Point of View

One of those topics that keeps cropping up whenever writers discuss the nuts and bolts of their craft is point of view. You, as a reader, may have a preference between first-person narrative and third-person omniscient or limited. Well, do you?

Before I start writing a story, I ask myself a number of questions and ultimately try to make a decision based on what I think will give the reader the best experience. For instance, I started writing my short mysteries involving Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable, in first person (there's a free example here) but soon changed to third, and it was a difficult decision. First-person narrative generally works well for the traditional detective short story. Look at Sherlock Holmes with Watson giving us an up-close-and-personal view of Holmes. When the POV is the protagonist's, it's even more powerful for demonstrating thought processes and internal battles that will hold the reader's attention. I ended up opting for third-person limited, however, because I wanted to jump between POVs in different scenes, and that obviously wouldn't work with a first-person narrative. The ability to show the reader in direct but shadowy glimpses what is going on behind the protagonist's was too tempting to resist.

The choice is ultimately based on the story and the author's priority for the reader, the personal depth the first-person narrative gives or the flexibility third gives. My post-apocalyptic work-in-progress is told in the first person in order to really draw the reader into the protagonist's personal experience and to force the reader to navigate a ruined landscape with unknown dangers, to wear the protagonists' tattered boots. It's an important decision to make...and a much easier one to make before you start a story. For a short story, it may not be the end of the world, but no one wants to go back and change the POV after writing a full draft of a novel! 

Do you have a preference? What are some of your favourite stories and which point of view did the author use? Let me know in the comments below.