Pulp Rag: Weighing point-of-view techniques

So let’s talk some more about Point-Of-View. Because this is quite a sticky widget.

The simplest, commonest, most straight-forward POV is third-person limited. And there’s a really good reason for this.

Because it WORKS.

Once upon a time it was first-person limited.

However, first-person got kind of beat to death over the millenia, so now we use third-person for everything but the most specific situations. True, it’s not as immediate and intimate as first-person, but it does have the benefit of allowing the reader to feel they’re in the room with the protagonist themself, going through the protagonist’s experiences alongside them, rather than having to do it all from inside the protagonist’s own head.

Fortunately, keeping the aspect limited rather than omniscient also optimizes immediacy and intimacy. . .

Read the full essay on Pulp Rag.