First let's review the three different points of view:
- First Person POV: I, Me, My (is the main character)
- I stepped into the spaceship.
- The dragon flies past me.
- Second Person POV: You, Your, You're (is the main character)
- You stepped into the spaceship.
- The dragon flies past you.
- Third Person POV: He, She, They, Bob (is the main character)
- Bob stepped into the spaceship.
- The dragon flies past Bob.
Therefore, the narrator is sometimes also the main character (first person), and sometimes the narrator is watching the main character (third person), and sometimes the narrator makes the reader into the main character (second person).
However, there can be some overlap. For example, in a framing narrative, a person speaking in first person is often telling the story about someone else, in third person.
But now onto what we will really be practicing: The three different levels of knowledge for the narrator:
- Omniscient: The narrator is inside every (main) character's mind. He knows what Belle and the Beast are both thinking.
- Limited: The narrator is inside only the main character's mind. She knows what Belle is thinking, but not the Beast.
- Objective: The narrator is inside no one's mind. He must gather and describe what Belle and the Beast are thinking just from their body language, facial expressions, dialogue, and more. He can't say "She was sad…" because he can't know that she was sad. He can only say, "Tears dripped down her cheeks, and her lower lip trembled…"
HOMEWORK:
Write a short story of ~1-4 pages in objective third person point of view. (You can use a framing narrative if you'd like, but the narrator still must not be able to know the main character's inner thoughts.) It's harder than it sounds, so really read over your story when you're finished to try to catch any deviations from objective POV!
Try, as usual, to include an exciting bang at the end, and imagery, and also remember that it should be whole by itself—not the first chapter of a novel.
We'll get to write the novel next, so that's when we'll do the first chapter!
This is our last short story, so have fun with it!
Email me if you have questions!
