How your reader sees your story depends on both the camera and who the main character (MC) is at any given time. Just as in a movie, the camera could be a character…only seeing what that character sees, First Person, using “I”. Usually the camera is close to the action, watching the MC as well as all the others, so we get to see what the MC is doing, Third Person, “he, she, they”—further broken down by how far the camera is from the action. Yes, there is a Second Person, but it’s rather rare, using “you” to tell the reader what to do.
POV Examples
- First Person
- I woke up earlier than normal and watched the sun slowly creep over the edge of my window. I threw my legs out of the bed and strode over to the window. Squinting to see the city through the fog, I wondered what I was going to encounter this time.
- Second Person
- You wake up and notice the sun hasn’t fully risen. Climbing out of bed, you step over to the window. The slowly rising sun glares in your eyes, so you raise a hand to block the light. Gazing at the city, trying to see through the fog, you nod your head slowly, realising that yet another day is upon you.
- Third Person
- He woke up suddenly as the room slowly brightened from the rising sun. He stood up and stumbled over to the window, shading his eyes with a hand as he stared out at the foggy city. He scrunched up his forehead as he contemplated the day.
All of those show the same scene but from different POVs. You can see how getting closer or farther from the MC changes how you feel about him and his situation. Also, notice that the fact that he is a ‘him’ is only obvious in Third Person, so you could hide his gender until later in the story…startling your reader with a revelation!
Third Person Depth
In Third Person, the camera could be at the top of a building, watching the action of a whole city, knowing everyone’s thoughts, personalities, backstories, being Omniscient. Or the camera could zoom in to be a fly on the wall, Limited to reporting only what can be seen…no internal dialogue or thoughts. We have to assume how characters feel by what we see them do (as in the example above). The third option is to have the camera so Close that it’s as if we are sitting on the character’s shoulder, close enough to catch what he’s thinking and feeling. We hear conversations he has with himself, so we know why he’s doing what he’s doing.
The problem in Close Third Person, is that we can hear only his thoughts…no one else’s. We have to depend on his interpretation of other folks. (And he might be unreliable in that aspect.) Head Hopping is a problem in Close Third Person when the author wants us to know someone else’s thoughts. You’ll find that most of your readers have only lived in one head their entire lives, so try to avoid bouncing around through your characters’ heads. If you need to tell what someone else is thinking, then you need a break…either a small scene break, a larger chapter break, or a huge section break. Yes, you can tell your story from multiple POVs…as long as you stick to one in each part.