Have you thought about the point of view you will be using when you write your novel? Whose head will you be in?

You may be wondering what I’m talking about. What is the point of view? To put it simply, it’s the voice with which you tell your story.

There are three commonly used points of view in novels. They all have their pros and cons, but if you’re a newbie, omniscient isn’t the way to go. Even accomplished writers struggle with transitions.

Omniscient/ 3rd person omniscient-

• He/She
• God-like. You are all knowing and all seeing. You have the ability to look into everybody’s head at once.
• This can and usually does result in head-hopping.  If you’re not skillful enough to create a smooth transition from one person’s thoughts to another’s, and odds are you are not, don’t use it.
• Editors and agents will guess you’re new right away because you don’t know what you’re doing.

3rd person limited–

• He/She
• Places you in one person’s head at a time.
• You can transition into other character’s heads, but you should limit viewpoints to one per scene, preferably chapter, ideally novel.
• If you can limit the point of view to the protagonist, you’ll have a stronger story. Harry Potter and the Hunger Games have one viewpoint, the protagonist.
• If you’re writing a romance, consider writing it from the female point of view.

1st person-

• I/Me
• You’re in one person’s head for the entirety of the novel.
• It’s how we narrate stories we are sharing with our friends.
•  Your reader becomes the character and believes everything is real.
• The reader is drawn into the story much quicker than with other points of view.
• 1st person forces you to stay in one point of view, which makes it a great choice for new writers.

I didn’t mention 2nd person point of view because it is rarely used in novels. 2nd person is you/your and is commonly used in instructional writing.

Something to think about.

-Jan R