Point of View

In fiction writing we get to choose who tells the story. The omniscient author P.O.V. appears attractive at first glance. The all-knowing writer tells us what's happening, what people are thinking, feeling. Oops! This contradicts the good advice to "show, don't tell" what's going on, a better method of engaging readers. Also, frequently shifting the P.O.V. keeps readers off-balance and sometimes confused. A third person P.O.V., telling the story through the eyes of one or two characters, eliminates the potential hazards of the omniscient, but limits what the readers can know. Even more limiting is writing in the first person. Not only must you know the experience you write about, but it takes high technical word skill to avoid every sentence containing the word "I". Another limitation is that the character cannot know more than the narrative voice. Worst of all is speaking in the second person. It sounds like the writer is telling the reader what to think and feel. It's all tell and no show. Playing with the P.O.V. can help when you're stuck in a plot. Maybe the story needs telling from another character's perspective than the one with which you began. One piece of P.O.V. advice is usually pertinent: never shift the viewpoint within a single scene. Break up the action if you must; and give readers a visual clue that the P.O.V. is changing with a line space, asterisks, a pound sign, or some other signal.

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