When it comes to choosing the POV of your story, you have to keep some things in mind. There are many types of narrator, the most common are First and Third person, some authors use Second Person Narrator, too, but for other purposes.
FIRST PERSON NARRATOR
No, giving all your characters a voice as narrator in the story won't make your book better. It will make it look messy. If you feel like changing POV every five lines, then use the third person narrator. If you're using a first person narrator, you need to give them time to express themselves so the reader can get used to the character's inner voice. If you change, you push the reader to another mind and that's messy and exhausting. More than two POVs in a story will make it too noisy and if you need more than one voice for your story, then use third person narrator. It will give you the chance to play with all the voice but without changing the POV.
Keep it clean, keep it simple. Less is more, people. The more POVs you have, the less professional your book looks. And if you switch from one POV to the other many times in the same chapter... you'll only give a headache to your reader. Have mercy.
This type of narrator helps you to create a bond between the character and the reader as the latter has the chance to understand exactly what the the first is thinking. It's basically going inside the mind of the character. This means that all the events are filtered by his or her perspective. Everything will be, in a way, inked by the character's POV of the story.
This narrator helps to keep suspense as the character can't know everything that's happening; so if you want to keep a secret or something, this kind of narrator is very good. This narrator also helps you to be more informal as you have to adotp the voice of the character and if you change POV, there has to be a difference in the "voice". We all talk differently, we certainly don't think the same way. With character is the same so keep that in mind.
If your reader can feel the difference between one POV and the other, then you're doing it right.
Take for example "Misconceptions" by Moni, where every chapter has a different character's POV, and they go switching between one and another. The chapters from Mila's POV have a more feminine yet tough feeling, whereas the chapters from Zayn's POV are more thoughtful and he overthinks more.
As you change of POV, you have to go into the character's mind to write from his or her eyes.
If you keep one POV only, you can keep even more surprises for the reader. Take for example "Take Me As I Am" by Katie where all the story is from Al's POV. You can't really know why the other characters did certain things, or what pushed them to act that way. You find out as you read the story, which is one of the main characteristics of the First Person Narrator. It allows you to go at the same pace as the character.
First person usually uses "I", "Me", "My," etc.
THIRD PERSON NARRATOR
This kind of narrator is very useful if you want to show everything to the reader. You can be anywhere anytime. You can move from one place to another without having to change style. If you use first person, you need to change style when you write, because we do not think alike. But with the third person narrator you can see things from any POV and keep the same style, the same voice. The third person narrator will give you more opportunities to show and explore.
You can also keep secrets and suspense with this POV, but it gives a certain degree of separation between character and reader. You still can go inside the mind of the character if you work with an omniscient narrator, but it's not the same.
If your book has a rich world and many important characters, the third person is probably the best narrator for you. If your book is about one single character and his/her struggles throughout the book, then the first person is the best narrator.
Third person usually uses "He", "She", "They", "Her", "His", etc.
Hoping this helped,
-Katie, Moni & Tina.
...Next entry - How To: Start a Story
YOU ARE READING
How To:
RandomA book of tips for writers on wattpad. Just a bit of help, things we've learnt during our time writing. We hope it helps you. -Katie, Moni & Tina.
