Ever since I learned about them I have been fascinated by the concept of POV. And I have always felt limited by the concept of first person OR third person POV, I even remembered getting in a ‘fight’ with my 3rd grade teacher that second person HAD to exist because otherwise why not just call third person second person. I’m pretty sure she went home and drank that night after class; I mean she was just trying to get through her lesson about basic POV’s and this little 3rd grader would not let the moment pass without an explanation she was not prepared to give me.
I did my best to control my little 3rd grader outrage, but this was before Wikipedia and my parents had yet to invest in a real set of encyclopedias so I had no way of knowing. Luckily (for my parents and teacher) it was 3rd grad and a few days later something else happened that took my focus away from this prevalent issue. But it was still there someplace, lurking, waiting, and biding its time.
Eventually in high school a teacher would break it down for me like this:
First person means I am telling the story
Second person means you are telling the story
Third person means they are telling the story
Ah I get it.
Choosing a POV to tell my story from seemed to me as big of a task as anything else about plotting. I know a lot of people just pick first person or third person and go with it. But for me, there had to be a reason. If I tell from first person, what am I trying to achieve from showing the story from my MC’s eyes? What special can she bring? But if I tell it from third person how would it be different? What things would change? What meaning would change? And what way is better?
Finally being me… I settled on the most difficult thing.
Technically, my story is told from first person. But it reads third person omniscient because the character telling the story is not physically in the story till the very end. It’s a precarious balance because I want to hint at this the entire story so it is not a crazy surprise when it is reveled. But not have it obvious either. Oh… and the person telling the story is psychic and tells the story in real time. What can I say?… I’m an earth sign; I like to make my life difficult.
So what I want to know is, was choosing your POV natural? Did you think about it as hard as me? Why did you choose the POV you chose? Is there anything different about your POV?
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And for a little bit of more fun, to meet some cool people, and for the chance to win a few more super fun prizes be sure to check out the Now Starring Blogfest that I am hosting with the love of my life Lindz from Rapturous Randomocity.
