Third Person Point of View

Third person point of view is by far the most common choice. It uses the third person pronounshe, she and they to tell the story.

Example: “As they followed Charlie through the crowded maze, Jake felt an odd excitement building inside him—or was it fear? He tried to grab Sophie’s hand, but she slapped him away. He had promised Grandpa he’d look after her. A pang of guilt stabbed him. He should have at least left a note for Grandpa. It wasn’t fair to make him worry about them when he had so much else on his mind. Ever since they’d moved to Fillmore, Jake had felt like everyone was waiting for him to mess up and he had done his share of proving them right. He promised himself that this time he wouldn’t let Grandpa down. It was his responsibility to get Sophie home safely and he would do just that.”

There are many variations of third person point of view which have to do with the perspective of the viewpoint character.

Considerations

Third person is the most common point of view in all genres except young adult fiction where first person is more common. It is the viewpoint that we are most familiar with as readers and so the transition to writing third person is quite natural.

The most important thing to remember when writing any viewpoint is consistency.

Benefits

With third person point of view, the options are endless as you choose your viewpoint character(s). You can keep it almost as personal as first person viewpoint by choosing to tell the story through the eyes of just one character. Or, you can choose two or more characters to tell your story and rotate from one to another.

This is the most commonly accepted viewpoint in literature and it makes it a bit easier when it comes time to sell your writing although this is a marginal consideration and all choices should be made for the benefit of the story.

You can use two different viewpoints in separate sections of your story and then weave them together at some point.

It is helpful to understand the intricacies of how the different Perspectives in Viewpoint work as well as how third person point of view differs from Omniscient Point of View. The possibilities are endless.