Narrative Point of View – First-person
If you’re new-ish to writing, you might prefer to read my blog Point of View as an introduction to the, sometimes confusing, different points of view (POV) a writer can use.
Sometimes this stuff can look a bit technical and reminiscent of English Grammar lessons at school – but I promise I won’t get into things like subjunctives and indicatives, whatever they are! I’m going to try to keep it brief and simple and give examples which I hope will help.
So, who’s telling the story? The Narrative Point of View label comes with this official definition:
“Narrative Point of View in the writing of fiction describes the narrator’s position in relation to the story being told.”
The writer takes the part of the protagonist or another character
When the writer takes the part of the protagonist or another character (usually a sidekick) in the story, they refer to themselves as I. It’s a useful way to convey the inner emotions and thoughts of the person. Example adapted from my rom-com, ‘A Diet of Love’.
Protagonist as narrator: ‘I stared at her receding back. I’m gonna really miss you, babe. OK, man, stop with the crying. Big, happy wave when she gets to Departures.’
Sidekick as narrator: ‘I noticed the tears in Tony’s eyes as he watched Chrissie heading for Departures. I felt sorry for him. Chrissie had whispered to me earlier she was going to try to return earlier to surprise him.’
Compare the two.
o In the first, the protagonist, Tony, allows the reader into his innermost emotions – ‘gonna really miss you, babe.’ He doesn’t say it aloud; he thinks it.
o The sidekick doesn’t know what Tony’s thinking but he can see the tears so tells the reader. He also tells how he, as a friend, feels about that. In addition, he knows something Tony doesn’t – Chrissie’s secret.
This is known as writing in the First-person. Using the First-person limits you, as the writer, the I-narrator of the story, to relaying only those events or details of which the character could reasonably be expected to have knowledge, e.g., Chrissie’s secret. In other words, if the I-narrator doesn’t see it, hear it or experience it, they don’t have knowledge of it so they can’t tell the reader. Bear this in mind when reading about Third-person narratives, coming up.
The writer takes the role of an instructor
This Second-person approach is rarely used in fiction writing so I’ll mention it only briefly.
In this, the narrator refers to the reader as ‘you’ therefore including the reader in the story as if a character. It can become complicated.
It’s mostly used by writers of guides, how-to, or help books such as:
‘Next, you unscrew the tops . . .’
‘You slowly move into the yoga Tree Pose . . .’
‘You turn left at the cross roads . . .’
To continue with more notes on POV, go to Narrative Point of View – Third-person.
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