Why is viewpoint important? Can’t you just tell the story? Well, yes, but don’t you want the reader to be able to envision the story, to live the story in their mind, not just read it on paper? For that, the reader needs to connect with some aspect of the story, most notably the characters. If the reader cannot make a connection, they will do the worst possible thing—they will quit reading.
The viewpoint of a story is easy, yet hard. It’s easy in the fact that viewpoint is simply the point of view (POV) from which the story is told. See, that’s easy! It becomes hard because there are so many different ways to do it, so many choices to make. The way it all intertwines can become bewildering.
So, first off, who’s going to tell your story? You, the author, of course, but from who’s POV?
Will you tell it directly from the protagonist’s (we’ll call her “Prot”) mouth? Then you’re telling it in First Person POV. First Person can certainly help the reader bond with Prot, but it is restricted to what Prot knows and experiences. Anything out of Prot’s sight is out of the reader’s, too, sometimes demanding creative ways to add information. Another problem is that the First Person viewpoint can be monotonous, unless broken up with multiple POV’s (read below).
Stories can be told in Second Person, but very few novels are, not least because of the sheer creativity and difficulty involved. Paradoxically, it’s one of the least effective ways to get the reader involved, as the frequent “you” takes them out of the story instead of putting them into it. Second Person lends itself better to short stories, as the viewpoint is hard to maintain through the length of a novel. Plus, Second Person novels are often the quirky, artistic ones people read more for their style than for the content.
Both Present and Future Tense are similar to Second Person in that it makes the story more difficult to tell and calls attention to itself and away from the story. Present Tense is required for synopses, though. Having knocked both Second Person and these two tenses, it’s always a good idea to stretch yourself as a writer, and trying these odd views can certainly help improve your skills and understanding.
Third Person is normally the other viable option. But that, in itself, creates more choices. Should it be omniscient, distant, close, or immersive?
Omniscient is, essentially, the author’s God-like POV. You can tell all the events, see all the characters, know their thoughts, their feelings. It’s a view from the heavens, almost a panoramic way of telling your story. But panoramas have their drawbacks. Since you can view everything, it’s easy to shift from one character’s thoughts to another, the confusion called, “head hopping.” Unless done well, an omniscient POV can degenerate into boring narration. It’s also hard for the reader to connect with the characters if s/he can only see them from 50,000 feet. That’s why omniscient/authorial POV has fallen out of favor in the best-selling 21st Century novels.
A Third Person Distant POV is sort of halfway between omniscient and Third Person Close. You get a wider angle on your story, but move closer to the characters. That can lead to disorientation for writers and readers, as the view can shift from close to omniscient very easily. It also adds a layer between the reader and the characters, making their bonding that much harder. For that reason Third Person Distant is used less and less in today’s best sellers.
Third Person Close creates more bonding opportunities with Prot and other characters. A Close POV will put the reader inside Prot’s thoughts and sees what s/he sees. It allows enough distance to add elements of the story which Prot may not know, too. It’s a very popular POV in best-selling novels.
The fast riser in today’s fiction is Third Person Immersive. It’s similar to Third Person Close, but even closer. In the immersive POV, the reader gets into every aspect of Prot’s experience, not only thoughts, but also smells, feel, memories, impressions, expectations, and all the sensory feelings, experiencing them as Prot experiences them, as if the reader were Prot. It is the ultimate bonding between reader and characters, which is why it is fast becoming the trend among best sellers.
Multiple viewpoints is, and has been, a popular way to tell stories. Multiple viewpoints means there are multiple characters telling the story from their own POV’s. The different viewpoints almost always use the closer Third Person POV’s, sometimes with a single First Person viewpoint mixed in. (More than one First Person can become VERY confusing.) Multiple POV’s are great for bonding with more than just on character. But be careful of too many viewpoints, which muddies the story. More than five is usually too many, the fewer the better—and clearer. Also, keep a strict hierarchy of POV’s, from the most important character and her/his most frequently used view, to the least. Multiple viewpoints, if not kept clean and clear, can sometimes lend themselves to head-hopping.
Some classics, notably The Great Gatsby and To Kill A Mockingbird, are narrated by a secondary character. That’s fine and can be effective, but the reader, if they bond at all, will most likely bond with the narrator, not Prot.
Some very fine novels use an Unreliable Narrator—a narrator that the reader cannot trust to tell the truth. This can be tricky, because you, the author, have to let your readers know s/he is unreliable, and find ways of telling the reader which statements are true and which are not. One way to do this is by establishing another character whose word we trust. An unreliable narrator can add a tempting uncertainty to your story. But, if not done well, can drive your reader away. If nothing else, attempting an unreliable narrator would stretch an author’s writing skills, certainly worth the effort for that alone.
I’ve mentioned “head hopping” a couple of times. That’s when you go from inside one person’s thoughts to another’s in the same scene. Even successful writers sometimes do it. The single knock on Lonesome Dove is its continual head hopping. But head hopping is often disorienting, and is usually the product of sloppy writing. Besides, high-profile, best-selling authors get away with stuff that you or I, pitching a novel, would not.
Remember, it’s all about telling your STORY. The simplest, least noticeable technique is normally the best. Stretch yourself to do viewpoint right, work to keep your POV’s clean, clear, and separate, and your stories will shine for it.
