Point of Views

First Person Point of View

A story told from the first person point of view involves the narrator as part of the story, and usually features the following pronouns: I, me, mine, our, we, us, etc.

Second Person

Very rare in literature, this point of view treats the reader as the main character in the story. Other characters refer to the reader as "you." Descriptions are based on what you would see if you were in that situation. This narrative voice is generally reserved for explanatory articles and how-to books, but adventurous writers will occasionally pen a short story or novel in the second person.

Third Person Point of View

Third person point of view is told by a narrator who is not part of the story and generally uses pronouns such as: he, she, it, they, them, him, her, its, etc. There are three type of third person narration: omniscient and limited.

Third Person Omniscient

“Omniscient” means all-knowing. If a person is all-knowing, he or she knows the thoughts and feelings of everybody. Third person omniscient occurs when a story is told by a narrator who is not part of the story but knows the thoughts and feelings of all the characters in the story. In other words, a third person omniscient narrator is inside the hearts and heads of the characters, exposing their thoughts and/or feelings.

Third Person Limited

Third person limited is similar to the omniscient point of view, but it is a limited viewpoint. The narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character.