POV Bright Spots and Blind Spots
A big part of my job as a developmental editor and book coach is to help writers think through their choices. How does this choice help you tell your story? is something writers hear a lot from me (which often triggers lots of sighing and brow-furrowing…it’s okay. I get it.)
One of the most important choices you will make is your point of view.
Some writers think very deeply about this choice. Others gravitate instinctively to a particular point of view. They might love the intimacy of 1st POV. Or prefer the touch of distance in 3rd POV. (Side note: This often connects to the books you like to read. Take a look at your faves - what POV are they written in? What did you love about them?)
However you come to it, it’s important to think through this choice. It will reverberate through your manuscript, shaping every other choice you make, from how characters show up on the page, to the way the plot unfurls, to the voice and tone of your story.
Your POV Options
Just so we’re all on the same page: Point of view, or POV, is the perspective from which you’ll tell your story. You have options here…
1st POV: In this perspective, the narrator is a character – usually the protagonist – telling the reader the story from their perspective, using “I.” They share their thoughts, feelings, and reactions directly with the reader. The reader is, in effect, inside their head.
Close 3rd POV (sometimes called 3rd Person Limited): In this perspective, the narrator is external to the story, closely following characters’ actions and using “he,” “she,” and “they.” The reader stands shoulder to shoulder with the characters, viewing their story as if looking through a camera. The narrator never addresses the reader. They are a non-character in the story.
Omniscient 3rd POV: In this perspective, there is an all-knowing narrator who has access to All the Information – each characters’ thoughts, feelings, reactions, and backstory. They are a character in the story, or at least a voice in it, and will, at times, directly address the reader, perhaps foreshadowing or dropping an important piece of backstory. They stand far above the story, zooming in and out, controlling the reader’s experience.
[There is another POV option – 2nd POV. This POV uses “you,” which has the effect of asking readers to put themselves in the shoes of the character. This is a rare, and difficult-to-pull-off POV, so I’m not going to dive into this one…]
POV Bright Spots and Blind Spots
Part of making this important choice is understanding what your POV brings to your story…and what it doesn’t. Every POV has what I call its Bright Spot and its Blind Spot. You need to know your POV’s Bright Spots – the thing it’s good at – so you can lean into those strengths. And you need to know your POV’s Blind Spot – the thing it’s not so good at – so you can compensate for those weaknesses.
Let’s take another look at your options:
1st POV: This POV’s Bright Spot is its ability to get the reader inside the character’s head. It makes it easy to write character interiority – a character’s thoughts, feelings, and reactions to what is happening in the story which, in turn, helps readers understand why what’s happening matters.
This POV’s Blind Spot is external detail - setting, physical descriptions, time and space cues. It’s very easy to get lost in your character’s head and forget to build, and refer to, the world they live in. This creates a tunnel vision effect for the reader - their view of the character’s world is very narrow. There’s no room to look around.
Leaving out external detail also has the effect of making it feel like your characters are suspended in a blank void. This can hobble your character building, because characters are shaped by the world they live in.
When you’re writing in 1st POV, lean into interiority but don’t forget to weave in external details. And make sure you touch the physical world of the character often. Readers only have so much tolerance to interior monologue and external dialogue. Break up big blocks of monologue and dialogue with physical actions, descriptions, and details.
Close 3rd POV: On the flipside, this POV’s Bright Spot is external detail. That little bit of space from the character means it’s easier to look around their world and weave in detail.
Its Blind Spot is character interiority. It can be very easy in this POV to operate like a camera, recording details of the world and the action while forgetting to get your character’s thoughts, feelings, and reaction on the page. Without interiority, readers will feel shut out of the story. They’ll know everything that’s going on, but they won’t know why any of it matters.
When you’re writing in Close 3rd POV, lean into its potential for the visual but remember to weave interiority onto the page. As a rule, characters should think, feel, and react to everything that happens in the story.
Omniscient 3rd POV: This POV’s Bright Spot is the power it gives you to shape your reader’s experience. You can seamlessly transition between characters, build tension by what you chose to share and not share and when, foreshadow consequences of choices.
Its Blind Spot is that it can feel very removed from the characters. Like Close 3rd POV, it can be easy to leave interiority off the page. Readers know what it happening, but they don’t know why it matters. Another thing to watch out for: head-hopping. This is where you’re jumping from character to character, leaving the reader confused over whom they’re supposed to be following. Readers have no tolerance for this. You’ll need to make rules for yourself about how you will move cleanly and clearly between characters, when and how your omniscient voice steps in, and how to keep it from overtaking the story.
Once you’ve thought through your choices of POV, and their Bright Spots and Blind Spots, ask yourself (you knew this was coming!): How does this choice help me tell my story? (Go ahead, sigh and furrow your brow…)
For stories where setting and worldbuilding play an important role, Close 3rd’s Bright Spot will give you more room to get that on the page (doesn’t mean you can’t do it in 1st POV - you just have to get very clever at dropping details). High-tension stories can benefit from 1st POV’s Bright Spot, where a narrow view might help you level-up the pressure on the protagonist (Hunger Games, I’m looking at you!) Just don’t forget to get those external details on the page.
Your choice of POV is an important one. If you made it instinctively, that’s okay. But take a moment now to think about why you made that choice, what you gain from it, and what you need to watch out for.
Till next time…
Happy writing!
Erin
