Be a Better Writer--SHE WRITES IN THIRD PERSON
Posted: Sat Feb 21, 2015 8:42 am
A story is written in third person when the characters are referred to by their names, or by such personal pronouns as he, she, they, them, etc. Think of third person as storytelling mode.
There are actually several sub-divisions of third person POV, but in the interest of length and simplicity, I’m only going to cover two of them: third person limited and third person omniscient. If you’re interested in a deeper study of third person, feel free to post a question, or to branch off on your own.
Many novels now considered classics were written in third person omniscient POV. In that POV, the narrator sees all and knows all, including the thoughts and emotions of all the characters. Thus, it wouldn’t be uncommon or wrong to read—even within one paragraph—both how Jan reacted to her shoe-eating dog, and how Ben felt about the fact that Jan refused to clean up the tattered mess.
This POV is not nearly as popular as it once was, especially (according to my research) with publishers. In ultra-short fiction such as the Writing Challenge, it may be best to avoid it. This is NOT a hard-and-fast rule. However, if your POV character is Gertrude for your whole story, and suddenly your reader learns how much Dexter has always secretly despised her marshmallow meatballs, it can be slightly disorienting. If you get comments mentioning POV switches, that’s probably why.
But please—feel free to experiment with third person omniscient POV. It’s a legitimate writing style, and it has its advantages:
1. It’s really fun to be omniscient! You get to hang around inside the heads of all your characters, and to see the plot unfolding from everyone’s viewpoint.
2. It works well in stories where there are several characters of equal importance.
3. It’s probably the most flexible POV—you (the author) are not limited by the thoughts and emotions of one character.
Just be sure that if you’re using this POV in a Writing Challenge piece, you establish it early—avoid having a single incident of hopping into a secondary character’s mind in the 15th paragraph.
The other kind of third person POV is third person limited. This one seems to be most popular in the Writing Challenge, and according to my research, it’s also currently the most popular with publishers.
In third person limited POV, you (the writer) stay inside the head of only one main character. You write what Jan does, what Jan sees, what Jan thinks and feels. Anything you have to say about other characters must be filtered through Jan, and is limited to what she can perceive or infer.
Advantages of third person limited POV:
1. You and your readers really, really get to know that POV character.
2. It’s more realistic than omniscient—after all, we humans are limited to our own perceptions.
3. It gives your piece unity. Your POV character is the thread running through every sentence, paragraph, and chapter.
The obvious limitation of third person limited POV is that sometimes, things have to happen when your POV character is “off the stage”. If that’s the case in your story, you have to signal your reader somehow—set off a section with a row of asterisks, or italicize a paragraph that’s outside of your character’s experience.
Finally, as with first person and second person, third person POV can be either past tense (far more common) or present tense (very contemporary and literary). Here are a few examples from Challenge entries:
Third person, past tense: Almost Missed It uses this combination (except for a present tense epilog). It works well for narratives where the storyteller is able to step back and examine her characters objectively (describing their negative characteristics as well as their positive ones), for narratives that don’t need intimacy or immediacy (which is why I switched tenses for the epilog), and for portraying action.
Third person, present tense: Whispers, which isn’t very well-done, factually, but which demonstrates good uses for this POV: stories where the reader is viewing intimate lives, moody stories with few characters, or a story with a feeling of immediacy. You need to be careful writing in third person, present tense; if it’s not done well, it will sound like paragraphs and paragraphs of stage directions.
Homework:
1. Ask a question or make a comment about this lesson, OR
2. Add to our knowledge of third person by telling us something you know or have observed about this POV, OR
3. Give some advantages/disadvantages of omniscient or limited third person that I have not thought of, OR
4. Link to one of your Writing Challenge entries that uses third person, and tell us a little bit about your writing process.
I'll be on a plane most of today, but will be able to answer posts this evening (and all week, of course).
There are actually several sub-divisions of third person POV, but in the interest of length and simplicity, I’m only going to cover two of them: third person limited and third person omniscient. If you’re interested in a deeper study of third person, feel free to post a question, or to branch off on your own.
Many novels now considered classics were written in third person omniscient POV. In that POV, the narrator sees all and knows all, including the thoughts and emotions of all the characters. Thus, it wouldn’t be uncommon or wrong to read—even within one paragraph—both how Jan reacted to her shoe-eating dog, and how Ben felt about the fact that Jan refused to clean up the tattered mess.
This POV is not nearly as popular as it once was, especially (according to my research) with publishers. In ultra-short fiction such as the Writing Challenge, it may be best to avoid it. This is NOT a hard-and-fast rule. However, if your POV character is Gertrude for your whole story, and suddenly your reader learns how much Dexter has always secretly despised her marshmallow meatballs, it can be slightly disorienting. If you get comments mentioning POV switches, that’s probably why.
But please—feel free to experiment with third person omniscient POV. It’s a legitimate writing style, and it has its advantages:
1. It’s really fun to be omniscient! You get to hang around inside the heads of all your characters, and to see the plot unfolding from everyone’s viewpoint.
2. It works well in stories where there are several characters of equal importance.
3. It’s probably the most flexible POV—you (the author) are not limited by the thoughts and emotions of one character.
Just be sure that if you’re using this POV in a Writing Challenge piece, you establish it early—avoid having a single incident of hopping into a secondary character’s mind in the 15th paragraph.
The other kind of third person POV is third person limited. This one seems to be most popular in the Writing Challenge, and according to my research, it’s also currently the most popular with publishers.
In third person limited POV, you (the writer) stay inside the head of only one main character. You write what Jan does, what Jan sees, what Jan thinks and feels. Anything you have to say about other characters must be filtered through Jan, and is limited to what she can perceive or infer.
Advantages of third person limited POV:
1. You and your readers really, really get to know that POV character.
2. It’s more realistic than omniscient—after all, we humans are limited to our own perceptions.
3. It gives your piece unity. Your POV character is the thread running through every sentence, paragraph, and chapter.
The obvious limitation of third person limited POV is that sometimes, things have to happen when your POV character is “off the stage”. If that’s the case in your story, you have to signal your reader somehow—set off a section with a row of asterisks, or italicize a paragraph that’s outside of your character’s experience.
Finally, as with first person and second person, third person POV can be either past tense (far more common) or present tense (very contemporary and literary). Here are a few examples from Challenge entries:
Third person, past tense: Almost Missed It uses this combination (except for a present tense epilog). It works well for narratives where the storyteller is able to step back and examine her characters objectively (describing their negative characteristics as well as their positive ones), for narratives that don’t need intimacy or immediacy (which is why I switched tenses for the epilog), and for portraying action.
Third person, present tense: Whispers, which isn’t very well-done, factually, but which demonstrates good uses for this POV: stories where the reader is viewing intimate lives, moody stories with few characters, or a story with a feeling of immediacy. You need to be careful writing in third person, present tense; if it’s not done well, it will sound like paragraphs and paragraphs of stage directions.
Homework:
1. Ask a question or make a comment about this lesson, OR
2. Add to our knowledge of third person by telling us something you know or have observed about this POV, OR
3. Give some advantages/disadvantages of omniscient or limited third person that I have not thought of, OR
4. Link to one of your Writing Challenge entries that uses third person, and tell us a little bit about your writing process.
I'll be on a plane most of today, but will be able to answer posts this evening (and all week, of course).