One of the first decisions a fiction writer has to make is "Who will tell the story?" On the surface, this seems fairly simple. Point of view can be divided into First Person, Second Person and Third Person. These distinctions are based on grammar (ewww…that awful "g" word) - specifically on how pronouns work. The first person pronouns are "I, me, we, us, our, etc" the second person pronouns are "you, your, etc" and the third person pronouns are "he, she, it, them, his, hers, etc." With that in mind, it is fairly easy to understand the divisions of viewpoint into first person, second person, and third person. However, understanding and application can be very different.

First Person

In a first person story, you have a character who speaks for himself. A first-person account is filled with "I" and "me." It is as if the entire story is one long quote, because someone is telling it to you.

For example: "My family has never been exactly what you would call normal! I don't go to school, mostly because we are never in one place long enough. If you think that means I don't have to do schoolwork - think again! I just get my lessons and turn in my homework through the computer."

As you can see, the speaker is also the main character. She is telling you about her life, her family and her story. Most first person stories in children's books are told by the main character…but not always. Sometimes the voice you hear is not the main character but an uninvolved (or slightly involved) speaker relating a tale as a storyteller would.

For example:"I know what happened to Wendy. I used to talk about it all the time but now I would just like to forget. Still, you're here and you want to know, so I'll tell you. Wendy was the saddest person I ever met. Her parents were divorced, but that alone doesn't always make a person miserable…"

Here, the reader can tell that the main character is going to be Wendy. The speaker may be involved in the story, but not in any integral way. This uninvolved storyteller viewpoint is rare in modern storytelling. It brings a distance that is confusing to many young readers. One example of an author who does this well is A. A. Milne in his Winnie the Pooh stories. Some more recent books have used the uninvolved storyteller as a device to bring a different and unusual voice to the narration, such as the narrator in A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket.

Many writers for young children like the immediacy of first person stories. It seems easy to connect with the reader and tends to be an easy viewpoint to stay in because you have less urge to jump in and out of the minds of other characters. When the first-person viewpoint is done well, the result is a character that children can relate closely with. However, it is also more difficult to "show" instead of "telling." And some writers find it a strain to maintain an accurate child-like voice throughout an entire story.

For example, if you are writing a first-person story where the protagonist is pre-school aged, you must not have "adult" words in the story. Your mind must always be questioning - is that how a 4-year-old would say that? A first-person story is limited to your main character's appropriate vocabulary, emotional development, and introspection. A four-year-old would not say, for example, "I learned that you should always be concerned about the feelings of other people." Or "I learned that Mommy really only tells me what to do for my own good." Remember, even if a four-year-old might have learned it - would she admit it? And would she do it in such an adult manner?

SECOND PERSON

In a second person story, the viewpoint character is the reader himself. This point of view is very difficult to write and often forces awkward structures. The only published children's books I have seen that were written in second person were the "Choose Your Own Adventure" books that were very popular in the early 80s. In these books, the reader actually made decisions throughout the book about how the story should progress, so it was written with the reader as the viewpoint character. Mostly, this viewpoint can be discarded as an option for fiction, though occasionally you might want to consider it for short nonfiction articles, especially how-to articles.

Third Person

In a third-person story, the story unfolds with each character being introduced with the distance that comes with third person. Characters are identified by name and referred to with the third person pronouns. It is the most common form in both fiction and nonfiction. However, within the heading of "Third Person" come many different possible applications.

The way third person viewpoint is applied depends upon how close you get to the characters. Do we see the characters only externally? Do we "hear" the thoughts of some of the characters? All of the characters? Let's look at some possible applications of third person viewpoint.

Third Person Restricted

This is also called Third Person Limited Omniscient. It is the most common viewpoint for children's books. It allows the reader to connect closely with the main character because the story unfolds entirely in the main character's presence and the reader is privy to the main character's thoughts - and only the main character's thoughts. The writer will not include any scenes where the main character is not present and not include any information that the main character does not know.

Example: Judy stopped and stared at her brother. What was he thinking anyway? Mark looked back at her without speaking. Judy leaned closer and stared into his eyes until he swatted her away. Whatever was going on with him, he wasn't sharing.

Because of its tight focus on a single character, third person restricted offers many of the same benefits of first person. The reader is able to relate well to the main character, getting inside her head and "hearing" her impressions of the situation and the other characters. The narrative is not, however, totally limited to "sounding" just like the main character so there is more freedom in vocabulary and sentence structure. Still, you do not want the narrative to sound jarringly different than the voice of your main character. Sudden changes in the vocabulary, and tone of the narrative can break the narrative spell - reminding your reader that this is just a book.

The difficulty with third person restricted is the temptation to offer information and scenes to the reader that the main character is not privy to. In third person restricted, you must limit scenes, thoughts, and conversations to those of the main character. To do otherwise breaks the flow and reminds the reader of the mechanics of the writing. It also makes it more difficult for the reader to maintain the connection to the main character. The writer must also watch carefully for passive voice sentences, which tend to occur more easily when writing in one of the third person viewpoints.

Third Person Omniscient

In third person omniscient, the reader may be privy to the thoughts of all the characters, and any action regardless of the characters present. The writer faces none of the restrictions of first person or third person restrictive point of views. There is no need to limit the tone of the narrative to the age level of any of the characters. There is no need to figure out sneaky ways to present information. On the surface, it seems an ideal viewpoint.

Unfortunately, for the reader, the third person omniscient is far from ideal. Young readers often cannot follow the jumps from one person's thoughts to another. Reader identification with the main character never happens, because you have no obvious main character. By trying to connect with everyone, the reader connects with no one. It is very difficult to generate an emotional reaction in a reader with a third person omniscient viewpoint. This does not mean that no books are being published with third person omniscient, only that it is a difficult viewpoint to control and there are costs to using it. One way writers deal with the desire to use third person omniscient without jumping from character to character is to change viewpoint character in each chapter - or at least in clearly defined sections within the chapter. For example in The Blossoms and the Green Phantom by Betsy Byars, the viewpoint is divided among seven characters (including the dog). However, the story is not dependent upon character identification to work. The antics of the Blossom family are what readers buy the books for, so Byars sacrifices strong reader identification in favor of freedom to move from incident to incident.

Third Person Dramatic

In this viewpoint, no one's thoughts are revealed and only observable things are described. To know a character's thoughts, they must be voiced. The dramatic viewpoint can be either closely tied with one character, observing only scenes and conversations where the character is present. Or it may be more objective, observing without being closely connected to any character. This viewpoint is very rarely used in book length work for children as it makes reader identification with your characters difficult.

Let's Be Honest

One important aspect to consider when choosing viewpoint is honesty. A first person narrator can present information that is wrong (due to the poor perceptions on the part of the narrator) or deceitful (when the narrating character has an agenda, or a secret to hide). Some writers have had great fun making the reader wonder about narrator honesty in the storyteller voice -- for example, we often doubt the narrator in A Series of Unfortunate Events is being strictly honest with us, and we suspect he's playing games -- as we're intended to. But in strictly third person stories, the narration must always be honest. If, for example, you have the following passage:

Ralph was a hedgehog. His eyes were small. His face was small. His hunger was huge.

You cannot later reveal that Ralph was really a rat on a bad hair day. The information given by a third person narrator must be trustworthy for the reader. This is not necessarily true of first person. For example, the following is perfectly acceptable: "I heard the drawers pulled open and dumped on the floor. Whoever was in my room was looking for a weapon. He wanted to kill me!" even if the narrator later learns that the intruder was simply a raccoon looking for a free snack. Readers accept that a first person narrator is fallible, just as the reader is.

Readers will not accept this of third person narration so surprises must be phrased to misdirect or lead to misassumptions on the part of the reader…they must not be based on actual misinformation. For example, in a mystery, clues are presented that make several characters look suspicious or several possible explanations seem likely -- the clues are honest, but they may be pointing the reader toward misassumptions. The mystery writer doesn't lie in the third person narration, she just misleads.

Point of View may seem tricky, but with a little practice and plenty of reading to see how other writers handle it -- point of view can be another great plaything in the writer's toybox.