Point-of-View: The Eyes of the Story

M.L. Bull
1 hour ago
3 min read

If you previously recall, point-of-view was one of the top story elements that I went over in my six essential story elements blog post. This particular element for short stories or novels is important for a couple of reasons; but primarily, point-of-view can be thought of as the eyes of the story when it comes to writing fiction. Just think about how we use this term when not talking about fiction. Point-of-view is when one makes an effort of seeing things from another's perspective. In essence, the same is the case when it comes to fiction, as writers share and write in the perspective of a certain character in their stories. Now, let's review and examine a few crucial terms and some of the different types of points-of-view in fiction.

WATCH THE EPISODE

See episode 35 of season 2 of my Journey of a Christian Writer series, Point-of-View: The Eyes of the Story or continue reading the blog post.

VIEWPOINT CHARACTERS: WHAT ARE THEY?

Viewpoint characters are the people or fictional characters through whose eyes that readers experience the story or a particular scene. These characters can be thought of as a camera lens in which all of the story events, thoughts, feelings, contemplations, and reactions are filtered through. However, something important to remember is the viewpoint character and the narrator, (the one telling the story) are not always the same characters. Many novels and stories like this have omniscient point-of-views, such as The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck and Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe.

The front cover of the novel, "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett.

📌Note: Some stories also have multiple viewpoint characters and narrators, such as the historical fiction novel, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, which has three female viewpoint characters that narrates the story, including African American maids Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson, and ambitious writer Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan.

THE 4 TYPES OF POINT-OF-VIEW IN FICTION

There are four different types of point-of-view that writers can use in their fiction, which are kind of like the four directions of a compass, but only from a narrative perspective. These include first-person point-of-view, second-person point-of-view, third-person limited point-of-view, and third-person omniscient point-of-view. All of these differ from one another based on the perspectives or pronouns used when writing in them. It's important to also keep in mind that these point-of-views change based on whether the singular or plural contexts are being used as shown in the colored chart below.

First-Person	Second-Person	Third-Person Limited	Third-Person Omniscient
Me, myself, and I (Singular)	You, your, and yours (Singular)	He, his, him, himself she, her, hers, herself, it, and itself (Singular)	He, his, him, himself she, her, hers, herself, it, and itself (Singular)
We, us, our, ours, ourselves (Plural)	Y'all, you all, you guys, yourselves (Plural)	They, them, their, theirs, themselves (Plural)	They, them, their, theirs, themselves (Plural)

CLOSING REMARKS:

Point-of-view is a crucial aspect when it comes to writing fiction, as it allows readers to know who is speaking in the story and from what perspective. It also helps to establish the tense of a story, whether it's past tense or present tense. When writing short stories or novels, it's a good idea to familiarize yourself with the different point-of-views and consider which narrator, perspective, and writing approach works best for the type of story you want to tell, and which one feels right for you and your characters. For more writing videos or tutorials, subscribe to my channel Journey of a Christian Writer series. Okay, that's it for this post. If you liked it and found it informative, please, give it a (heart❤️), take part in the poll 🤔, and share your thoughts or comments 💬 below.)