I would call it multiple third person limited. And I’m totally fine with it. If the author wants to switch heads at paragraph breaks, fine—he/she had just better have the skill to walk that tightrope. I want to always KNOW where I am, without having to do the digging around and clarifying that the author should have done for me.
I think my own definition may be a bit idiosyncratic, but I think of omniscient as the times when there's a recognizable narrative voice that's clearly a bit removed from the characters. It can zip in and tell us what's in the characters' brains, but there's always still that subtle layer of narrator voice... I'm thinking of Austen as the classic example. I first read her stuff when I was too young to realize she was making fun of the characters a lot of the time. Gentle, affectionate fun, mostly. Mostly. Once I picked up on that, the books gained a lot more depth for me and I liked them much more. And we see a similar approach in a lot of the classics. The narrative voice is always there, generally fairly subtly. Dickens and Twain making social commentary, etc. Harper Lee and Fitzgerald, at least in Gatsby, do a similar trick by having their narrators outside the main action of the story, looking in. Not omniscient, but still a distinct voice that follows the story of other people. Without that distinct voice, I tend to see multiple third, or, yes, head-hopping. I think the only distinction I can make between those is that multiple third is what we call it when the author seems to have the technique under control, head-hopping is what we call it when the author doesn't! Or, if it works for us it's multiple third, if it doesn't it's head-hopping. I'm not aware of another way to distinguish between those two, except maybe by length of time spent in each POV, but that seems pretty closely tied in to the "seems to be under control" test. I do find it unpleasant when POV hops from paragraph to paragraph, but I'm not sure if this is because of indoctrination into the "correct" way to write or because it's genuinely disorienting to me as a reader.
I found the OPs quote interesting and intriguing, seeing the same scene from two different POVs almost simultaneously. Definitely sort of head-hopping in the scene but it got me interested in both characters. Maybe as an opening scene? If that were done more than once or twice in the story, I would find it offputting. But for one time, the whiplash effect actually grabbed me.
That is a good question. I mostly use first person actually, but I've also used third person as well. It just really depends on what I'm writing and how I want to write it. I know that is vague but it is the truth and it leaves open a broad spectrum. I know how you feel when you talk about wanting to change the point-of-view after the fact. (lol) I have been there and done that!!
For me, it depends on the story itself: Who's the best narrator for this? Who has the most interesting perspective? I've enjoyed quite a lot of first-person books. The list of books one of the previous posters mentioned includes many that I like, including some of my favorite books. Also, I enjoy reading autobiographies. You might try reading some autobiographies to see how various people tell their stories. As to which I enjoy writing...First person has always been easier for me to write, so I prefer it, but it doesn't work for every story. I'm challenging myself to write in third in my current WIP, which is a story that needs third because the MC speaks English as a second language (actually fourth). I do much more re-writng in third, because it can come off a bit flat and impersonal.
you should try writing both ways to see which one you like more. In most of the cases this choice depends on writer's preference, but there are some rules: - if you have more than two POVs in your story, first person doesn't really work, your readers might be confused. - you should be really careful with the first person if your MC has anything to hide from readers. Keeping in mind that first person is actually telling a story from inside character's head, it makes sense that you can't hide you own thoughts from yourself. - first person normally doesn't work for tales. Just a tradition of genre. - you should be especially accurate when writing in first person when your MC is not of you gender/age/religion/life experience/planet. This is a slippery thing: even though the first person POV allows more immersion, it's easier to get an opposite effect if you never experienced the emotions your character is supposed to experience.
I am working on non-fiction memoire/bio in first person, fiction I do in close third. @K McIntyre wrote an interesting piece of fantasy in which the female protagonist, when she was in her wolf form, was first person, but when she was in human form, it was close third. The biggest issue brought up in a seminar at MWA is that in first person, the "camera" is more or less attached to the head of the first person character, and you are limited to only those things that person can see/feel/taste, etc.. That being said, Diane Gabaldon on rare occasions shifted to another POV character in the Outlander series. 99% of the POV was with the female protagonist Claire, but on rare occasions, she would shift to close third on someone else, almost always totally removed from Claire's presence.
I don't think I have ever written anything in first person. Maybe I'm afraid of making things appear too personal. Meaning, I'd like to keep up the appearance "It's just a story, it's not me." I have never given this matter much thought, but now that I did, a question occurred to me: When writing in 1st person, don't you run into danger of telling too much and showing too little? I mean, in 3rd person you can just let people say and do things and explain just as much or as little as you like. After all, a narrator can plausibly not know why one or another character did what they did. But when you write in 1st person, you have to know all the time what you are thinking. Doesn't that severely limit your freedom of keeping things mysterious? Say, a man takes off his shoe and hurls it across the street. In 3rd person you can totally leave the reader mystified as to why he did it, and let the reason be revealed later. Telling the story in 1st person, you'd look pretty silly if you tried to make your reader believe you had no idea why you took off your shoe and threw it across the street. What are your thoughts on this, people?
I will be attending a mid-July writers conference to hear: JOHN COTTER speak. His topic:,From Another Point Of View I am looking forward to hi Two-Part Workshop. Here is a taste of how he views POV. The differences between 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person are somewhat rudimentary, but there are more different shades of 3rd than can fit on a color wheel. Free indirect, for example, in all its manifestations, remains the style de jour among contemporary fiction writers. Mastery of this style is an essential tool. Part One: Close and Omniscient 3rd Person All 3rd-person writing features--consciously or not--an "author character." We'll talk about the huge differences between the sort of 3rd-person that makes full use of this author character and 3rd-person fiction that strives to emulate a camera's objectivity. We'll lean the difference between "close" and "omniscient" third and talk about the way the style of discourse, indirect libre, or Free Indirect Discourse, evolved and matured. We'll study paragraphs from Edith Wharton, Katherine Anne Porter, and Herman Melville to get a solid handle on what this style of writing is and from whence it came. Part Two: Contemporary Use of Free Indirect Narration A wide range of contemporary voices employ free indirect discourse--now the most common style of 3rd person narration. Learn what this hugely popular style can do for our own work. We'll read excerpts from American writers like Evan S. Connell, Joy Williams, Maureen McHugh, and J. Robert Lennon and we'll learn their magic tricks. You’ll never read or write 3rd -person the same way again, and your work will be far stronger for it. I hope to be able to post some of what I learn.
Well, I can't go to the conference, but you've certainly sold me on buying Cotter's book, if he's written one.
I've struggled writing first person so I stopped to read Mary Stewart ... The Moon-Spinners. There is a lot of fluff before the story starts and the wife thinks I need to learn how to do that. She does have a way of telling the story with out "I did this... and I did that... So I have a lot to learn there. One thing I noticed is, she will use this in a past tense narrative. My editor wouldn't let me get away with it. In one of my opening lines I wanted to say... When I landed on this island.... He changed it to ..that island..
To me, that depends on the narrative point of view. If the character is still on that island when he/she is "writing" the narrative, then "this island" makes sense.
This is why I ADORE first person, you are allowed to tell a lot and it not particularly matter. As long as you make the character, events, and ramblings fascinating, you can jump all over the place, back in time, skip through parts super quick, because it's more tied together through emotion than plot. Well, that's what I use it for, anyway. If my books were written in the 3rd person they'd be deathly boring, but in the 1st person they take on life. As for mystery, you can still have plenty of it, just not with your POV character.
As far as I know, he has not written a book on this subject. He has a handful of impressive degrees and works across the art spectrum. He lives in Denver and teaches at Lighthouse Writers Workshop.
Yeah, I tried to find any book on the subject, and couldn't. So yeah, I would certainly appreciate hearing about what you learn at the conference. I didn't realise there were so many kinds of third person perspectives, but it makes sense. I like the notion that some show more author involvement than others.
I have to note that you can do all of those things in third person, too. It's dandy that you prefer first person, but third person doesn't have the restrictions that you're implying.
I wrote a lot of romance and mystery books in the third person, so maybe those particular genres are what made me get stuck in restrictive habits in third. First always feels more creatively fluid to me, personally.
I aspire to write 1st person, however I find myself falling into 3rd person a lot. it feels easier to write locations from a separate perspective, writing like a narrator separate from any feelings.
Looks like this topic has gone into more of a broader conversation than the OP originally intended, so I'll bite! Overall, I prefer third person, especially for reading books. First person still feels a bit jarring to me, even if I understand the unique benefits of that PoV. Almost all of my stories have been third-person. The exceptions have been some short stories that I did for experimentation purposes, and the current novel-length story I am focusing on. This current project is quite the challenge, since I am so used to hopping from one character to another and showing what else is going on in the world. With first person, I'm stuck to that character's perception of events, which is not necessarily a bad thing. And this story originally was going to be in third person, but after a couple of chapters I felt that I was losing the main character's voice, and I wasn't having that much of a reason to focus on multiple characters since it was going to be a limited view anyway (as in, I always planned on the story being told from the perspective of the MC, regardless of PoV). Changing it to first-person just...happened. It felt right, and, 26 chapters in (maybe 200 pages for all I know; I haven't typed up everything I have so far), I don't regret it. Still need to flex my writing muscles and learn new tricks to make things flow better, of course, but I'm up for the challenge.
First person is a real challenge as you can't change POV if you think your MC is getting tiresome. Maybe it only happened to me, but I had to get my MC in some unusual situations to have her see the action. Now I'm working to stop leading a sentence with, I. Sometimes I feel like I'm a puppet master for Mr Bill.
I'm happy reading books written in both first and third person narrative, but when I'm writing, I do prefer their person. My current work in progress is their person. However I have experimented with writing in the first person, and agree that sometimes, it does seem to work better.
I believe ultimately the writer must consider the advantages and disadvantages of either first or third person and choose accordingly.
