First & Third Person Mix

[Skye]

Hi Loring; point of view is important and you could shift it in many ways. You could have multiple narrators, but it depends on your purpose, theme, audience and what you want to expose or keep hidden.

[Lance]

Loring wrote: "I'm working on my first novel and really stuck on what POV I want to use. It's important to me that people really get inside my main character's head, but there are things going on outside her purview that the reader needs to know about..."

You don't have to use first-person to get inside your character's head. You can do that using close third.

The only reason you need to use first-person is to tell the story using that character's words and attitudes. It's a perfectly fine reason. However, when you choose to go that way, you make the commitment to let that character tell the story her own way, not yours. It means submerging your voice and letting the character's voice take over. Can you do that? It's hard to do well and easy for readers to see when you fail.

[Nancy, Co-Moderator]

Personally, I don't trust characters who relate things from their own POV. I've read way too many novels that use first person and most times it turns out to be an unreliable narrator. The mix of first and third just doesn't do it for me.

[Jan C]

Nancy wrote: "Personally, I don't trust characters who relate things from their own POV. I've read way too many novels that use first person and most times it turns out to be an unreliable narrator. The mix of ..."

I can just barely abide it when someone I like does it, like Laura Lippman. I think it takes a lot of experience to be able to do it well.

[Skye]

I like first-person point of view.

[P.J.]

Adding to the list of works that mix first and third POVs: The Secret Place by Tana French and Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. I liked both books. It's been long enough since I read them that I can't offer any criticism or commentary on how the POV shifts impacted structure and reveals, but I can say that the POV shifts didn't distract me at all in either book.

[Chet]

Patrick McGrath's Asylum is an excellent read written in 1st person POV, but with 3rd Person omniscience.

[Skye]

I personally like first, but also 3rd person limited omniscience, but this is where I am running into my own writing issues.

[Alan]

If I want the reader to be extremely close to the main character, I write in the first-person, if not, it's the third-person.