Is there a difference between POV and narration?

Status
Not open for further replies.

eric11210

Super Member
Registered
Joined
Mar 10, 2007
Messages
1,006
Reaction score
102
Location
Israel
One thing that several people have noted on my writing is that I seem to flip POV quite a bit. I've always written in 3rd person narration (and I'm not going to get into a discussion here as to whether that is a good or a bad thing -- it's just what I'm used to doing).

But I'm a little confused. Is there any difference between narration and point of view? Because I thought I was pretty consistent in always using third person narration in my writing (maybe I'm wrong and need to look closer) but I've been told I'm switching POV too often. . .

Any advice would be helpful.

Eric
 

CheshireCat

Mostly purring. Mostly.
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Jan 27, 2007
Messages
1,842
Reaction score
661
Location
Mostly inside my own head.
Nothing wrong with 3rd person narration.

POV is different, yes. You're probably remaining in the 3rd person, but if you're revealing the thoughts/perceptions/etc. of different characters in so doing, you're changing POV.

Example:

Joe went to the door and checked outside, still worried he was being watched but seeing no one. He couldn't have said why he felt so certain he was being watched, he just knew he was.

Belinda watched him from the bed, wishing he could relax. That was what they were supposed to be doing here in the motel room after all, relaxing, right? Well, hiding, really, but she still wasn't sure what they were hiding from.

Spot scratched behind his left ear and watched the nervous Man pacing. Waste of energy, as far as he was concerned, but nobody'd asked him, so --

Okay, so that last paragraph is a joke, and none of it's well-written, BUT it's all 3rd person narration and I changed POV three times.

Does that make sense to you?
 

maestrowork

Fear the Death Ray
Super Member
Registered
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
43,746
Reaction score
8,654
Location
Los Angeles
Website
www.amazon.com
Narration and POV are different but related. I see "narration" as a distinctive narrative voice that describe everything from settings to character's thoughts and action, etc. Point of view (POV) is related in that the narration has to come from somewhere -- who is telling the story, and for whom? 1st person narrative is the simplest: the narrator IS the point of view. Everything is filtered and reported through the point of view narrator.

When you come to 3rd person, it becomes interesting. Who is the narrator, and who are the POVs? The narrator is generally separate from the characters, but it assumes the characters' POVs and tells the story through their "point of view," thus the term. Think of it as the narrator sitting on the POV character's shoulder and report anything the POV character sees, smells, hears, thinks, etc. but nothing else. That's called 3rd limited. But just as the little shoulder-angel can fly off and follow someone else, the POV characters can change within the book, but the narrative voice may or may not change.

3rd omniscient is another one. It's like there's someone sitting in the sky and flying about telling the story -- it knows everything, even when the characters don't. The narrator is a totally different entity, and most often "unknown."
 
Status
Not open for further replies.