What POV am I writing in?

sapphireeye · Jan 24, 2009

Ok, in with the stupid questions! I originally started writing my novel in first person, however I decided to give third person a try and am finding that I prefer it, however I have a feeling that my third person point of view is a bit all over the place! It almost feels like I have a narrator that mainly focuses on my MC and her pov, thoughts and feelings, occasionally adds in a comment of their own and it occasionally switches to the pov or thoughts of one of the other characters. If it does switch to the pov of another character, it's always in a separate paragraph and it's always to add something to the scene which my MC doesn't know, for example when another character is thinking about her. The comments from the narrator are occasional and are things that only the narrator knows, which suggest future happenings in the book, for example:

Neither of them knew it yet, but this chance meeting would open up doors for them both, their stories had only just begun.

Is this really messy of me? I'm just confused as to whether I'm writing in third person omniscient, third person multiple, a bit of both or neither of those!

Sorry, I did do a search but I still can't get my head round all of this!

semilargeintestine · Jan 24, 2009

It's okay to switch POV as long as you don't do it randomly and all over the place. That would get confusing and would turn off most readers, I think. It's okay for your narrator to put in thoughts of her own, though. I have read plenty of books like that that worked just fine. As long as you do it well and with moderation, I think it would be fine. As far as that quote, it's definitely 3rd person past tense, but it's impossible to say if you're using multiple or whatever without anymore of the story, since you could switch POV in the next sentence for all we know. Also, just personal preference, but I'd put "...for them both--their stories had only just begun." or something. A comma doesn't seem right there.

Just FYI, I write almost exclusively in 1st person, so take all that with a grain of salt.

Matera the Mad · Jan 24, 2009

Little did he know... Yes, it's probably messy, lol. Sounds like third p. omniscient, and maybe a little overboard. You might be doing a lot of Telling rather than Showing, if the sample is something that happens a lot. But hey, get the story down--it can be fixed later.

semilargeintestine · Jan 24, 2009

I taught a seminar on Little did he know...

Linda Adams · Jan 24, 2009

It almost feels like I have a narrator that mainly focuses on my MC and her pov, thoughts and feelings, occasionally adds in a comment of their own and it occasionally switches to the pov or thoughts of one of the other characters.

Sounds like it might be a form of omniscient viewpoint. Check out the book The Power of Point of View for more information on it.

RobJ · Jan 25, 2009

sapphireeye said:
Neither of them knew it yet, but this chance meeting would open up doors for them both, their stories had only just begun.

Sounds like authorial intrusion. You probably don't need it, in which case I'd avoid it.

Cheers,
Rob

sapphireeye · Jan 25, 2009

Thanks everyone - for an example of how often the narrator's comments appear, in my 15,000 words I've written so far I think they occur about three times, so it's definitely not a regular thing and that example is the only time that a 'Little did he know...' sentence is used. I'll see if I can look up that book too, Linda Adams.

Semilargeintestine, thanks for the tip, I'll replace that comma, I can see your point, if I was reading it aloud I would leave a longer pause there so it does need something more than a comma.

Thanks everyone.

Kathleen42 · Jan 25, 2009

semilargeintestine said:
I taught a seminar on Little did he know...

No, no. It's not schizophrenia. It's just a voice in my head. I mean, the voice isn't telling me to do anything. It's telling me what I've already done... accurately, and with a better vocabulary.

jscribbles · Jan 25, 2009

Kathleen42 said:
No, no. It's not schizophrenia. It's just a voice in my head. I mean, the voice isn't telling me to do anything. It's telling me what I've already done... accurately, and with a better vocabulary.

scarletpeaches · Jan 25, 2009

My opinion is that "Little did he know," is a superclunky way of foreshadowing.

That, and it makes me BLARG on the page every time I see it.

Josephine Cox, this means you.

Michael · Jan 25, 2009

Yeah, personally, I wouldn't use that sentence at all, even if I were to write in omniscient. Of course, these days I prefer 3rd person limited. There's plenty of work out there in omniscient, however, but often when I read it I get a bit annoyed with it.

sapphireeye · Jan 25, 2009

Yes, I had a bit of a think earlier on and I think that I'll continue writing it in third person limited and then edit the beginning (which needs heavy editing anyway) to take out any other pov or omniscient comments, so it's purely from the pov of my mc.

Michael · Jan 25, 2009

Well, the whole book doesn't necessarily need to be the mc's POV, of course. You could actually have several POVs throughout the book, but usually only one character would be expressed in a single chapter. Even that isn't set in stone, as long as the manuscript is well organized and the number of POVs is kept to a minimum.

Branwyn · Jan 25, 2009

If neither of them knew it, then neither can your reader. Unless your writing in omni.

What POV am I writing in?

sapphireeye

semilargeintestine

BassGirl 5000

Matera the Mad

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

semilargeintestine

BassGirl 5000

Linda Adams

Soldier, Storyteller

RobJ

sapphireeye

Kathleen42

crushing on fictional characters

jscribbles

Who killed my sea monkeys?

scarletpeaches

Michael

Little Doggie

sapphireeye

Michael

Little Doggie

Branwyn

Print release:Sept.1,'09