POINT OF VIEW Before you start writing decide upon a suitable viewpoint. The point of view from which you narrate your story will determine certain freedoms and limitations, so choose carefully. Here are three of the more usual viewpoints. There are more complex ones which you might like to research. |
Every time you start a piece of writing your first decision must be to decide from which viewpoint you are going to tell the story. To help decide on a viewpoint, consider the freedoms and limitations your chosen viewpoint will affect the telling of the story.
FIRST PERSON VIEWPOINT
When you write in your diary you are using first person viewpoint. For example, when you are saying things like “I did this and I did that.” Only the ‘I’ person can reveal information to the reader. Everything the narrator reveals has to be something that is known to them.
SECOND PERSON VIEWPOINT
This viewpoint is used less often. The writer is at the centre of everything and addresses the reader in a friendly and familiar manner as though they are face to face. The writer is coaxing the reader, telling them what they are doing and what is happening and often addresses the reader as ‘you’.
THIRD PERSON VIEWPOINT
The third person narrator can be anywhere within the text, knowing everything, seeing everything. It can relate people's thoughts and report them to the reader. It is all-seeing with god-like omniscience.
FIRST PERSON VIEWPOINT
When you write in your diary you are using first person viewpoint. For example, when you are saying things like “I did this and I did that.” Only the ‘I’ person can reveal information to the reader. Everything the narrator reveals has to be something that is known to them.
SECOND PERSON VIEWPOINT
This viewpoint is used less often. The writer is at the centre of everything and addresses the reader in a friendly and familiar manner as though they are face to face. The writer is coaxing the reader, telling them what they are doing and what is happening and often addresses the reader as ‘you’.
THIRD PERSON VIEWPOINT
The third person narrator can be anywhere within the text, knowing everything, seeing everything. It can relate people's thoughts and report them to the reader. It is all-seeing with god-like omniscience.