POV, otherwise known as the narrating voice of your novel, is one of the very first decisions a writer makes when starting a new work. And it’s probably the most important. Whether you are going to write in first person or third person (or very rarely, in second); and whether you are going to have a limited narrator (which can be either first or third person) or an omniscient one, which is always third person, will set the tone for your whole book.
How to decide on the POV for your novel? Here are a few tips, based on my own experience in writing from all different kinds of POVs. These aren’t intended to suggest hard-and-fast rules by any means!
*Do you want your main character/s to a: know more than, or b: less than, your reader?
A will always be third-person, while b: can be either 1st or 3rd. For example, you can have a story in which the reader is aware that a character is ‘having themselves on’ about something, either because their understanding is limited, through prejudice or lack of information or a character flaw which is apparent between the lines (comedies are often written in this way) or because the reader is exposed to more than one character viewpoint and knows that there’s more going on.
*What genre is your book in? [Read more…]