When you first sit down to write a novel, there are a couple of big choices you can’t avoid for long. I talked about one of them in a previous blog post: Past and present: How to use the two main narrative tenses correctly. The other is perspective – usually whether you write in first person, third-person limited, or third-person omniscient perspective.
Whether it’s a conscious choice or not – and I’d encourage you to ensure it is! – your choice of perspective can have an enormous impact on your book.
I’ve already looked at first-person perspective and third-person omniscient perspective. This blog is all about third-person limited…
What is third-person limited perspective?
Like first-person perspective, third-person limited perspective filters the events of the story through a single character (or two or three or even more characters, as long as the transitions between their separate sections are clear). But in third-person limited, instead of writing directly from the character’s POV using “I”, the narrative is written as though an outside observer is watching over the perspective character’s shoulder – though we still have a direct link in to what they’re thinking and feeling.
The narrator relays the events to the reader using the POV character’s name or “he”, “she”, “they”, etc. For example:
- Sara closed her eyes and willed the magic to come to her fingertips.
- He looked at them as though they were mad.
- She’s been walking for hours at this point. Her feet are burning.
Examples:
Kaz watched as she pulled the photo out of the envelope. Was that a flicker of recognition? She stared at it for a long moment before flipping it over to look at the back.
She shrugged. “This is the guy? Never seen him before, sorry.”
But she didn’t seem to be able to make eye contact anymore, and when she put the photo back down on the table, her hand was shaking. Not a very convincing performance… But what was she hiding?
In this example, Kaz can only observe the woman’s actions carefully to try to determine whether she knows something more about the man in the photo. The reader isn’t given any clues or information that Kaz himself doesn’t notice. Since everything that happens is filtered through his experience, the narrative also tells us how he sees things (e.g. he’s certain she knows something and is hiding it), rather than giving us a fully objective reality.
But you could write this same scene in third-person limited perspective from the woman’s POV instead…
Lisa tried to steady her breathing as she stared at the photo, but she could feel the agent’s eyes on her. He hadn’t shown any signs of remembering the night they’d spent together. Except that he’d shown up at her house again now, when she knew nothing about this case. Was it all just an excuse to talk to her again?
She flipped over the photo he’d given her, not really knowing what she expected to find. A phone number perhaps? Oh god, what was she doing?
She shrugged. “This is the guy? Never seen him before, sorry.”
She blushed and couldn’t bring herself to look up at him again as a couple of quite graphic flashbacks ran through her mind. Instead of handing it back, she put the photo down on the table.
This example shows how the same events can look completely different from a different character’s POV!
Why choose to write in third-person limited perspective?
It’s familiar and comfortable for readers
Third-person limited isby far the most common choice of perspective for books today, with some suggestions that up to 90% of speculative fiction is written in this style. The reason for its popularity is simply that it feels most natural for most readers. In some ways, it’s a healthy middle ground between the more distant and objective third-person omniscient and the much more intimate first person.
The closeness of first person but with more flexibility
Third-person limited perspective allows you to infuse every line of the narration with your characters thoughts and feelings in much the same way as first-person perspective. The reader is invited into the world as the character sees it. But third-person limited narration does retain some distance from the POV character – as though we’re watching them closely, rather than directly inside their head – which means it feels less jarring to change characters between chapters or sections than it does in first person. Many if not most first-person books stick with one POV character throughout, but it’s not at all unusual for third-person limited books to have multiple POV characters.
What are the disadvantages of third-person omniscient perspective?
It might feel limiting
Like first-person, if you plan to stick with only one POV character, the events of the story have to take place around that one person – after all, if they don’t know about something, they won’t be able to tell the reader about it. You could have an awesome idea for a sub-plot, for example, but struggle to fully develop it if your POV character wouldn’t be present for all of it. Of course, you could get around this to some extent by having multiple POV characters whose storylines eventually come together instead.
What are some common mistakes writers make when writing in third-person limited?
Including information the perspective character couldn’t possibly know
This might be big-picture stuff, like the narrative including world-building information that’s so far removed from your character’s day to day life that they just wouldn’t ever have come across it. Or it might be the small stuff – it’s surprising how often it happens in multi-POV books that two POV characters meet and somehow already know each other’s names before they’ve actually been introduced!
In each chapter or section from a particular character’s POV, forget everything else about the story and focus in on your character’s experience. There might be a meteor on it’s way to wipe out their planet the next day, but if they don’t know about it yet, it shouldn’t be included in the narrative either.
Using too many / short-lived POV characters
Like with first-person POV, the constraints of third-person limited perspective can make it tempting to dip into different characters’ POVs to expose events or motivations that your lead character wouldn’t witness otherwise. But it can feel disorienting and frustrating as a reader to be shunted about between different characters too often, or for only fleeting moments, as we’re not able to develop a good connection to them.
If you find yourself including a just one or two small sections from a different character’s POV because your main character is out of action, try to step back and consider whether they are truly necessary. Are there other changes you could make to keep things in your main characters’ perspectives instead?
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