Which Point of View is best?

Which point of view is best for your story? That can be a very difficult question, and one which may not have a clear cut answer, but, there are some points of view which will undoubtedly suit your story more so than others. Many beginning writers make the same mistake when it comes to POV. What is that mistake?

They default to first person. Let me be clear: first person is usually the wrong answer. In fact, the only time when you should use first person is when you can hear the character speaking to you. No, I’m not crazy, ask any author. The characters speak, and unless your main character offers up an undeniably unique or interesting voice, do not write in first person. Writing in first person only lends something extra to your story if their voice is SPECIAL. (Read my other post about Harry Potter to see why Rowling did not use first person.) So which POV should you use?

You’re left with two POV’s (really three, but we’ll get to that). You can choose third person limited, where you follow one particular character and know only what that character knows, or third person omniscient, where the narrator knows all, and therefore, so does the reader. You may, of course, tweak the POV’s. Sometimes you can write in such a way that the narrator does not know what anyone is thinking, but be cautious, this method can easily go wrong. So which is better?

For a beginning writer, and frankly, for most people in general, third person limited is the way to go. It is versatile, does not give you more information than you need to know, and is simply easy to use. You can experiment and do some different things with this particular POV, but the main thing is, for beginners, it is easy to work with, and much more difficult to screw up than the others.

And the last POV, which is almost never used, is second person, where the narrator says: You walked over to the bench and set down your bag. It’s like they’re speaking directly to the reader, and in some cases they are. Most writers, even the best, will never use this POV, but I figured I’d mention it for fun.

The message: stick with third person limited POV until you’ve practiced writing a good deal, and then try out the others.

What makes the Harry Potter Series better than its rivals?

What is it that makes the Harry Potter series so successful? Why is it that, even though it really boils down to a battle of good versus evil, JK Rowling has managed to become the world’s first billionaire author? Well, there are a few definite reasons as to why this series was so successful:

1.      The Point of View Rowling employs to tell the story. The story is told from a third person limited perspective. For those of you who don’t know what that is, it’s when the narrator is extremely close to one particular character, and we know no other character’s thoughts, only Harry’s, and yet, Harry is not narrating the story (that would be first person). By using this perspective, Rowling is able to show us things as Harry sees them. We experience this new world and exciting magic just as Harry does, for the first time. But at the same time, Harry is a very plain person, so his first person voice would not lend anything extra to the story, so it’s better to stick with third person limited, as Rowling does. Which brings me to my next point.

2.      How relatable is the main character? Harry is extremely relatable, especially to younger kids when they pick up the first book. This is perhaps one of the most beautiful things Rowling is able to do successfully, and that is balance the relatability of the main character equally with the strangeness of the world. The reader can sympathize with Harry’s normal struggles (classes, unfair professors, bullies, love), and by establishing this connection with the reader, Rowling can then lead the reader into the strange and magical world of Hogwarts. Now the reader won’t feel so repelled by the peculiarities, because they’ve already connected with the normality Harry embodies.

3.      Appealing to multiple audiences. Again, this is something which is extremely difficult to do. To write a book which satisfies children’s desire for adventure, but also pleases an adult’s, let’s say, refined taste, is an extraordinarily hard task. The fact that Rowling has accomplished this means that her story is more than just the age old conflict of good and evil. She has created a world which is just as interesting for kids as it is for adults. She has addressed themes (love, acceptance of death) which are more appealing for adults, but has still not repelled the children. Such a balancing act certainly serves as a major way to explain why she has received (and is deserving of) so much respect and money.

So now that I’ve blathered on about what makes Rowling’s series so superb (there are many more things, and I think I’ll address them in a later blog post), the real question is: What can you do to improve your writing?

I’m not saying your book needs to mirror Harry Potter in any way, nor am I suggesting you need to follow these three tips. But if you want to heighten your chances of becoming a successful author and dream about the success of authors such as JK Rowling, then it is certainly worth considering their work and what they did in order to make their work so successful.

Again, while there is no need to do exactly as Rowling did, you do need to consider:

1.      What is your point of view and why did you choose it? What sets your point of view apart from the thousands of other authors?

2.      How relatable does your main character need to be? He needs to be relatable enough so that people care about him. If no one can relate, then no one is going to read the book.

3.      Who is your target audience? Keep them in mind while you write. If you’re writing for middle grade, don’t string the f-word throughout your novel.

If you keep these three things in mind while you write, you’ll be sure to improve your story, and while nothing can guarantee your success, you can do everything in your power to increase your odds of success.