[wastra]

The general rule when deciding POV is that you should rarely, if ever, have more than one point of view in a single chapter. When the popint of view changes, it is a new chapter, as the previous thread ends when we no longer see the action from his or her point of view.

Third-Person Omnificient is the most common perspective in fantasy and fiction writing. this means that the author/narrator describes the scene from the viewpoint of a spectator, but can also go inside the head of a given character. Omnificient Perspective is when the author describes the action and can and does go inside the head of EVERYONE at once.

Most writers like to write from an observers standpoint with the thoughts of the main charact5er as well, that way, they describe what ONE cahracter thinks, but not the other. The other character's thoughts are revealed through his actions and through the observation of the main character. This is far ore chal;lenging to do well than to simply expose the thoughts of more than one party, because some writing talent must be employed to make the reader understand the other character's thoughts without actually spelling out their thoughts as italic dialogue.

The other forms; 1st and second person are seldom used because they presume to know too much about the reader.

[cassandra]

1st and 2nd person POVs are rarely used because they "presume to know too much about the reader?" What does that mean?
2nd person is rarely used because it's a pain in the rear and clumsy. The reader gets sick of it real fast. First person can be used anywhere third person is used, it just requires more work and scheming on the author's part. It's a wonderful distopia; you can mislead the reader through the main character's lack of understanding without the story feeling like Card Tricks In The Dark (see the Turkey City Lexicon). For the absolute pinnacle of first person, read some Zelazny. He does it beautifully, most especially in his book "This Immortal."
Btw, there are two forms of third person: omnipresent and omniscient. Omnipresent is what everyone is refering to so far; the POV that allows the author to show you the inner works of everyone's head and whatever else s/he needs to tell the story. Omniscient means the author sticks to the viewpoint and thoughts of ONE character. This is different from 1st person because the author is not required to filter everything the reader sees through the character's perceptions, and is free to stress the important parts of the story regardless of what the main character thinks. Compare the first and second books of Donaldson's Gap series to the rest of the volumes.

[This message has been edited by cassandra (edited February 28, 2001).]

[Bardos]

POVs according to Crawford Kilian.

--First Person POV

First Person Objective
Observer Narrator
Detached Autobiography
Multiple Narrators (this is fun, if you are trying to show how "reality" depends on the point of view...)
Interior Monologue
Dramatic Monologue
Letter/Diary Narrative


--Second Person POV: not used. (Personaly I have seen this only in some game-books series, called Fighting Fantasy, and Lone Wolf.)

--Third Person POV

3rd Person Limited (= 1 POV)
3rd Person Objective (= no POV)
3rd Person Omniscient
a)Episodically Limited (e.g.,Martin)
b)Occasional Interruptor
c)Editorial Commentator
3rd Person Limited (again, but he gives a different explanation, now; its the "free POV" we talked about.)


I know I didn't explain much, but they are too many. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif And some are self explanatory, while others are pretty weird...

[This message has been edited by Bardos (edited February 28, 2001).]

[Asha_man]

Thank you for the replies. This has been most helpful. http://www.sffworld.com/ubb/smile.gif