All About Writing in Third Person

The

third

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person

point of view seems to be the default in the literary world. Many novels refer to main characters using the pronouns "he", "she", or "they", instead of the "I/me" of first-

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narration. In my video “All About First Person Writing,” I explored the ins and outs of that up-close perspective. We will now explore the unique aspects of the other, more popular point of view. As a mental exercise, imagine how different the Harry Potter series would be if it had been written in first person instead of

third

person. Here is my rewritten excerpt from Chamber of Secrets: “Fascinated, I leafed through the rest of the contents of the envelope.

Why did Filch want a Kwikspell course? Did this mean he wasn't a real wizard? He was reading 'Lesson One: Holding Your Wand (Some Helpful Tips)' when footsteps outside told me that Filch would return. “I put the parchment back in the envelope and threw it on the desk just as the door opened.” And here is the original version for comparison: “Fascinated, Harry leafed through the rest of the contents of the envelope. Why did Filch want a Kwikspell course? Did this mean he wasn't a real wizard? Harry was reading “Lesson One: Holding Your Wand (Some Helpful Tips)” when footsteps outside told him that Filch would return.

Harry stuffed the parchment back into the envelope and tossed it on the desk just as the door opened. Notice that I didn't actually have to rewrite anything; I only changed four words. While first person involves immersion in an individual voice, third person allows for varying degrees of "narrative distance," also known as "psychic distance," that is, how close the reader is to the characters' thoughts. These levels of narrative distance give rise to different classifications of third person, namely limited and omniscient. In the Chamber of Secrets passage, we are very close to Harry's thoughts. With limited third person, you're floating on a character's shoulder throughout the entire story.

It is similar to first person in that the reader has access to the character's most intimate thoughts; we are limited to that perspective for that given scene. That character serves as an anchor, connecting the reader to the story. Although there is no "I" involved, the character's opinions can intrude into the

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style, in what is known as "free indirect speech." It is then that the language of the narrative takes on the voice of the character. We can see free indirect discourse at work in the internal questions Harry asks: “Why the hell did Filch want a Kwikspell course?” It almost sounds like a dialogue Harry would speak out loud; the thought is expressed in his voice, even though the author is narrating.

So why would a writer use third person limited instead of first person when they are so similar? The answer is flexibility and tone. You see, Harry Potter is not only written in third person limited; slips into moments that feel more like third-person omniscient. With omniscience, the audience watches events unfold from an aerial view. "Omniscient" comes from a word that means "omniscient" in Latin. The author and the reader become divine figures, able to see what each character is doing at any moment: past, present or future. The Harry Potter series approaches other scenes. In Filch's passage, first person doesn't sound too strange when we stick to Harry's perspective, but when the camera switches to omniscient, it doesn't quite fit: “October has arrived, spreading a damp chill across the grounds and into the castle.” .

Madam Pomfrey, the nurse, was kept busy due to a sudden wave of colds among the staff and students. Her Pepperup potion worked instantly, although she left the drinker's ears steaming for several hours afterwards. Ginny Weasley, who looked pale, was bullied by Percy into drinking some. The steam rising from beneath her shiny hair gave the impression that her entire head was on fire.” Harry may have noted these details, but the description is not directly filtered through his perspective; he feels broader. The magical atmosphere of the Harry Potter series is due in part to the third-person perspective, which combines limited and omniscient styles.

We feel connected to Harry because we are occasionally told what he is thinking, but we are privy to all the magical details beyond what Harry himself could describe. In the third person, the author acts as a mediator between the characters and the readers. Third person also allows Rowling to present a different perspective for single chapters, such as in the opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which is told from the Dursleys' perspective, during a time when Harry was a baby: " Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. "They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just couldn't tolerate such nonsense." Notice the free indirect discourse at work here, in which the narrator “borrows” language from the characters' voices. "Perfectly normal, thank you very much." "They just couldn't put up with such nonsense." Those phrases sound like things the Dursleys would say, but the author is incorporating those chosen words into the narrative voice.

Think of narrative distance as if you were shooting a movie: you can zoom the camera in or out, depending on what the moment requires. That ability to adjust the level of closeness is something that cannot be done in first person; you're stuck with a front row seat for the course of the story unless you add another point of view. So if you're trying to choose between third person and first person, ask yourself if your story requires flexibility of perspective or a limited but intimate view. Let's take a closer look at the advantages of third person. The ability to present multiple perspectives allows you to include a wide range of characters and settings, expanding the story to an epic scope.

It's also easier to kill off your main characters and replace them with new protagonists without completely breaking the story. If you have a first-person narrator and you kill him, the story ends. George R.R. Martin is a master of multiple point of view storytelling. A Song of Ice and Fire switches between different limited third-person perspectives, where the reader gets to know each character up close without fully entering their point of view. Although the points of view are largely written in the same narrative style, what sets the characters apart are the things they focus on: their dreams, their fears, their daily worries.

For example, in the first book, Game of Thrones, there is a marked difference in what matters in their lives to Ned, an honorable lord, and Sansa, his eldest daughter. Here is a passage from Ned’s point of view: “Ned finally stopped and picked up the oil lamp. The crypt continued into darkness ahead of them, but beyond this point the tombs were empty and unsealed; black holes waiting for their dead, waiting for him and his children. “Ned didn’t like to think about that.” And this is what Sansa, an 11-year-old girl, thinks about: “Sansa knew everything about the kind of people Arya liked to talk to: squires, stable boys and maids, old men and naked children, free-speaking horsemen. rough uncertain birth.

Arya would make friends with anyone. This Mycah was the worst; A butcher's boy, thirteen years old and wild, slept in the meat cart and smelled like a slaughter block. Just seeing him was enough to make Sansa feel sick, but Arya seemed to prefer his company to hers.” Ned, being an older man and father, has passing thoughts about the mortality of himself and his children, and the environment of the crypt contributes to this. Sansa, on the other hand, is concerned about social status, friendships, and boys. What's more, each perspective adds something new to the story. In Game of Thrones, there are eight points of view in total, and they provide a window into different sides of the Stark vs.

Stark conflict. Lannister, with a couple of perspectives separate from the main story but still related. Additionally, multiple points of view allow for variety in terms of gender, age, and personality. By viewing the drama from contrasting angles, the reader realizes that no side is all good (although some may be pretty close to all bad) because everyone's flaws are on the table. Martin is smart enough to make you root for players on all sides, although if you put your favorite characters together, they would kill each other. A Song of Ice and Fire could not be told in first person because a protagonist, or even multiple protagonists in first person, would be very limited in what they could see and experience in this story world.

Third person allows for character exploration on an epic scale. Stories with multiple points of view allow the writer to switch between events as they happen. This builds suspense by showing readers both sides of the plot; Even if you know the characters' plans, you don't know how they will turn out. That sense of dramatic irony is a lovely part of

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in the third person. If the reader has information that a character doesn't, whether obtained from the omniscient narrator or from another character's perspective, that creates tension. Like watching a snake enter a tiger's cage, we feel the anticipation of the drama and it forces us to pay attention.

Dramatic irony is often used in plays, such as Shakespeare's Macbeth. When King Duncan decides to trust Macbeth, the audience already knows that Macbeth plans to kill him. In his fantasy novel Vicious, V.E. Schwab employs dramatic irony through multiple limited third-person points of view. One is Victor, our anchor character, introduced first and portrayed as the lesser of two evils, although he's not a good guy either. His antagonist is Eli, the holier-than-thou crusader guy. The two friends turned enemies are hell-bent on killing each other. Because the reader has access to both perspectives, we can see when one has the advantage and the other doesn't know it.

We can also witness how they cross paths, but without realizing it. Victor and Eli end up staying in the same hotel, without the other knowing. There's even a moment where Eli looks at one of Victor's associates, whom the reader recognizes from his description, but Eli has no idea that his enemy is closer than he thinks. Using dramatic irony can be like sharing an inside joke with the reader. From a stylistic perspective, third person also allows your narrative voice as an author to shine. You can play with your prose without being accused of speaking for your characters.

In his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr uses third-person omniscient to follow two characters, and his lyrical style remains constant throughout. The first sentences of each perspective present the two characters in parallel. This is how the female protagonist is introduced: “In a corner of the city, inside a tall, narrow house at number 4 rue Vauborel, on the sixth and highest floor, a sixteen-year-old blind girl named Marie-Laure LeBlanc kneels before a low table covered entirely with a model. And this is the male protagonist: “Five streets north, a white-haired, eighteen-year-old German soldier named Werner Pfennig wakes up to a faint, staccato hum.

Little more than a purr. “Flies hitting the glass of a distant window.” The author can quickly convey the background of the characters as a way of introducing them to the reader. Physical descriptions are also easier to express in the third person. A first-person narrator would not be likely to say, "I am an eighteen-year-old, white-haired German soldier." Likewise, Werner does not know that he is “five streets north” of Marie-Laure; the omniscient narrator is providing that information. Third-person omniscience also allows the author to make broad observations about the human condition or convey themes that the characters themselves might not recognize.

Anthony Doerr can write in his own poetic style because he is not limited by the voice of the characters: “We are all born as a single cell, smaller than a speck of dust. Much smaller. Split. Multiply. Add and substract. Matter changes hands, atoms come and go, molecules spin, proteins come together, mitochondria send out their oxidative dictates; We begin as a microscopic electrical swarm. The lung, the brain, the heart. Forty weeks later, six trillion cells are crushed in our mother's birth canal and we howl. Then the world begins to fall on us.” The third-person perspective of All the Light We Cannot See creates narrative distance, which in turn produces an elevated, romantic tone.

Typically, you want closeness so readers can connect with your characters. But there are situations where it is beneficial to create a little distance between the audience and the characters. It almost gives the writing a fairy tale quality. Neil Gaiman's Stardust is also written in the third personomniscient, and is told in the style of “Once Upon a Time”: “Once upon a time there was a young man who wanted to obtain his heart's desire. And while, as far as beginnings go, this is not entirely novel (because every story about every young man who ever was or ever will be could begin in a similar way), there was a lot about this young man and what happened to him that was unusual, although not even he fully knew it.

As with the use of multiple perspectives, third-person omniscience makes it easier for the action to jump between time frames and locations. Gaiman is able to cover the history of the city and describe the different people who live there in a single chapter. In a more limited perspective, he would have to stick with the anchor character, but here he can branch out as his heart desires. This level of narrative distance is not only good for being poetic or generating a fairy tale feel, but it also works well for conveying humor. Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy uses the distance that a third person creates to make humorous statements about the universe in large dimensions: “For example, on planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was smarter than dolphins because there were They had achieved many things (the wheel, New York, wars, etc.), while the only thing the dolphins had done was have fun in the water and have a good time. .

But, conversely, dolphins had always believed that they were much more intelligent than man, for precisely the same reasons.” Because the narrator knows everything, he has access to information that no character would have, including the dolphins' thoughts. Therefore, humor is born through the narrator's matter-of-fact tone and awareness of what everyone – and everything – is thinking. In this way, the author can turn the third-person narrator into a character, with a different voice and personality. Those are some of the advantages of third person. It allows you to include more perspectives, generate dramatic irony, write in your own style, and create tone through narrative distance.

The third person, of course, is not without limitations. There are three main drawbacks. On the one hand, there is a loss of intimacy between the characters and the readers. While third person allows you to show off your unique style as a writer, it doesn't provide the immersion that comes with inhabiting someone else's head. That doesn't mean readers won't feel attached to the characters in a third-person story, but writers may have to work harder to forge and maintain an emotional connection with the audience. And if the reader can't connect with the characters, it will be difficult for them to care about what happens in the story.

You can convey a character's personality through actions and dialogue, as well as descriptions of their desires within the narrative. In Frances Hardinge's The Lie Tree, told in third person limited, the protagonist's defining trait is her hunger for knowledge. However, Hardinge does not simply state: "Faith was a curious child." Instead, she shows that curiosity through hypothetical examples: “It was her unexpected opportunities that he found hardest to resist. An unattended envelope with the letter peeking out, clean and tempting. An open door. A careless conversation, without paying attention to the spies. There was hunger in her and girls weren't supposed to be hungry.

They were supposed to nibble in moderation when at the table and their minds were also supposed to be satisfied with a light diet. Some stale lessons from tired governesses, boring walks, thoughtless pastimes. But it was not enough. All knowledge, any knowledge, called for Faith, and there was a delicious and poisonous pleasure in stealing it unseen. To create an emotional connection in third person, you can use a narrative style that describes the nuances of the character's inner life. We've talked about multiple perspectives being an advantage, but it's also another disadvantage of third person: it can be overwhelming to write and read stories where you have to keep track of too many POV characters.

Any book can feature too many characters, but because third person lends itself to creating more perspectives, it is more at risk of becoming confusing. It can also result in unnecessary chapters where one character's story slows down the pace of the entire novel, or the author repeats events from another character's perspective without adding any new information for the reader. Therefore, it is important that each POV character have a distinctive identity (such as a blind French girl or a German soldier) and advance the plot in some way. When a writer includes multiple points of view, the story can cap out at 500,000 words, given all the additional subplots tied to these secondary characters.

It also presents the writer with many creative avenues to choose from, which can be paralyzing. This is easy enough to prevent: just pick an anchor character and let them guide the main plot. In the television show Lost, although each episode switches to a different central character, the series always returns to Jack, who we started with. Before you start writing, identify the most essential points of view of the story and eliminate extraneous perspectives. Finally, we have the danger of jumping headlong. This is when a writer switches between the thoughts of several characters within the same scene. Let's say an entire scene occurs from the perspective of our main character, Bob, as he talks to his love interest, Mary.

But then this happens: "Hello, Mary," Bob said. He shifted from foot to foot, working up the courage to ask her out for a walk. Maybe he would even hold her hand. Maria looked at him. "What is it?" She hoped he wouldn't try to invite her on another endless, boring walk through the gardens. Suddenly we cut to Mary's thoughts! This is a point of view violation because the reader assumes the entire scene will be from Bob's perspective, and it is jarring when the focus shifts to another character. But jumping head first isn't inherently bad. In fact, one of the most famous science fiction novels of all time uses head jumping as a literary device: Frank Herbert's Dune.

In one scene, we see the minds of three different characters. Paul is our anchor character for most of the novel and in the opening scene of the story. However, this part is not told solely from his point of view. We begin close to Paul: “he lifted up his right hand, desiring the remembrance of pain.” We are clearly in his mind, as he is trying to access his own memory. But then, three paragraphs later, we're inside the head of the old woman he's talking to: "She extinguished the emotion, reminding herself, 'Hope clouds observation.'" And then, on the same page, Paul's mother, Lady Jessica arrives and tells him: “The door felt hard and real against her back.

Everything in the room was immediate and pressed against his senses.” Then the scene returns to Paul: “He wanted to get away alone and think about this experience, but he knew he couldn't leave until they fired him.” Some might call this third person omniscient, and it is. But that doesn't really distinguish it from the head-hopping, as most of the scene is from Paul's point of view, although we do occasionally dip into the thoughts of these other characters. To avoid confusion, Herbert signals the change to the reader with a paragraph break; he says the character's name and usually includes a bit of thought in italics.

The advantage of this type of head-jumping is that the reader receives the reactions of the different characters in real time. This is essential in suspense scenes, because the author can show what information each character knows or does not know. Of course, Dune was published in 1965, and publishing tastes have changed since then. But head jumping also appears in more contemporary works, such as Gabrielle Zevin's The Storyed Life of A. J. Fikry, published in 2014. Still, be careful when changing perspectives in the middle of a scene. There needs to be a clear marker of the change, and it's easier to achieve if his novel feels omniscient from the start rather than having a limited third-person point of view with one character.

Head jumping is not as amateurish as some believe; it simply requires a lot of skill to achieve and has largely fallen out of fashion. As a general rule, limit yourself to one point of view per scene or chapter. If you choose to write in the third person, be aware of the potential loss of emotional connection, the overwhelming nature of multiple points of view in both writing and reading, and the danger of jumping in head first. A side note about the third person present tense: while it's not as marketable as the past tense, it's not entirely uncommon.

In this style, you'll see phrases like: "The painting was stolen the same week the Russians put a dog in space." That's the first line of The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith. All the Light We Can't See is also written in the third person present tense and you may not have even noticed it before. Like in a movie or script, you are watching the action unfold before you. Chuck Wendig, author of the blog Terribleminds, says that the use of the third-person present tense in his novels contributes to its “suspenseful pace”: “It allows me to write a story that seems even more dangerous because its outcome is not established.” . —by doing it now instead of in history, it becomes a living document.

It's an evolving narrative... As such, it lends itself to urgency, and you read less to find out what happened and more to find out what's going to happen next. Each page seems to exist only because you turn it. Less of an excavation and an archive and more of an act of shared narrative creation. The reader makes the story come true just by reading.” Wendig captures the reading experience in a concise sentence: “It's not like looking at a painting, but rather, like watching someone paint.” I've linked his article in the video description. In an interview with The Guardian, Beatlebone author Kevin Barry similarly commented: “I think it's about trying to plant a voice inside the reader's head, making them hear the words as they read them... they read with the ears, essentially.

What you aim to do is hypnotize and for me that is the quality that the best fiction has. It is a hypnotic force.” See how you feel about the effect in Man Booker Prize-winning Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall: “It takes your breath away; He thinks it may be the last. Her forehead returns to the ground; He lies waiting for Walter to jump on him. The dog, Bella, is barking, locked in a latrine. I'll miss my dog, she thinks. The patio smells of beer and blood. Someone screams on the river bank. Nothing hurts, or perhaps everything hurts, because there is no separate pain that I can distinguish.

But the cold hits him in one place: right on the cheekbone that rests on the cobblestones.” If the style appeals to you and that feeling is what you're looking for, give it a try. As John Updike said of his novel Rabbit, Run: “I don't know if it's as clear to the reader as it is to the person writing, but there are types of poetry, types of music that you can play in the present tense. .” At the beginning of every new project, a writer must ask himself, "What point of view do I want to use?" I've often wondered if first or third person is more common in novels, but I haven't been able to find any solid statistics.

So, I conducted an informal experiment. I picked ten novels at random from my bookshelf. In terms of point of view, the selection was split down the middle: half were told primarily in the third person and the other half in the first person. Certain points of view are more popular in certain genres; It seems that more youth fantasy is written in the first person and more literary fiction in the third person. Third-person omniscient has fallen out of favor everywhere in recent decades, and contemporary authors prefer the emotional closeness of third-person limited. But when choosing your point of view, don't worry about what will sell.

Instead, consider the demands of the story. Ask yourself some questions: • Whose perspective is needed to tell this story? • What is the tone? Can I achieve this better through a different first-person voice or a more distant third-person narrator? • Which option am I most excited about writing? When considering third-person point of view, remember these key points: • When in third-person limited, see how you can “borrow” the character's language within the narrative using free reported speech. • Even in third person limited, the character's individual personality should be reflected in what he notices and what he thinks. • When using an omniscient narrator, you must know what tone or atmosphere you are trying to create. • Bridge the emotional distance by making sure your protagonist's feelings are clear in her dialogue, actions, and descriptions. • Don't get carried away when it comes to multiple points of view;

Make sure you know where each story is going and what it contributes. • Avoid head-jumping and limit yourself to one point of view per scene or chapter, unless you can establish a strong, omniscient narrator. • Third person present tense is an option if you want to create a sense of constant movement. As a simple exercisewriting, try changing the point of view of your work in progress. Take a scene written in first or third person and show it to the other person. Reflect on the change. What does it add? What is removed? Which one best fits the story? In the comments, I'd love to know what your favorite book written in the third person is.

Whatever you do, keep writing.