By: Claudia Severin

Claudia Severin — Sun, 12 Feb 2023 00:12:51 +0000

I wrote my first five books in third person from dual characters’ POV. Now I am writing the second book in a row in first person. I got the same feeling you did, it feels much more intimate, and I don’t think I’ll return to third person. I tried to write one chapter in third person that was supposed to be a series of journal entries, and it didn’t feel right. I had to rewrite it in the POV of the character writing the journal entries. She was witnessing a murder as a child, so I wanted to capture her confusion, angst, horror, fear etc.

By: Lily

Lily — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 13:33:09 +0000

Third person omniscient narrator is hardly used outside thrillers and such. In today’s contemporary romance those of us who use third person do it as ‘third person limited’ – it’s limited to the perspective of a single character (alternate chapters if dual pov), and you get just as deep into the character as in first pov. The language used, the feelings, the thoughts are all in that character’s perspective. There is no external narrator. You can change the ‘she’ or ‘he’ into ‘I’ without having to change anything else. Here’s an example from a novella I’m writing:

She didn’t need the cheap wine to draw courage. She was beyond that point. She needed it to blur the warmth that spread in her heart so she could focus just on the one that spread down her body. She needed it to fog the unnerving awareness that her attraction to him was far more than physical. She needed it to dim her need to hug him and not just rip his shirt open.

Change the ‘she’ into ‘I’, the ‘her’ into ‘me/my’ and the paragraph won’t change that’s because you’re already inside that character’s pov though it’s in third.

Comments on: Discover a Fresh Perspective with the POV Challenge

By: Claudia Severin

By: Lily