I am very new at writing. I can’t write anything but third person present. I think I understand third person limited as the narrator sees things from the MC’s perspective. But how deep into the MC’s head is the narrator? Does the narrator know exactly what our MC thinks. Does the narrator feel the MC’s heart suddenly pumping faster. Or is the narrator only observing from the outside? Has the narrator the same knowledge of the MC as in a first person perspective? Has the narrator the same knowledge of the MC through the story? (that is does the narrator step in and out of the MC?) Do we ever get the narrator's opinion or is he/she always a neutral observer? Scen. (illustrative example only, slightly inconsistent) A young man (Bob) is at the marketplace Saturday morning, he hears steps, from an alley a beautiful woman appears. So good/bad things with. 1 The narrator describes the woman. The woman in front of him is beautiful, she has long blond hair. Her eyes are blue. 2 Bob describes her, we get his thoughts.. I have never seen anything as beautiful, her vivid red hair, her blue eyes. 3 the narrator describes her through Bob’s eyes He sees her blonde hair, his gaze stops at the blue eyes. What other ways are there? Do you mix? The woman had blonde hair. I’ve never seen anything as pretty, he thought. His eyes lingered for a long time on her blue eyes.
I would like some opinions on these questions myself since I'm new to the jargon. However, I think this: is omniscient narrator, and out of fashion, as far as I can gather from general opinion. In third person narration, how deep is the narrator in the main character's head? How much the author wants it to be, I'd say. But wait for better advice.
Third person limited is broad, covering all the way to first person. Third person limited means the narrator only know the thoughts and feelings from the POV character. Third person omniscient means the narrator knows everyone's feelings. Third person objective means describing the story as a witness, not knowing the thoughts or feelings of any characters. You will see many levels of third-person limited reading stories. I've seen stories where thoughts and feelings of a character's POV became the narrative, and it worked beautifully. The trick is not getting in the way of the story. Third person done horribly resulted in the birth of the expression, show don't tell. A reader can guess how a person feels when they discover a mate had an affair with someone they trusted. No need to interject thoughts of anger or horror; just describe how they killed and disposed the body. Interjecting thought and feeling can be useful, such as for humor, or defining character. But make sure it embellishes the action of the scene, and not pause the scene so that you can explain what's going on. My personal preference - and there is no right or wrong here - is third person objective. The narrator witnesses. The reader imagines the rest.
That's your choice. Normally, in modern fiction written in third person limited, the narrator has the same knowledge as in first person. You can choose something else, but you should strive to be consistent. You can, but if you're feeling uncertain I think I'd recommend against it. In third person limited I think that an explicit narrator opinion is a mistake, and to some degree is actually incorrect. You can have a little flavor, but I wouldn't have the narrator popping up and expressing opinions. Remember that in third person limited, everything is filtered through the POV character. So you don't really need to distinguish between the narrator and the character, except maybe for literal thoughts. Now, I'm vehemently opposed to italics for literal thoughts, but if you do use them, you don't need a "he thought" thought tag. So, some options for this: Losing the unnecessary thought tag: The woman had blonde hair. I’ve never seen anything as pretty. His eyes lingered for a long time on her blue eyes. Losing the literal first person thought and thus the italics: The woman had blonde hair. He had never seen anything as pretty. His eyes lingered for a long time on her blue eyes. Expressing the hair in the way that he might think about it, even without literal thoughts: He stopped, mesmerized. The blond hair, the eyes, the cheekbones--she was like the heroine of a Hitchcock movie.
