I am trying to write in third person limited. Is this a flaw: "They didnt realize how dangerous this option was" "Pete didnt realize how dangerous this option was" I dont think the second sentence is a viewpoint error?
Hi! Keep in mind that third person limited means, the narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. So, when writing, ask yourself: Would my POV character know what I want to write? As per that definition, if Pete doesn't know something, you can't write what he doesn't know. Or rather, you can say "he didn't know what 2+2 was", but you can't say "He didn't know that 2+2 was 4". In your case, if you say e.g. "Pete assessed his choice, but couldn't determine if it was dangerous or not", everything would be fine.
in addition its something of an unnecessary tell - better to show them finding out that the option is dangerous
Aha ok. So I am not writing in limited then. What do you call it if I write mainly from one characters perspective even if others are present? Would it be confusing? I clearly recall Tolkien wrote "nobody thought of how dangerous this could be" when they left Fatty Bolger and headed to Bree. And Tolkien has a clear perspective and follows one person at a time. Usually one of the hobbits. Reason I want to do it is forshadowing.
what you describe is third limited, but Tolkien was writing in third omniscient. And that isn't how you do foreshadowing... that is where you show a minor event early on which portends a later event - ie when Sean falls from his horse during the cattle drive in Lonesome Dove, it foreshadows the scene where he dies from snakebite after a falling from his horse during the river crossing
Neither of these sentences show enough to know what POV you're writing in. Both of them could work in different POVs depending on the context. You can totally say that he didn't know the answer was 4 and be in third limited.
That is true. The limited third is just a subset of an all-knowing narrator, since it is basically an all knowing narrator who chooses to look into the head of only one person. Then we are thinking about different definitions of a limited third. The definition I know states that that in the limited third, the narrator knows only the thoughts and feelings of one character.
