Character perspective/point of view can make or break a story.
The first professional editor I hired changed my writing dramatically.
From her, I learned so many different lessons, techniques, and more, which helped me become a competent editor. She showed me how to improve numerous aspects not just of my writing but storytelling.
One of the single most important things she taught me was character perspective in storytelling.
This is not about first-person, second-person, or third-person perspectives. It’s more about getting your reader into an easily followed, recognized, and understood perspective/point of view.
How I see the story when it unfolds
I am a visual storyteller. I see it play out like a movie. As such, I describe the scenes as they unfold from my camera.
However – that camera is over the shoulder of one character or another. As such – from time to time – the camera has the power to see into the mind of the character.
This is how I tell my stories in the third person point of view.
Just to clarify this – from Merriam-Webster.com:
“In first-person point of view the narrator is a character in the story, dictating events from their perspective using “I” or “we.” In second-person, the reader becomes the main character, addressed as “you” throughout the story and being immersed in the narrative. In third-person point of view, the narrator exists outside of the story and addresses the characters by name or as “he/she/they” and “him/her/them.” Types of third-person perspective are defined by whether the narrator has access to the thoughts and feelings of any or all of the characters.”
There are valid reasons to choose one perspective or another for the telling of a whole story. I’ve always been a fan of third-person.
While this allows me to narrate the story with knowledge of happenings my characters might not yet have – my readers can be confused if this lacks clear definition.
Hence, if my camera is sharing the story from over the shoulder of character ‘X’, it’s jarring if suddenly the perspective shifts to character “Y”.
Character perspective in third-person point of view
Anyhow who writes from a third-person perspective chooses how much they can see into a given character’s motivations, thoughts, feelings, and so on. Some keep very aloof of that and stay more objective as such.
I tend to share my third-person perspective from the point of view of a given character. That perspective might change character from time to time – but I make that distinct via either a new chapter or obvious section break.
For example – in my Forgotten Fodder sci-fi series, the story is told in third-person point of view from the perspective of two characters. You’re either alongside clone Jace Rojas or CBI Marshal Onima Gwok as the story unfolds.
That colors how the third-person narrative is told. Jace comes from a clone underclass. Onima is a law-enforcement agent. My third-person perspective gets colored by their perspectives as I tell the story.
This is where the single best lesson my first editor taught me comes into play.
Changing perspective and confusing the reader
I believe that I’ve always written my third-person point of view in this way – from the perspective of over the shoulder of a given character.
However – I used to jump all over the place with that. Sometimes one paragraph was clearly told via the point of view of character “A”, then the next paragraph was the point of view of character “B”.
At the worst, if a group of characters was conversing, the point of view might jump constantly.
Watching a movie or TV show, it is super jarring if the camera perspective shifts with any given sentence of a conversation. I’m not talking about panning left and right or up and down between speakers – I mean leaping from over the shoulder of one to another to another.
I don’t know about you – but the thought of a camera jumping around like that is disturbing to me. And rather unsettling, too.
Even with the written word – the effect can be the same.
When my editor pointed this out to me – it shifted my thinking quite a lot. Oh, yeah, that is disconcerting and detrimental to the storytelling process. I’d better fix that and be mindful of it with my writing going forward.
Recently, I came across another indie author’s series. Though I was intrigued – I found a couple of oddities in their description. Thanks to Amazon – I was able to start reading the first couple of chapters.
It wasn’t far in before the author did exactly what I’m sharing here. Though told in third-person, the point of view shifted from paragraph to paragraph with no clear delineation or break. And that was so discordant to me that – I’m sorry to say – I didn’t buy their book.
Storytelling is more than just an interesting premise
The story might be great – but if the character perspective inherent in the storytelling is off-putting, you’ll never get far.
Jumping from shoulder to shoulder – perspective to perspective – multiple times on a single page makes it hard to get into the story. What’s more – I can’t tell who’s perspective I’m at from any given sentence.
That takes me out of the storytelling. Maybe it’s a great story – but I can’t connect to it.
Though I am unfamiliar with such – there might be a way to do this. It’s possible, I presume, to tell a story with an ever-shifting perspective. But I expect that doing such – in-and-of-itself – is part of the overall storytelling vehicle.
The takeaway I’d like to share is this: When you are writing, make sure you have clarity of perspective/point of view in your storytelling. I find that I can’t connect with a story – let alone a character in a story – if this is unclear.
I believe that character perspective can make or break a story. But that might not be true for everyone. Your mileage may vary. But – have you ever found a story hard to follow or get into because of a lack of clarity of perspective/point of view?
This is the one-hundred and forty-sixth article exploring the ongoing creative process. Please take a moment to check out the collection of my published works, which can be found here.
Feel free to explore the rest of the website. Also, visit Awareness for Everyone to check out my weekly podcasts.
Enjoying the website and my endeavors? I’d be grateful if you would consider becoming a patron through my Patreon.
You can subscribe to my newsletter. Fill in the info and click the submit button to the right and receive your free eBook.
Follow me here!
You must be logged in to post a comment.