Point of View: Preferences and Character Connections
Point of view is such an interesting and complex topic. When I was in college getting my bachelors in creative writing, my teachers constantly mentioned how point of view was so important when writing or reading a story. The concept they always brought up was how point of view changes the reliability of the narrator. Now, maybe reliability doesn’t really affect me or bother me since I read for fun and not to analyze for deeper meanings or maybe I should pay more attention to it. It’s hard to say. Even in my classes in the academy, I might mention point of view and how important it is, but I never really talk about reliability and how it affects the readers’ perceptions. I think a large part of that, for me, is I find it hard to classify any narrator (even all-knowing omniscient narrators) as more reliable than first person or limited points of view. Every narrator will have biases just as every writer has biases that will color the story, characters, or perception of events.
You might be asking why reliability is such a big deal. What does it mean for the readers or the story. Well, technically, if a narrator is unreliable, how can the reader actually know if what the narrator says is true? For example, a first-person point of view might have a character say he/she sees someone being suspicious or cagey. The character’s observation might only be what he/she thinks instead of actual reality. The other character might not actually be cagy or suspicious at all, and just being perceived that way. The reader must take the word of the narrator that what is written is the truth despite the narrator’s biases or incorrect assumptions.
If you ask me, I could care less about that. Anything that is right, wrong, or colored in bias is meant to be that way. I see any biases, observations, or assumptions as the writer misleading us on purpose for surprises to the reader or as a way to be close to and understand the character. It is part of the experience of the story. I don’t have any memory of actively questioning a narrator. Maybe I should, but I really don’t want to. I really don’t care. Haha!
To be honest, my absolute favorite point of view (though I enjoy the different qualities of all of them) is first-person, which is, of course, considered the least reliable narrator there is (go figure). I love being as close to the main character as possible. I find that the connection I share with the characters can determine how much I like a book. If I don’t connect with them, I am likely to enjoy the book less even if the rest of the story and the concepts are good. We, as readers, see the book through the characters. They are our conduit into the events, world, and plot of a book. We spend all our time with them. If I don’t like or connect to the people in the story, it is unlikely I will be able to enjoy it.
My top favorite first-person series are Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files and Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson. Both of them are very close to their main character’s thoughts, feelings, actions, and motivations. When you read these books, I can’t help but connect to the characters. I really love their personalities as well as the kind of people they are. This doesn’t mean that I can’t also appreciate and care about the other characters in the stories either. In fact, seeing the other people through the main character’s eyes actually allows me to love the other characters as much as the main character does. Plus, if they aren’t a good secondary character, I would still make my own decisions and decide that based on what I dislike about him or her.
My second favorite point of view is limited third person. I doubt this is surprising considering it also allows the reader to be close to the main character/s. I do think that some stories actually benefit from being a little further away from the character than first-person. It does allow you to have a broader view of events and other characters in the story besides the main character. But, when done well, we still stand close to the main character/s and can feel and hear their thoughts and emotions. It also allows the story to have multiple main characters and we can be close to all of them. When it comes to secondary characters, we are less influenced by the main characters thoughts and feelings about them which can be good or bad or neutral. It really depends on what the writer wants the reader to get from it. For me, this point of view is most effective when we still remain extremely close to the main character/s. I don’t want that closeness to be affected in order to get a broader more distanced view of the other elements in the story.
My top favorite series with this point of view are Eileen Wilks’s World of the Lupi and Jim Butcher’s Codex of Alera. With the World of the Lupi, it is focused on one main character, Lily. Wilks allows me to be really close to Lily while also experiencing the other characters on my own terms. I believe that this point of view works well with the love story that is entwined in these books. So, I get a chance to connect with Rule (her love interest) and see him separately from Lily. He is also a main character and deserves his own regard. For the Codex of Alera, there are many main characters and each character gets time to be focused on. This story doesn’t just limit itself to one character. Instead, we get to jump around between all the main characters. I can get to know all of them with this perspective and grow to love them all. It also allows me to see different events in different places that are important to the plot.
And last but not least, third person omniscient is my least favorite of all of them. Of course, I do like some books with this point of view, but it has actually hindered my enjoyment of several stories because of this perspective. It used to be the most popular view point, but now it isn’t as popular anymore. I think we as readers have become more invested in being involved in the story which happens better with a closer perspective. I have always found it interesting that our sense of story used to be so far removed from the characters and people involved in it. However, I do see the benefits that the omniscient point of view can provide for a story. It does allow readers to have a 360-degree view of all the events, characters, and settings. This allows a writer to have multiple sub plots happening or many characters in different areas all working toward the same plotline.
I really enjoy David Eddings’s The Belgariad series which has this point of view. It is a very good series with a group of main characters which is only able to work with the omniscient viewpoint. Terry Brooks’s Sword of Shannara series is also written in this viewpoint, and it is a very interesting story. However, this is one of those series that loses me. I just can’t connect to the characters enough to be investing in the book. I think the concepts and ideas are really great, but without a personal connection, I had a hard time even wanting to pick up the book.
Now, you might be wondering what I think about second person point of view. However, I can’t really say. I have never actually read a book with this perspective. If any of you have read, I would love to hear about the experience and what you think of how it effects relating to the story. Since it isn’t a very common viewpoint, I wonder if any fantasy novel has been written in it.
Now, my question to you is, how do you feel about point of view? What is your favorite type? Does the closeness you have to the characters matter for connecting to the story? I would love to know your feelings!
Please comment below!Â
If you are unsure exactly what each point of view is, how to recognize which one you are reading, or need extra clarification, I have a post for that. Click here to view it!
3 Comments
Paul
It certainly is a very interesting thing, point of view, I have to be honest it’s something that until recently I didn’t pay a great deal of conscious attention to when reading, and never really thought about my preference either. I just kinda accepted that authors will tell the story from whichever perspective suits it best, I still think that’s important, I think a story told from an omniscient perspective in the hands of a capable writer will be just as captivating, but the author will have to think more about how to overcome the challenges writing from that perspective throws up. Personally though, yeah I do like stories where you stay with the main character(s) and follow them along in their journey, getting to know them along the way and building up relationships with them whether those are positive or negative. I don’t really have a preference as to whether that’s first person or third person limited, I think the choice the author makes depends really on whether there’s one primary dominant character or a small group of significant characters but yes, I do enjoy those kind of stories tbh. But, above all I kinda tend to just trust the author to do their thing however they need to do it.
You also mentioned the academic side of things, and things such as narrator reliability. I’m not an expert on the academic, technical, “theory” side of writing but of course nor are most readers, like yourself I read for pleasure and enjoyment and in all honesty I think there can be a tendency for some people, critics especially, to become bogged down with the mechanics rather than the actual storytelling. It’s like the narrator reliability thing you mentioned, is that really that important when reading a book? Things like that, for me, aren’t, like yourself I don’t really care or attach significance to them and again I trust that if the writer is doing anything, they’re doing it for a reason. Maybe it needs to be unreliable, maybe the main character is suffering from severe delusions, in that case you’d expect it to be unreliable but there’s a good reason for it. The only time I’d see a problem arising is if the book is badly written, if the author is leaving out important details or making mistakes and tbh, that’s not an unreliable narrator, that’s an unreliable writer and that can happen no matter what point of view the book takes.
I was also interested to see you mention second person. There is fantasy literature, albeit a kind of unorthodox kind, that uses a second person perspective, and you may be familiar with this kind of thing already but it tends to be adventure gamebooks that adopt that viewpoint, such as the Fighting Fantasy or Lone Wolf books. You might be aware of these already as I say, if not, these are books where the reader is the actually the hero, and actually chooses the direction the story takes as it progresses. Instead of reading from start to finish, each section will give you a choice and you turn to the corresponding page depending on your choice, that page then tells you what happens and continues the story. I loved these when I was younger, and they were very popular in the 80’s and 90’s but not widely known now I don’t think. If any readers of this happen to have any, know that some of them are now quite rare and quite collectable these days 🙂
Amy
I have not heard of these adventure game books, but they sound extremely interesting. I will have to give it a try. I have heard of several unorthodox style books that people have written in the past, like a book that is a deck of cards and can be shuffled and read in any order or a book that is written completely backwards with the first word as the last word on the last page. I have not heard of these choose your own story books. Thanks for telling me about them. I think it is even more interesting to also have it written in second person.
Paul
Wow, that sounds weird and interesting, a book made of a random deck of cards. I’d be curious to see that tbh! As for adventure gamebooks, yeah if you do want to check any out, I’d recommend the Lone Wolf series, not only are they a really good series of books but thanks to their author Joe Dever essentially donating the vast majority of them to be published free of charge online, you can now download and play these easily for free. Look for Project Aon, they host almost all of these books…
https://www.projectaon.org/
All legit, legal and above board, downloadable in most formats and can also be read and played in your browser too. Joe Dever sadly passed away a few years ago, but his books have been preserved via Project Aon. If you want to try these books, that’s a great starting point 🙂