“What Point Of View Should I Use?” The SM Unanswerable Question
The answer lies in the work you haven’t done yet
In the past few weeks, I’ve noticed this question coming up on different social media sites. “I’m writing a novel — what point of view should I use?”
This is literally an unanswerable question. If I had your manuscript in front of me, and I could see what POV you had used and whether it was working for the story you were telling, I could give you my opinion. But on social media, with no information whatsoever? No.
However, it is a legitimate question to ask yourself when you start writing. The answer may simply depend on what limitations POV will put on your story and character/s. If you are going to use first person, then you will only be able to show the reader what your POV character sees, hears, thinks and feels. Everything else will have to be conveyed by what your character observes.
This is the limitation you have to work with, and the compensation is that you can create a character and their story (plus world view) that feels very immediate and real, as if the reader is inside their head. On the other hand, some characters and stories are too raw or over the top for first person. Instead of drama, you can end up with melodrama or a feeling of suffocation. If your character…
