 Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash Point of View (POV) is a critical choice in any book. Get the POV right, and you create an engaging story with characters your readers can relate to and connect with. Get it wrong and you will lose your readers before they get to page two. So, whether you are choosing first person or third for a specific scene, how do you know which POV option is best for your book? While there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer to that question, there are some important considerations that can help guide you to the right decision for your story. Grab a coffee and a comfy seat, and let’s get started. Genre Matters First, knowing your genre is essential to choosing your POV. Readers have certain expectations in the books they read, and while established authors can make choices outside the realm of genre expectations and get away with it, new authors cannot. Choosing a nontraditional POV can jar the reader out of the story, resulting in a poor reading experience and possibly even a poor review. Using a traditional POV is going to help you connect more easily with your readers and give avid genre readers a reason to return to your books in the future. Even authors with a few books under their belt are better off adhering to their readers’ expectations. For instance, romance and YA fantasy are typically third-person deep POV, while memoirs are often first person. Children’s fantasies are often third-person limited. Knowing your genre and your readers’ expectations is a great first step in choosing the best POV for your story. When in doubt, new authors should pick limited third-person POV. It is generally the easiest POV to master. And mastering your POV is the next critical step. Master Your Book’s POV One of the biggest challenges for new authors is mastering POV for their book. Nothing pulls readers out of a story faster than trying to figure out whose perspective they are hearing the story from. Even readers who don’t understand the nuances of POV instinctively know something doesn’t make sense. Or they may even be downright confused. Head Hopping I completed a beta read for a new author, and the majority of my feedback revolved around POV. I was constantly rereading and scrolling back to the beginning of the chapter to get my bearings and figure out who was talking. Changing POVs in the same scene is called head-hopping. It was terribly distracting and made an otherwise interesting story impossible to read. Don’t do that to your readers. Once you have settled on the POV that is best for your book, master the ins and outs of that POV. If you choose third-person limited or first person, recognize and respect the limitations of that perspective. If the reader is seeing the story through Tommy’s perspective, you can’t tell them what Sarah is feeling or thinking. Tommy wouldn’t know that, so the reader can’t know it either. If you are writing in dual perspective, keep POV changes to chapter breaks (or at the very least distinct scene breaks) for clarity. Maintain Voice Another aspect of mastering POV, particularly in one with dual or multiple POVs, is mastering the character’s voice. If you are writing in first person or deep third, the reader should be able to hear the difference in each character's thoughts and words. By the same token, if you are writing in third-person omniscient, the voice of the narrator won’t change regardless of whose perspective you are showing the reader. Know Your Story Another crucial aspect of choosing the right POV for your story is knowing your story. Readers want to experience the story from the perspective of the character who is immersed in the action. When choosing which character’s POV to use, ask yourself:
If Jeff is engaged in an epic battle of good and evil at the climax of your story, readers want to experience that battle through Jeff’s perspective. Don’t give them a sideline seat when they can experience the action firsthand. With each scene you script, stop and evaluate whether you have chosen the right perspective for that scene. Go Deeper with POV Finally, as you evaluate which perspective you will use in each scene, determine whether you can go deeper. Third-person deep POV has become increasingly popular for a reason. It’s intimate. It’s exciting. It builds a deep connection between readers and characters. Are there areas of the story where you can go deeper by removing feeling words, emotion words, or weasel words? Ask: What does excited look like? What does feeling cold look like?
Would your story benefit from going deeper? Both first-person and third-person deep POVs provide a close, intimate connection with characters, building emotion, tension, and excitement. For a better understanding of POV, consider one or both of the following books by Marcy Kennedy.
Choosing and mastering point of view is a wonderful way to polish your stories and take readers on a breathtaking journey they will be delighted to be a part of. Categories
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About MeNycole Sinks is the owner and editor for Positive Proofing. With a background in business and education, she has a passion for helping authors share their stories with the world. 
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