Are most suspense/thrillers written in 3rd person omni or limited?

I prefer first person.

gothicangel said:

I prefer first person.

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So do I, followed by multiple 3rd person limited.

I'd go out on a limb and say omni is not super popular in the genre right now.

As far as preference, if we're in 3rd, I prefer 3rd close. Omni leaves me cold. I don't feel close to the characters. Multiple POVs can be exhausting for me.

IWannaWrite said:

Is part of what you like about 3rd close the fact that you aren't made aware of what everyone is thinking and that makes for more tension/suspense/heart pounding whereas with omni, the narrator tends to tell you too much?

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Good question. I suppose that's part of it. But for me the reading is as much about connecting with the characters and their lives as it is about the plot, and omni distances me from those characters.

If we're including 1st, I do like that, possibly better than 3rd, for the same reasons.

I just finished a book that was what I would consider to be 3rd limited, multiple POVs. The characters were in intense, exciting, shoot-em-up situations, but I just didn't care. I wasn't close enough to either of the MCs to have a real emotional connection with whether they lived or died. I probably won't go back to that author--I've heard similar things about his other books.

Is part of what you like about 3rd close the fact that you aren't made aware of what everyone is thinking and that makes for more tension/suspense/heart pounding whereas with omni, the narrator tends to tell you too much?

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What mod mod said, with the caveat that 3rd limited, linear construction, with minimal POV changes (so the reader knows what the MC knows ONLY when he/she knows it) is as effective at building tension as first person. I'm not saying it can't be done in 3rd omni or 3rd limited with many characters, but it's more difficult to pull off.

Another thing. If the author uses the antagonist's POV with any regularity, it easy to inadvertently let the air out of the plot. I know all about that one.

Stan

What Stanmiller said. My last book had heavy doses of suspense, and I picked close third, single POV. That gave me almost the intimacy of first person, allowing all revelations to come through the MC's eyes, but giving the reader the possibility that he might not make it through the book (yes, you can kill off the MC at the end in first person, but it almost invariably feels like a cheat).

Well, I write third person omniscient so I definitely prefer omni because I get to see everything around and inside the character's head.

I'm a character junkie, I think most people are. I prefer either close third limited or first person, and it doesn't matter which. For me, the level of tension is directly related to how much I care about a character, and most authors don't have what it takes to do that with omni.

Now, I have to say that my current WIP is in omni, but it also isn't a thriller, it's a much slower-paced book. I also have a pretty strong grasp of characterization, so I'm doing pretty well at a close omni. I just don't see that much in books. I think Neil Gaiman has done it well in a few, but he's in a league of his own and he doesn't do thriller.

It's hard to paint the emotionally charged scenes you need with the more distant POVs. I think that's why third limited distant and omni get chosen for the less dramatic books, or things where "feelings" aren't an issue. That, or they do well in a book like mine that has 7 MCs instead of one.

IWannaWrite said:

Can you tell me why? Thanks!

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Sorry, didn't see that reply yesterday!

The same answer as others have already given - the connection with the character. Not that I hate omni, I love reading George Eliot's novels, but she was using that technique with a specific social experiment in mind.

I've been struggling with this, too. I had a thread going at Basic Writing Questions on this very matter regarding my ms. I thought I wrote in omni, but it looks like I did limited multiple pov with a generous dose of head hopping. In the end, it looks to me like my mc is not who I thought it was as the pov seems to be skewed heavily towrd my main female character's pov. Can you have a mc but have the story told in another character's pov? Not sure if readers will connect to a main character like that.

Are most suspense/thrillers written in 3rd person omni or limited?

YOU tell me based on what you have read...

I prefer the Noir trope of 1st person, single POV. (Andrew Vachss, etc)

I write noir, but very rarely in first person. Hardboiled almost requires first person though.