I’m currently learning about point of view in language arts class, and it surprised me how detailed and important it can be.
Persons, tenses, and numbers (maybe you don’t even know what those are) can be tricky, but they are fundamental for good writing.
So…here are the basics on how they work.
Persons
The term ‘persons‘ refers to how you narrate your story. First person is when the narrator is a character in the story, describing what is happening from an insider’s view. Often it’s the main character, but occasionally a sidekick or even an antagonist will be the narrator in first person. It uses pronouns like “I” and “We” and “Me”.
Second person, which is pretty rare, uses the pronoun “You”. It is used mainly as a character in the story talking to themselves, describing what happened to his/her self–although ‘you’ could refer to the reader in some stories.
There’s not a lot of books that use this person, aside from the choose-your-own-path ones, and I don’t read those very often. That doesn’t mean they’re bad, just uncommon.
Third person, which is probably the most popular in fictional stories, consists of the narrator being outside of the story, explaining what is happening to the reader (who is also outside of the story). It can offer a wide range of views from different characters, as you are not limited to just one individual’s mind, like you would be in first person. Pronouns used for third person would be ones like “His”, “She”, or “Them”.
Click here for a few of my favorite third-person novels.
The Penderwicks by Jean Birdsall
Wingfeather Saga by Andrew Peterson
The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis.
The Green Ember by SD Smith
Sisters Grimm by Micheal Buckley
All persons are equally interesting and, depending on the genre, useful.
Tenses
Another important part of POV is what tense a story is written in. The term ‘tense’ is used to describe when your story is being narrated–in the past, present, or future.
Past tense is probably the most popular one, used when the narrator is telling about something that already happened. For example… “He took a deep breath and jumped into the water.”
If you were writing in present tense, which is a here-and-now telling of the story, it would read, “He takes a deep breath and jumps into the water.”
Future tense, which is pretty uncommon, can be confusing if you’re writing fiction. It tells a story of something that’s going to happen. “He will take a deep breath and then jump into the water.”
If you’re writing/reading a prophecy for a fantasy novel, a time-traveler’s letter from a sci-fi story, or something along those lines, you would use future tense.
Most people stick to working with present and past tense, though, because stories are normally about things that are happening or already happened.
Numbers
One of the confusing aspects of writing is numbers, meaning how many people are being referred to at a time. There’s either singular, meaning one person at a time, or plural, more than one person at a time. They’re used with persons.
This makes the most sense if I just use an example. Here we go.
- In singular first person, the character who is telling the story tells it as one individual. “I was drinking coffee.”
- In plural first person, the narrator, though a single person, continuously refers to himself as in a group of people. “We were drinking coffee.”
- In singular second person, the narrator is simply telling the reader, ‘you’, as in just one person, one single character. “You were drinking coffee.”
- In plural second person, the narrator seems to be talking to multiple readers, or maybe the one reader is in a group setting with other characters. “You guys were drinking coffee.”
- In singular third person, you refer to one individual character at a time. “She was drinking coffee.”
- In plural third person, the narrator tells the story as if it is happening to a group of people. “They were drinking coffee.”
Numbers can be interchanged throughout your writing. You can go from writing about one person, and then, when they are joined by more characters, switch to plural.
These aspects of POV are crucial to understanding and writing literature.
Persons, whether first, second, or third, increase narration quality and personality.
Past tense, present tense, and future tense affect the feel and style of your story.
Numbers, though seemingly unneeded, help us identify who we are talking about.
It’s fascinating how these three components shape and enhance our writing when used properly. Learning about them has helped me become a better writer, and I hope it does the same for you.
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