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Point of View
Point of View is extremely important in any style or genre of writing. If you mess this one up, you leave your reader in the middle of a corn field on a foggy day. Which might not be so bad if you are hiding from the Boogie-man, but definitely bad if you're a reader.Let's look at Point of View in Fiction.
Omnicient POV
There are two sub-categories under Omniscient POV:
Note: we are putting these terms in reference to the reader not the narrator.1. Omniscient 2. Limited-omniscient
Omniscient:
In the Omniscient, the reader knows everything that every character is thinking, if he/she thinks it. Everything every character feels, if he/she feels it and see everything that everyone sees, if they see it. In other words, the writer wrote in such a way as to let you know everything that is important in the scene without the limitations of one character Point of View. To know all is what omniscience is.
Limited Omniscient:
When the reader knows everything that one character thinks, feels, knows.
First Person POV
In the First Person we see the story as told through the eyes of the main character.
It was a lonely road I was walking. I couldn't see the end of that lonesome trail. "What are you doing here?" I screamed, my voice echoing off the mountains.
In this POV we are vastly limited as to what the other characters feel, see, know etc. However, we do get to know the main character far more intimately than we might otherwise.An example of first person POV is Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre.
Third Person POV
With Third Person POV, the narrator has much more flexibility in how they tell the story. You will notice personal pronouns such as he, or she in the story telling. An example of this type of POV is Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice.
Second Person POV
Second Person POV is when the narrator speaks through a character using the pronoun "you" in the narration.Second Person, though an uncommon POV, is still used in some fiction genres today such as erotica and young adult. The Young Adult books Animorphs used second person POV. Some classic writers like Nathanial Hawthorn and William Faulkner made use of Second POV in some of their works. As a general rule, most fictional writers will not use this POV because of its habit of telling the reader what they are (or should be) thinking and doing. This is both confusing to the reader and annoying. As in all things, if you can find a creative way of using it...have at it!
Each type of POV has it's merits and limitations. Which style is right for your story? Only you know the answer.
Here is a concept that is extremely important to keep in mind when you are writing a scene. Stay in one characters POV the entire scene. OR at least stay with one style of POV for the entire scene. In other words, do not go from First person in the scene to
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