Hello all.  I just finished reading a novella with some serious problems regarding point of view.  Now, point of view can mean a number of things that are connected.  Voice and tense are both related and can get mixed up with point of view.  For our purposes today, let’s stick strictly to narrative point of view.  Here are the choices.

First Person:  This is told from inside a character’s brains and looking out of their eyes.  Some people really hate first person, but I don’t.  It can give you a real connection to the main character (narrator).  You need to be careful when writing first person to maintain the personality of the character, and of course, you have to stay within the confines of what that character knows.

My big gripe with first person is that so many writers can’t seem to stay in it.  They drop in and out of it, either because they are switching to another character, or because they forget.  So you have something like this:

I walked into the room and looked at Sharon.  Bob could tell that Sharon was unhappy.

WTF?  Is there suddenly another person in the room?  Who is this Bob guy?  Is that the narrator or a different Bob.  My advice: if you plan to switch characters at some point, use third person.

Second Person:  Don’t use this unless you’re writing a song.  Lots of great songs written in second person– You’re So Vain comes to mind.

Third Person: Third person is a narrated story told by someone who isn’t one of the main characters.  They’re God, or the author, or somebody.  They might be able to see into the brains of all the characters (third person omniscient) or only into the minds of one, or even none (third person limited).  I like writing third person, but don’t use third person omniscient.  That’s a personal thing.  I like to reveal things slowly to the reader and I think this is easier with a limited viewpoint.  Sometimes, like in the Senta and the Steel Dragon books, I rotate the character I’m most intimate with from chapter to chapter.

So there you go.  Three points of view to use: First Person, Third Person Limited, Third Person Omniscient.  And one point of view never to use, unless you’re Carly Simon.  So pick one, but please, please, please use it until the end of your book.