How to Write Point of View, Part 1, Overview

/ harmonykentonline
Pictures of single eyes scattered atop one another and ringed by purple, red, or yellow eye shadow. From Pixabay.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Hi SErs! Harmony here 🙂 Today, I’d like to introduce a series of posts on how to write Point of View (POV).

Below is an overview of the planned post series:

  1. How to Write Point of View, Part 1, Overview
  2. How to Write Point of View, Part 2, First Person
  3. How to Write Point of View, Part 3, Second Person
  4. How to Write Point of View, Part 4, Third Person Limited
  5. How to Write Point of View, Part 5, Third Person Omniscient
  6. How to Write Point of View, Part 6, Common Pitfalls
  7. How to Write Point of View, Part 7, Switching Point of View
  8. How to Write Point of View, Part 8, Choosing Point of View
  9. How to Write Point of View, Part 9, The Unreliable Narrator and POV
  10. How to Write Point of View, Part 10, Choosing Tense
  11. How to Write Point of View, Part 11, Summary

What is POV in Fiction?

Point of view is how you tell your story to your reader. Depending on how much you want your reader to know, you will construct your lens accordingly. POV is an incredibly effective vehicle of characterisation within your narrative.

The Types of POV:

  1. First Person
  2. Second Person
  3. Third Person Limited (otherwise known as ‘close’)
  4. Third Person Omniscient (otherwise known as ‘distant’)

The POV you choose can have a tremendous impact on how your reader connects to your story.

Top Tip: You have many options with how you use Point of View. You can write the whole book in the same POV, or you can switch from one character perspective to another as the need arises. As well as switching character perspective, you can also switch between the different types of POV.

That’s it from me today. I hope you’ll find this series of posts useful. I’ll see you again on Monday 2nd August, when we’ll take a look at First Person POV 🙂

Bio Box for Harmony Kent that links to her website www.harmonykent.co.uk

©2021 Harmony Kent

75 thoughts on “How to Write Point of View, Part 1, Overview”

  1. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 11, Summary and Wrap-up | Story Empire

  2. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 10, Choosing Tense and POV | Story Empire

  3. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 9, The Unreliable Narrator and POV | Story Empire

  4. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 8, Choosing Point of View | Story Empire

  5. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 7, Switching Point of View | Story Empire

  6. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 6, Common Pitfalls | Story Empire

  7. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 5, Third Person Distant | Story Empire

  8. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 4, Third Person Limited | Story Empire

  9. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 1, Overview – Stuff I want to read

  10. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 3, Second Person | Story Empire

  11. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 2, First Person by Harmony Kent – DEEZ – News about Art, Books & more

  12. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 2, First Person | Story Empire

  15. I’m really looking forward to this series, Harmony. I often use multiple POVs in my books, though never more than one in 1st person. I try to be careful, but I suspect now and then, I mess up a wee bit. I’d like to learn more about each type, so I can watch for things such as Trish (Alex Craigie) mentioned. Those can be tricky, and mean we’ve slipped out of the intended POV, even if only for a line or two.

    Great idea for a series, and I’ll be following closely! Thanks!

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  16. This is going to be a most useful series, Harmony! I’ve written my books in first person point of view but I still sometimes make assumptions about another character that lift me out of it. When someone else ‘smiles with relief’ that’s no longer the first person point of view and I do have to check carefully when I’m editing to remove the information that’s in someone else’s head! x

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  19. This series should be great. I wonder if there’s data that shows what percentage of stories are written in which point of view. It seems that these trends have changed historically.

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  22. I am looking forward to reading this series, Harmony. Your comment that you can use more than one type of POV in a book is already hugely helpful to me. I want to do this in one of my current manuscripts but wasn’t sure if it would be to different. The different types of POV will be clearly separated as they will be told by different people in different chapters.

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  23. I tried writing 2 books at a time once, like C.S. Boyack does. It worked fine until I tried it with one book with 1st person POV and another with 3rd person POV. Never again. I kept getting them mixed up and having to rewrite:)

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  33. Pingback: How to Write Point of View, Part 1, Overview | Legends of Windemere

  37. This sounds like a good read. I generally have a combination of first POV for my main character. However, I do bring in the other character’s POV’s in quite a bit, so will be interesting to see what your tips are for ensuring that POV’s make sense. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

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