My head is full of thoughts, notions, ideas, and impressions. Sometimes a single one of these coalesces into something worthwhile. Other times, they carom off each other and keep me awake. But their my thoughts and only mine. No one else can know my thoughts. Except God. As in writing, it’s not always convenient.
That’s why the third-person omniscient POV is often referred to as the God view. Omniscient – the omni- part means all, and the –scient part means to know, so the omniscient POV means the narrator, not your characters, knows all things popping around in the heads of all your characters. Here’s an example:
Susie didn’t know the police had an arrest warrant out for her. She ran when she heard the siren and foolishly ducked into a dark alley. She was unaware that her loan shark was waiting there with a baseball bat, until he stepped from the shadows.
In that piece, Susie has no idea that the loan shark is waiting, or she would have taken another alley. But the narrator knows. Bwahahaha. The narrator knows everything.
If we stayed strictly inside Susie’s head, we wouldn’t hear about the loan shark until Susie figured it out for herself, perhaps after an unfortunate knee cap incident. If we venture inside Susie’s head, we would call that third-person limited POV, or third person subjective.
Third person subjective is my personal favorite for writing. I can be my character, feeling the sweat on her brow, the cobra fangs at his ankle, the rush of butterflies to her belly. Then for my next scene I can do the same thing with my other character. Here’s an example:
Susie’s heart beat like a tom-tom. She heard the police siren scream ever closer. They probably had an arrest warrant by now. She needed to hide, but the alley sure looked dark. When she entered, a man with the baseball bat stepped from the shadows. She knew it was George, the loan shark.
# Scene break, otherwise, you might accuse me of head hopping.
Susie looked good with the moonlight on her cheeks, but George was tired of her lies. She didn’t love him, and now, the little ingrate wouldn’t pay him. Maybe if she only had one knee cap, then she’d come back to him.
If the narrator wants to remain dispassionate–just the facts, ma’am–such as for news, then third-person, objective POV, also called third-person dramatic POV. The distinguishing difference between these two points of view is that we cannot enter the thoughts of the character when using third-person objective. We can be anywhere around, but not inside. Here’s an example:
The police issued an arrest warrant for Susie and turned on their siren to begin pursuit.
Susie’s face turned toward the siren and she picked up her pace to a run. There was no place to turn except for the alley, but it was dark. A man with a baseball bat stepped out from the shadows. It was George, her loan shark.
Chapters might begin with an omniscient view but usually settle into third-person limited POV. Here’s an example:
The officer obtained the warrant for Susie’s arrest, while on the other side of town, she was running for her life.
The next alley looked good for hiding, but it was dark and Susie didn’t like the dark. At least there, she’d be safe. She ducked inside and panted to as stop. A man with a baseball bat emerged from the shadows.
These days, most stories are told in third-person limited. The advantage is that you can be inside the head of all our characters, intimately, but still let the story unfold in a way that seems natural. If we know too many facts too soon, it ruins the surprise.
How are my examples? What’s your preference?
p.s. photo by katerha