Point of View: the viewpoint from which the story is told.

First Person POV: Uses a created persona (the “I” in the story is the mask worn by the author).

• Readers tend to identify with the protagonist more in this POV
• Be careful: don’t let it become too autobiographical (that’s what journals are for). It’s okay to use real life experiences to gather ideas for stories, however
• This POV is usually first person singular (that is, there is only one narrator), but some stories shift back and forth between different first person narrators. This is difficult, especially in a short story, because each voice must be unique and distinguishable
• Your narrator must be reliable. If your reader cannot trust your narrator, the story will fall apart

Pros to using first person POV:

• “I” is the least ambiguous
• It’s subjective
• Easy to choose your voice
• Access to the protagonist’s private thoughts

Cons to using first person POV:

• Can’t look outside their physical body
• Involvement in the scene – can’t follow others that are not in the room
• Hard to create a new “I” each time you write a new story

Second Person Point of View: rarely used, the narrator is speaking to “you” (which can be the reader or a character in the story)

Third Person Point of View

• Useful because the narrator can travel into multiple character’s heads
• Compare to a movie camera: the camera pans from the setting to multiple characters
• The narrator can be omniscient, all knowing, and distant
• The narrator can also stay with one character and only go into his or her head (the Harry Potter series does this)

When it comes to choosing which point of view you want, think about how much distance you want between your characters and your reader.

1. Write a scene twice with two characters. The first scene should be from the first character’s point of view, and the second scene should be in the second character’s point of view.

2. Write a scene with at least one character in third person. Rewrite the scene in first person.

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