It can be easy to fall into the habit of writing in the first person but it's crucial to be able to use the third person as well. Both first person and third person have their strengths and weaknesses. What works for one story may not work for another.
This exercise will help you observe the impact of writing in the third person point of view, which might open up new directions for your story that you hadn't considered before. Any distance you can have from the page, or new ways you can have of seeing the same narrative are important.
Often, as writers, we are too focused on what we think the story is about, rather than — perhaps — what it has become on the page. Changing point of view can give you a new perspective, often illuminating new pieces of your fiction, inspiring new ideas, and making for deeper and more introspective fiction.
What You Need
Second Person Point of View is RARE. It makes the reader a character in the story and directly addresses the reader as 'you'. May be used in a letter or email, a written speech or public address, or directions in a pamphlet.Key words: You, yours, yourself, yourselves.
- A scene from a recent story or novel.
- Computer or paper and pen.
- Quiet place to work.
How to Write in the Third Person
- Choose a particularly compelling or problematic scene from a piece of prose you have recently written in the first person. Try to find a piece that includes both dialogue and exposition.
- Rewrite the piece from the third person point of view. Take your time. It may require some strategizing to pull off the transformation. You'll also have to consider whether or not you want to use third person omniscient or limited. (In moving from first to third, it might be easiest to try the third person limited first.)
- Notice how the change in point of view changes the voice and the mood of the story. What freedom do you have with this narrator that you did not have before? If you have chosen the limited third person, is there anything that you now know about the character that you didn't before? If you have chosen omniscient, does the new information inform or inhibit the story? Likewise, are there any limitations in using this point of view?
- Make a list of three or four advantages of the new point of view: ways the new voice helps develop plot and/or character. Does it change the structure? Does the heart of the story change, or does it become more refined?
- Make a list of the limitations of the third person point of view with regard to this particular piece. Is it the most effective way of telling this story? Were there ways in which it was harder to develop your central character with the third person? Did it force you to use other techniques in revealing your character? Was the voice stronger or weaker? If weaker, was the trade-off worthwhile?
- If the new point of view works well with this scene, consider changing the point of view for the entire piece. Otherwise, return to your original.
More Writing Tips
- Even if changing to the third person point of view has not improved this particular piece, remain open to it in future work. Use the lessons learned in this exercise to evaluate point of view in all the fiction you write. As you become more comfortable with the third person, you might begin to find the distance it can provide helps you have a new perspective on your narrative.
- Lorrie Moore has a good explanation for how she chooses POV: 'There are times when the first person is necessary for observing others (not the protagonist) in a voice that simultaneously creates a character (usually the protagonist); then there are times when the third person is necessary for observing the protagonist in a voice that is not the character’s but the story’s.'
- Want to practice other aspects of craft and technique? Find more craft exercises here.
Photo by Charles Hutchins
There are all kinds of narrators–going way beyond simple first or third person. Here’s a little study of the different types.
First Person
1. The Protagonist
![You tell a story to a second person who tells it to a third person quotes You tell a story to a second person who tells it to a third person quotes](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125792171/678223341.png)
Relatively straightforward, this is a story the hero narrates. He’ll narrate the same way he talks, but with more description and perhaps better grammar. The reader is privy to all his thoughts and opinions, which means we get to know the hero faster, and often relate to him more easily.
Example:
Example:
…I take up my pen in the year of grace 17–, and go back to the time when my father kept the “Admiral Benbow” inn, and the brown old seaman, with the saber cut, first took up his lodging under our roof.
Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
Jim Hawkins in Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson
2. The Secondary Character
Someone close to the protagonist, but not the main hero. The same things in the above type apply to this type, but the focus of the story moves away from the narrator.
Example:
Example:
“Dr. Watson, Mr. Sherlock Holmes,” said Stamford, introducing us.
“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.
“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself.
Watson in A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
“How are you?” he said cordially, gripping my hand with a strength for which I should hardly have given him credit. “You have been in Afghanistan, I perceive.”
“How on earth did you know that?” I asked in astonishment.
“Never mind,” said he, chuckling to himself.
Watson in A Study in Scarlet, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Third Person
- Third person omniscient
This type knows all, peeking into the lives of major and minor characters, reading everyone’s thoughts. This enables the writer to explore multiple facets of the story in depth. Cornelia Funke’s Inkheart trilogy, for example.
- Third person limited
This type knows only what the main character, or characters, know. This is more restrictive, but increases suspense and intrigue, because the reader only solves the mystery at the same time the characters do. 1984, by George Orwell, is a good example.
The following types can fall into either omniscient or limited:
3. The Detached Observer
A detached third person narrator sticks to telling the story, and never inserts his own opinions—never slips in an “I” or a “me” except in direct dialogue. You probably won’t notice voice at all. It’s fruitless to give an excerpt showing what a writer didn’t do, but Orwell’s 1984 is, again, a good example.
4. The Commentator
This type never physically enters the story, but freely adds in his own amusing commentary. Allows voice without the complication of using an existing character.
Example:
Example:
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside; and Scrooge, starting up into a half-recumbent attitude, found himself face-to-face with the unearthly visitor who drew them: as close to it as I am now to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens
Somewhere in Between
Or maybe the narrator isn’t a strict “third person,” but is involved in the story in some way.
5. The Interviewer
This type has collected the details of the story after it happened, such as by interviewing the characters. This lends a sense of reality to the story.
Example:
Example:
It brought both a smell and a sound, a musical sound. Edmund and Eustace would never talk about it afterwards. Lucy could only say, “It would break your heart.” “Why,” said I, “was it so sad?” “Sad! No,” said Lucy.
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, by C.S. Lewis
6. The Secret Character
Sometimes a narrator only pretends to removed from the story—they may refer to themselves in third person right up to the end, but will eventually be mentioned by some other character, or revealed to be a major character, even the villain, for an extra-pleasing plot twist.
Example:
Example:
“Lemony?” Violet repeated. “They would have named me Lemony? Where did they get that idea?”
“From someone who died, presumably,” Klaus said.
The End, by Lemony Snicket
“From someone who died, presumably,” Klaus said.
The End, by Lemony Snicket
7. The Unreliable Narrator
Usually first person, but occasionally third, an unreliable narrator has a flawed point of view. That is, the writer intentionally made him biased, misinformed, insane, etc. Examples include Nelly in Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, or Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. Here’s one from Poe.
Example:
“If still you think me mad, you will think no longer when I describe the wise precautions I took for the concealment of the body. The night waned, and I worked hastily, but in silence. First of all I dismembered the corpse.”
The Tell-Tale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe
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Some of these (such as the Unreliable Narrator) are established terms, while I’ve coined many of them myself. Can you think of any other types? What type are you using in your work in progress?
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