Through Their Eyes
Perspective.
It is the single, most defining trait of a story, may it be written or spoken.
Who is telling the story? Is it the hero? Is it his friend? Or is it a higher being that oversees everything, also known as the narrator?
These are all perspectives of how a story could be told. Currently, the first person Point of View (POV) and third person limited POV are the favoured type of perspective that audiences love to read. So what are they?
First person POV refers simply to the telling of the story via the character’s own eyes. As a result, your paragraphs would be filled with “I”s and “My”s. For example, “I walk down the street and I saw the most beautiful woman I have ever met. Is she single?” This is a first person POV.
Now what would a third person limited POV sound like? It is one that is told by the narrator, but with a twist: the narrator, despite his/her omniscience over the story, would only describe events based on the POV of the character! For example, “He walks down the street and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever met.”
You may ask, what’s the difference between this and a normal third person POV? Well a normal third person POV would have a more omniscient tone. Meaning the narrator would describe what everyone in the scene is feeling or seeing. For example, “He walks down the street and saw the most beautiful woman he had ever met. The woman, seeing the handsome man, instantly fell for him as well.”
You see how the POV shifts from the perspective of the man and then suddenly to the woman? This is called head-hopping, which is a big no-no for the modern reader! So be careful when you do third person limited.
So that’s a brief introduction to POVs for beginners. There are whole text books regarding perspective but I just thought that I’d share this simple information so that you may keep it in mind while writing.
I hope this helps and you can make your writing awesomer! All the best in your writing, fellow pen-artists!
p/s: check out my fantasy book: The Ocean Hearth.
