term

from theater—the writer breaks the fourth wall

and brings the reader into the story, making “you”

a character.

Third-person limited: In this point of view, the

narrator, who is not a character in the story, follows

the experiences and perspectives of one character.

Third-person omniscient: This style is a very

common point of view for writers to use. With

third-person omniscient, the book has a narrator

who is all knowing and able to move among the

lives of each character in the story. This means

writers can not only share with the reader what

is happening for each character but also enter the

mind of each character, sharing their hopes, dreams,

fears—things those characters might not share with

others in dialogue.

Which point of view should you use?

Ultimately, each author is going to have an indi-

vidual style and approach, and often each book will

have a voice that will be most effectively realized

What’s the Point

(of View)?

One of the most important decisions

a writer can make concerns a

narrative’s point of view

BY SASSAFRAS LOWREY

As self-published

writers, we get a lot of

control over how we

structure our work and

our stories.