Now, it’s time to think about the point of view (POV) that your novel will be told from. There are four POVs that your novel could be told from: first person, second person, third person limited, and third person omniscient.

First person POV is when the story is told directly from the main character’s perspective using pronouns such as ‘I’ and ‘me’. A great book told from this POV is Woof by Spencer Quinn which I wrote a review of a few weeks back that can be found under the category ‘Book Reviews’. If you are writing about a character that endures a deep and emotional journey that may be hard to describe, I would suggest you use first person POV. That way your readers may find the character more relatable. Second person POV is when whoever is telling the story address you, as in you the reader. That doesn’t mean that the narrator is speaking directly about you the reader per say, but that could be one derivative of it. I have not read any novels written in second person. It is one of the most uncommon types, but done well it could be brilliant. The genre that I, myself, have seen the most second person POV stories is horror. And I can see why. If you really wanna freak someone out and you’re writing a horror story, use second person POV to make the reader feel as if you are right there watching them. Third person limited POV is when the narrator does not participate in the story itself and tells it using pronouns such as ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘they’, and ‘them’. The only difference between third person limited and third person omniscient is that an omniscient third person narrator sees all aspects of the story and all perspectives. Third person limited is limited to only so many characters perspectives, as suggested by its name. I am using third person limited for The Meer series, but that does not mean that I don’t switch perspectives, I do. Third person omniscient is when the narrator narrates from all characters perspectives at the same time.

Here is a simple example of third person omniscient: “Sally wasn’t feeling well after she ate her ice cream, but she realized that it was not because of what she ate but the secret that she had confronted Timmy with earlier. Tommy, meanwhile, was flipping through the TV channels and feeling sorry for himself at home.”

When choosing one of these POVs keep your main characters perspective in mind. How do they see the world? Is what you should ask yourself. And which POV would the readers benefit from more? Most of all, just let the POV come naturally to your story. When I first start writing something new I often write the first few pages in each type of POV, then I read over them to decide what works best and feels right.