Salutations Ya’ll,
Choosing a point of view requires that you choose your strongest character. This doesn’t mean the most intelligent or physically imposing it means the character who will help pull in your reader and keep them a part of the action.
For example, Sherlock Holmes is told through the perspective of Watson, not the Main Character Holmes. Why? Well because knowing everything Holmes knows would take away the suspense as he observes everything. Also, Watson is the everyday man that the reader can relate to and he is close enough to the action that the readers are experiencing everything while maintaining the suspense.
The three basic POVs are 1st person, third person and third person omniscient.
First Person
Allows for a more intimate story. It almost gives the feel of a close friend telling you their adventures. It allows you inside their head to understand their most intimate moments. When being brave you can still understand their fear. The drawback is that you can only experience things from the one character’s POV. The events that keep the story moving have to happen to or in the knowledge of the POV character.
Third person limited
This still stays in one person’s perspective, but not in their head. It does however allow for the writer to pull out further and not be restricted by the main characters biases and voice. It still maintains the limitations of first person in that all events and plot motivations must be experienced by the single character.
Third Person Omniscient
This fits better with a large cast of characters. It allows the author to move from one character’s perspective to another. Events and plot points can happen to multiple characters to drive the story. It also allows the reader to know all and see all. You can write about the past, present and future. The concerns are in potential audience whiplash. Moving around from so many character’s perspectives can be jarring and possibly confuse your readers.
In modern story telling we can even find mixes of these POVs. Having a first-person story being told while occasionally hoping out for a third person limited to other characters.
Example Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry
Some Stories even incorporate multiple first person POVs
Example: The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
What this tells us is that while there are standers rules of operation they are not unbreakable. If you can tell an entertaining and engaging story in a way the reader can follow that is what matters.
