Point of view, known as POV in the biz, has grown to ridiculous proportions, and I can’t help but wonder if all this classification is truly necessary. Look at this amplification from Debbie Fuller Thomas over at Novel Matters:
“There are three basic options available for viewpoint which apparently can now be further defined (third person limited, close third, distant third) . . .”
Add those to first person and the rarely used omniscient and second person POVs and no doubt there will be more to narrow down what the average reader has no concerns about and the writer struggles to correctly identify in his/her queries/proposals.
First person POV seems to consume current fiction. I’ve only read one novel that I can remember where second person POV was used throughout and done remarkably well by Travis Thrasher in Blinded (reviewed here). Omniscient is rarely used in today’s literature but when done well is just as appealing to a story as any other POV done well. Athol Dickson in Lost Mission (reviewed here) used it and I, yes moi, used it in the beginning of The Famous One (reviewed here) but eventually morphed into third person later in the story which reads somewhat like a fictional biography.
Each POV requires skills, none more than any other. POV like any other part of the story must involve the reader in the character(s) and cause them to invest in the story. The “knock” or “a” knock against omniscient is the distance created by basically allowing the story to be “observed” by the narrator, but the unique perspective allows the reader to see details of all the characters as well as other surrounding effects in a scene. Like anything else in reading novels, it’s a matter of subjective taste and the appreciation of variety in styles.
Writers tend to have their favorite POVs to read and to write, but I love whatever works. The wonderful creativity of different authors who shun the rules (and let me clarify that by saying they know them and have chosen to artistically abandon them) and take chances: bring them on. They provide tastes to savor, to experience, to transport, and to ponder. Not all of them will give us a positive experience, but at least they will have tried to be original.
Lord, we should never be concerned with “the traditions of men”, the artificial rules to creativity. You take us beyond our limitations. Let us always follow your lead. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
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