Which point-of-view should you use to tell your story?

This is a post by Novel Publicity President, Emlyn Chand/The world is full of would-be writers. Research conducted by independent, Michigan-based publisher, Jenkins Group, projects that a full 80 percent of people living in the U.S. say they would like to write a book. Quite ironically, this is the same percentage of Americans who failed to either buy or read a book within a single calendar year. What gives?

My theory is that people are drawn to the idea of story-telling but deterred by the actual mechanics of writing. Writing is a craft, and it absolutely takes time to learn. It is hard work, especially in the beginning. But, for me at least, writing is one of the most rewarding activities in life. This is especially true if you feel an irrepressible urge to take pen to page, if writing is a must-do, rather than a like-to-do. My feeling is that the statistic noted above relates to a whole heck of a lot of people who place writing in the latter category. This column is intended to help those in the former — those who don’t know what they would possibly do, if not write.

Writing is, for the most part, a solitary activity. It can be daunting, learning such a detailed and diverse craft, entirely on one’s own. Luckily, there are a number of fantastic resources out there to assist in such an endeavor. I would like to add to that body by outlining some of the problems I faced while penning my first novel, problems I have learned from, and, if you heed my advice, problems I may be able to help you avoid in your own writing.

In this article, I would like to discuss: Point of View (POV).

Point of View (POV) refers to “the source and scope of the narrative voice” in a story. There are four primary POVs and a couple of odd, rarely seen POVs.

My POV woes: The single biggest oversight I had during the creation of my first novel was related to POV. I didn’t identify and stick-to a specific POV during the planning phase of my novel. I just wrote by the seat of my pants. What happened is this: I landed somewhere between multiple third person POV and omniscient POV — a big sloppy no-no. This problem took me a great deal of time and editing to correct — entire scenes had to be discarded as utterly unsalvageable. Needless to say, I learned my lesson the hard way and am writing my second novel from first person POV (to avoid my tendency to wax omniscient). Now that you know my experience and hopefully understand why this is an important topic to consider in the planning phase of your fiction writing, let’s delve further into your POV options.

First Person POV: In this POV, the reader is rooted firmly within a single perspective. This technique allows us to enter inside of the viewpoint character’s head. He’ll tell us “I feel like this,” “I thought about this.” It’s very easy to get to know him, and when we do get to know him, we may or may not trust him — that’ll be up for us to decide. Our viewpoint character may be the protagonist or a minor character. Examples of novels written in first person POV are: JD Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye,” Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight” and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby.”

Limited Third Person POV: In this POV, the reader is still rooted firmly within a single perspective. It is the most commonly employed in contemporary literature and, some say, the easiest to master. A great example of the limited third person POV is the “Harry Potter” series. We are grounded within Harry’s POV, but are still able to learn much about the other characters by J.K. Rowling’s mastery of the cardinal rule of writing “show, don’t tell.” Examples of novels written in limited third person POV are: Ernest Hemingway’s “Old Man and the Sea,” JK Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series and Anne Tyler’s “Accidental Tourist.”

Multiple Third Person POV: Many writing resources do not differentiate between the multiple third person and omniscient POVs. I feel this is a must, since this is the murky area that ensnared my first novel — a trap which was very difficult to escape. If you even suspect that you may also fall prey to this difficulty, please read the guide “Characters, Emotion & Viewpoint” by Nancy Kress, which is part of the Writer’s Digest “Write Great Fiction” series. Multiple third person POV switches between the perspectives of two or more viewpoint characters — this switch is most frequently seen at chapter or scene breaks. Fantasy writers favor this POV to allow for more elaborate side-plotting. Examples of novels written in multiple third person POV are: James Joyce’s “Ulysses,” Jeanne DuPrau’s “City of Ember” and Jodi Picoult’s “My Sister’s Keeper.”

Omniscient POV: This POV was greatly favored by nineteenth century novels, but we don’t tend to see it done much in contemporary fiction. It differs from multiple third person by its allowance to enter any character’s head at any time. There are not always clear breaks or obvious changes of perspectivel rather a God-like narrator is watching over all of the characters, understanding everything and shifting focus at will. Writers of the omniscient POV are likely to moralize and overtly comment on the action. Some of them even insert themselves as a minor character. Examples of novels written in the omniscient POV are: JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings,” William Makepeace Thackeray’s “Vanity Fair” and Leo Tolstoy’s “Anna Karenina.”

Other Options: There are other POV options, such as second person (Jay McInerny’s “Bright Lights, Big City”) or epistolary (Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s “Dangerous Liaisons”), which are rarely seen, as they are quite difficult to master.

Of course, we all have our own unique challenges as writers. You may not have to think twice about POV to do it right, whereas I have had great difficulty with staying within the boundaries of my chosen POV. Next time, I'll discuss another problem that may plague new writers.

Emlyn Chand was born with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). Novel Publicity's mascot is a Sun Conure, thanks to her obsession with birds–and she gets to decide anyway since she is the company's founder and president. Although her first novel Farsighted won the prestigious Writer's Digest Self-Published Novel of the Year award in 2012 for the YA category, she now writes most of her fiction under her “real” name, Melissa Storm. Learn more or connect with her (or her Sun Conure, Ducky!) on either of her author websites:  www.emlynchand.com or www.melstorm.com. You can also friend her on Facebook, tweet with her @novelpublicity, or send her an email via [email protected].